Independence may not be on the ruling party's election platform this year, but Government is already engaged in preparing Bermudians for full nationhood.

No one on the inside would confirm anything that may or may not be on the party's election manifesto. The document is still a work in progress and the official line, from the party's spokesperson Glen Blakeney, is that it will not be discussed until released to the public.

Premier Jennifer Smith has said in the past that independence will not be introduced during the first term of a Progressive Labour Party (PLP) government and may not be on the agenda for the second term.

Transport Minister Ewart Brown estimates that about half a dozen cabinet Ministers, including himself, would probably push for independence to be in the platform.

There are others throughout the party who would be doing exactly the same.

Like backbencher Wayne Perinchief who told this newspaper that there was no indication that the issue of independence would feature on the platform despite some general talk about it around the party.

Like many of his party colleagues, Mr. Perinchief is staunchly pro-independence, but says he would not be too disappointed if it's not on the platform.

“I wouldn't be disappointed because I'm not anticipating it's a high priority with the party. With a disappointment will have to come a great deal of expectation.

“Having said that I think it would grab the interest of our staunch supporters because that's what we need to do for the next election.”

Yet, he said, the party could lose some of its staunch supporters if there's no mention of independence.

Some of those supporters had to be reassured recently by Transport Minister Ewart Brown that the party had not abandoned the independence agenda.

“Independence is on the agenda for Bermuda,” the Minister said at last month's Black Agenda forum. “And I just want you to try to be as patient as I have been because it would have been November 10 (1998).”

Asked if making independence an election issue now would not jeopardise the party's chances of victory at the polls, Mr. Perinchief stressed the risk of losing staunch supporters.

“They need a reason to vote for us. Some people say point blank they will stay home,” he said. “They just don't have the interest to support a re-election of the PLP. No one has said they would vote against us but by just staying home we could suffer the same fate.”

And he said that recent developments have ensured that independence can no longer be assumed to be primarily an issue for black people.

White people who gain their economic strength from international business have a vested interest in independence now, he said, and could vote in a PLP government that promises a timetable to independence on an election platform.

“We've had stable government and we've enjoyed economic stability for the last four and a half years. The bogeyman's dead, they've gotten over their fear. Now they are concerned about external threats and they will look to any government to protect their interests.

“We are a global economy and any threats are external. so there's probably a stronger argument developing for independence than there ever was and it's very much more broad based.”

The post September 11 environment had led to measures such as the International Sanctions Bill, which “strengthened” colonialism and could potentially threaten Bermuda's livelihood, he said. The bill makes it possible for Bermuda to be bound by non-UN sanctions that Britain is signatory to.

And more recently Government was rankled by the British Government's decision to create a new body to oversee aviation security in the colonies.

Government's displeasure at what was seen as another instance of imposing direct rule was made clear to Britain. And Dr. Brown succeeded in his efforts to have Bermuda represented on the oversight board.

“It was the next best thing,” he said yesterday. “If we had to do it, then we better be there.”

Talks between the two Governments left no doubt as to Bermuda Government's sensitivities and in the end the British compromised. “It was clear that the British were making an effort to impose the structure with the least amount of pain,” said Dr. Brown.

Government does appear to be doing what it can to gradually and methodically remove the trappings of colonialism.

When the Premier requested that she, and not the Governor, open this year's Annual Exhibition. former independent MP Stuart Hayward, in a recent column, speculated that the move could be an ill conceived and failed effort “to de-colonise a Bermuda tradition” and a “subtle move towards independence”.

Environment Minister Dennis Lister last week announced in the House that the Bermuda onion, the Bermudiana plant, the Cahow bird and the Cedar tree had been chosen as symbols of national environmental symbols.

“It is the Government's hope that they help to unite us as a people, bind us to our past and act as a reference point that gives us a measure of security as we look towards the future,” he said then.

In 2000, Government announced cricket and football as Bermuda's national sports.

“I think its long overdue and I don't think government is going down the wrong path to be proactive in that light,” said party spokesman Glen Blakeney when asked if all this was a gradual preparation for full nationhood. “I can't speak to it being any grand scheme but I would hope we are working towards all considerations relative to moving in the direction that would give us autonomy in the long term.”

There had been a “dearth of identifiable symbols that help Bermudians describe who and what they are. We tend to borrow from other cultures but we seem to lack our own ways of celebrating it,” he added.

Yesterday Mr. Lister said that he had no problem if people saw such moves as preparing the Island's psyche for independence.

“Isn't it time we started moving in that direction? Isn't it time we started giving recognition to what makes Bermuda what it is?” Mr. Lister said. “When we do stand as an independent nation I would like for us to recognise what makes Bermuda what it is”.

“I would agree that's what it is,” said Dr. Brown, when the same question was put to him. “Planting the seeds of self sufficiency.”