February 11, 2014

Dear Sir,

Why is it so difficult to get the facts straight? For over 14 years we have every version of a mistruth perpetrated on the people of Bermuda. It first manifested itself in the statistical booklet regularly produced by the last Government and has now, again, found itself on the airwaves during “Black History Month”. The myth is that Dame Jennifer Smith is to be represented as the ‘first female elected Premier’. Personally knowing the Dame’s penchant for education she must be most embarrassed by this gross misrepresentation. Any person with the simplest knowledge of our Westminster system knows that the office of the Premier is not an elected position. So that Bermuda Broadcasting can report this in the context of ‘Black History’ is all the more astounding.

Mr. Editor, there has only been one first female Premier and that is Dame Pamela Gordon. She became Premier the same way Dame Jennifer did and as every Premier before and after her:

-.Sect 58 (1) of the Bermuda Constitution clearly states: Appointment of Premier and other Ministers

The Governor, acting in his discretion, shall appoint as the Premier the member of the House of Assembly who appears to him best able to command the confidence of a majority of the members of that House.

In my early years of attempting to get the facts straight, I fully understood the political will that was blind to the facts and wide-eyed to politics. Given the outcome of the 2003 post-election leadership debacle, it all the more underscores the fallacy of the proposition of an ‘elected’ Premier. Dame Jennifer has many first legitimately part of her varied resume. Those firsts need not be cheapened by some fabrication for the politically naive. The late Julian Hall was quick to chastise the Oligarchy that despite the fact that they told a mistruth often enough — it would never make it the truth. Touché!

David J Sullivan