March 6, 2014

Dear Sir,

Once again, I feel compelled to write. What a few weeks this has been. I am wondering if there is anyone else out there who sees what I see.

I know that the last thing on earth the PLP wants is for the OBA to succeed in making life better for Bermudians. After all, if that happens, what is the likelihood of the PLP winning the next election? And they are clearly acting like it is Party first, not country.

The recent good and encouraging news about new company incorporations, reduced crime, job training initiatives, improved employment statistics, cost reductions, etc, is all being drowned out by these awful accusations and insinuations by the PLP and by the amazing (and probably not coincidental) union action.

For the PLP to even contemplate the OBA Government presiding over the introduction to gaming, the ground breaking for a new hotel development, must be completely abhorrent to them. I imagine they will stop at nothing, absolutely nothing, to undermine anything and everything that might cause the public to have some confidence in an OBA Government. Does this not make sense?

Come on Bermuda, wake up! Stop being sheep led to a certain slaughter. Start trying to see things as they most certainly are. I cannot think of one single reason why the Premier would seek out the Opposition Leader and offer him anything. Or Mr Burt either. What I do know of the Premier is that he is a man of God, a man of compassion, who may naively want to believe in the possibility of an era of cooperation and mutual consideration. And we all can see clearly now that is never going to happen if we continue to have this type of hostility from the Opposition. Sad for Bermuda. Sad for our future.

The Budget has been called the best Budget in years by some economists and financial professionals, and hailed as wise and thoughtful; however the PLP reply and incessant commentary on talk-radio and on TV would have us all believe that it is only by spending more that we’ll get out of the mess they created (I don’t know where that “more” is going to come from, but Mr Burt suggested more borrowing on ‘Let’s Talk’ last Monday) — that cuts and shared sacrifice are unacceptable, and that pie in the sky suggestions will bring in gazillions of dollars that will save us all.

Please, please, please, let’s all stop feeding this frenzy. Let’s allow our very competent Government, Cabinet and Senate to get on with the business at hand and fulfil the goals of stimulating the economy, making Bermuda safer, making us all happier, healthier and a whole lot better off than we were just a year and a bit ago. Change is in the air, and if we will just support our elected Government (I must assume most of us voted them in and believed it was possible to change the course we were on), give them a bit of our trust and hope they earn the rest by proving us all right, and be vehement in defending their right to take us in a new and better direction, maybe we can all get there together and smile at each other as things improve (and by the way, the OBA never promised it all overnight. Give it time).

OBA, please paint us the picture of where we will be in five or ten years if we all share in the sacrifices, undertake to provide a friendly and welcoming environment for our guest workers, visitors and developers, and follow the policies laid out by your Government. We want to see that picture so we can have some hope instead of the eternal despair and rear-view images that the PLP and BIU are putting out there.

D MARTIN

Warwick