Dear Sir,

As one who respects and embraces the philosophy and ideals of a true and a broad-based representative democracy, I have some strong feelings and doubts that the practice of those above principles and ideals are not working in the best interests of the people or the country as a whole.

I feel that those old power brokers of the past still rule Bermuda from their graves through the hands of their new offsprings and that they have found new ways to undermine the democratic process, and are able to still have control over Bermuda no matter what party runs the Government.

To me, Mr Editor, the whole issue concerning the Governor taking so long to sign the Domestic Partnership Act into law is nothing more than a distraction at best, and is an attempt to keep us in a twist and a bind from dealing with real issues.

The question I raise, Mr Editor, is when are we going to realise that we don’t have a genuine democratic system in the first place. We have instead a system that can be undermined, and a Constitution and House of Assembly made null and void by a colonial power 3,000 miles away, from a Parliament to which we are not able to elect any Members.

The next question is, when are we as a people going to sit down and discuss taking our right to citizenship and birthright to Bermuda seriously? When are we going to sit down and take a look at antiquated laws that have been passed in the House of Assembly over the decades that benefited the economic development of the few, and put into place antitrust laws that allow and guarantee a wider participation in Bermuda’s economy for all without having to face legislative roadblocks?

I stand to be corrected but I don’t remember we the people being invited to the table to discuss or debate what should be the blueprints that formulate the foundations of what should be a true representation of our democratic system or process.

Mr Editor, I hope that I’m wrong, but I get this strange notion bouncing around in my head, continually pricking me, that no matter who wins the mandate to govern Bermuda, whoever that victorious entity may be, that they are more answerable to the people who control the economy than to the people that in fact elected them there.

Mr Editor, I don’t believe in taking away from anyone who rightfully deserves whatever they may own, but there is one thing I hate the most, and that is being lied to. I hate being told to accept something that is not real and only has been put into place to psychologically fool us all.

Mr Editor, that Georgia Marshall, a foreigner by birth, could stand there on our Senate grounds and take a swipe at Bermudians by saying that we were born here by accident is not only insulting but is something to think about. It is a statement that lends to the argument that lizards and frogs have more rights to their citizenship and birth to Bermuda than its people do.

That we could never be a true, genuine democracy based on the grounds that we are still a colony subject to the wants and whims of a Parliament where we have no sitting Members is also something to think about.

That we have no antitrust laws or such legislation in place to prevent a small group of people from taking over and dominating Bermuda’s economy is something we need to think about.

Mr Editor, it’s people like me who get sideswiped and kicked to the kerb and labelled a radical. We are left to believe that some of those that have been given a mandate to govern are either afraid to make the changes that Bermuda has been crying out for decades for or the old oligarchs have cleverly planted at every level of Bermuda’s political landscape people who would protect their interest at any cost, while circumventing the whole process of democracy.

E. McNEIL STOVELL

Pembroke East