FORMER Premier Sir John Swan came under intense media and public scrutiny this week in the wake of remarks lambasting his own United Bermuda Party while praising Alex Scott's leadership of the Progressive Labour Party Government and echoing the current Premier's support of Jamaican-born Norma Wade Miller for the position of Bermuda's Chief Justice.

Of the UBP, Sir John said he planned to "hold their feet to the fire as much as I would hold the PLP's feet to the fire in ensuring that people recognise that they ultimately have responsibility for themselves".

In an interview with the in July, when he endorsed the UBP in the pending General Election, Sir John had condemned the PLP for its "exclusive policies", expressing his "profound disillusionment and frustration" concerning its leadership.

On Tuesday, the again sat down with Sir John in order to understand his apparent shift in political allegiance.

Sir John firmly denied any hypocrisy of words or actions in regards to his recent interviews with .

"The problem with answering questions is that people don't understand why you arrive at your conclusion," he explained. "It's not simply 'John Swan agrees with Alex Scott'. That's not the point I'm making."

He went on: "I'm still supportive of the UBP. I have identified with the UBP over the many years because it was a party of fiscal responsibility with a social conscience.

"I still think that fundamental remains. But you can't go to sleep with it. You have to have it be proactive, so it serves the people. What I see in the UBP is a slackening-off of that."

In July, Sir John said he felt "satisfied with the new UBP team", commending their policies as "bold and inclusive".

Now, Sir John has condemned the "spokes-leadership of the party", citing their race as his primary bone of contention.

"Let's deal with the question of colour," he said. "The UBP has chosen to have its leadership, both its (putative) Premier and its Deputy Premier, white, yet it expects to attract black voters.

"Yet the party has made a statement that is does not regard race as an important issue. If it doesn't regard race as an important issue, then I think it's got a fundamental problem. They don't have the apparent representation that they should have."

"The UBP needs to take a look at itself and say, 'Do I represent as a party in modern-day Bermuda the demographics or the make-up of the island?'

"In other words, does the UBP represent the broad dynamics of the voting population? And if it doesn't, how does it expect to be elected?"

When asked to elaborate, keeping in mind that two-thirds of the UBP's 36 candidates for election were black, Sir John again denounced his party's leadership.

"That's more reason why at least the deputy should have been black," he said. "You have a party where there are more elected black members and they chose to have a white leader and a white deputy leader.

"Before elections, they had a black leader. Post-election, they didn't. Leading up to the next election, the UBP has chosen to not really represent the demographics of the party, more or less the country."

Sir John explained his position by comparing Grant Gibbons and Michael Dunkley to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

"Leadership is what's its about," he asserted. "Can you tell me who is in the Cabinet of the President of the United States? Can you tell me who the Congressmen are?

"But you know who the President is, and who the Vice President is. The same applies. That's a question of race."

Sir John was more reticent when asked whether he felt the PLP adequately represented the racial make-up of the Bermudian voting public.

"It's okay to say, 'What about the PLP? They don't represent everybody in the same way', but they're the Government. The UBP is the Opposition, and their policies have to reflect the interests of everybody."

Sir John commended Alex Scott for "doing a better job embracing white Bermudians" than Jennifer Smith before him.

"The PLP came to power and left a big void in a commitment to embrace all Bermudians. They subsequently have changed leadership, and Alex Scott has reached out to a much broader spectrum of the community, which I fully endorse.

"Fifty per cent of our population is black and obviously have far less difficulty buying into the Government. Twenty-five of our population is white Bermudians who should be equally made to feel as comfortable with a black Government. The other 25 per cent are white foreigners."

Whereas in July Sir John said he felt "Grant Gibbons and his colleagues genuinely and sincerely shared (his) vision of people coming together", he now purports that a change of guard is necessary if the UBP plans to win any future elections.

When asked to comment on "Gibbons, Dunkley, Barritt, and Dodwell", all of whom he mentioned specifically in an interview with on Monday, Sir John again took a condemnatory stance.

"As some of the top people they should be held accountable since they give the appearance of being in charge of what is the philosophical, ideological direction of the party. I don't see what's coming out of the party, other than an Opposition response to the Government. I don't see where they have an inspirational agenda."

When asked to be specific concerning this necessary "inspirational agenda", Sir John cited Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi as potential role models for the UBP leadership.

"Martin Luther King was a good example of raising people's consciousness, as was Gandhi, about their responsibilities to themselves, and the responsibilities of other people to people less fortunate than themselves," he explained.

"Martin Luther King and Gandhi called for people to be treated fairly and to take charge of their own destinies."

Sir John used an analogy to explain his view that the UBP should "have a vision, and be able to share that vision", comparing the Opposition to parents and the Bermudian populace to their children.

"You can't just tell people to be responsible for their children. That doesn't work, and has never worked. You have to say, 'Here's how to be responsible for your children'. You can't molest or abuse your children. What you can do is inspire your children, tell them to stay in school, why they should read, and the value of education. It's not necessarily an end, it's a means."

Sir John denied implying that status Bermudian Norma Wade Miller would have been a preferable choice for Chief Justice than the newly-appointed Briton Richard Ground, a former long-serving puisne judge in Bermuda and the current Chief Justice of Turks and Caicos.

"The issue is not whether one was better than the other," he explained. "Miss Miller is not a born Bermudian but she's spent most of her life in Bermuda and in the courts, and the feeling is, a person like this who's been accepted, there have been no open complaints about her adjudication in the judicial system, and now all of a sudden she's not qualified to do the job that everyone assumed she was qualified to do.

"Bermudians are feeling more and more that they want to take charge of their own destiny."

Sir John additionally declined to discuss whether this desire to "take charge" of judicial appointments had anything to do with a renewed push for Independence, which he wholeheartedly backed until 1995, when the failure of the Independence referendum prompted his resignation.

"Whatever I say you assume is prejudiced by the Independence perspective. In actual fact, that's not the case," he said. "I don't think I want to comment on Independence. This has nothing to do with it. It purely has to deal with the awakening of Bermuda in terms of how we, if we have the intellectual capacity, have the right to know.

"Are we a backward, uneducated, ignorant society that simply takes things that are pushed down our throats or do we have a right to know?

"The knowledge should be that there are choices to be made, and the rationale for those choices."

Sir John attacked what he called a "closed system" of Government, again using the example of America to draw comparisons.

"Our system, in which the Governor makes the appointment without needing to give any explanation ? a closed system in an open democracy ? doesn't work any more," he claimed. "We're so akin to the American methodology, not necessarily their system.

"The President is the CEO. He makes a recommendation to the Senate on appointments. They have an open vetting of these applications and so forth, then decides whether it's going to approve the executive branch's decision. But it's all open. We have closed systems, and that's what's getting us into trouble."

The former Premier went on to compare Governor Sir John Vereker to the Queen and Alex Scott to Prime Minister Tony Blair in his condemnation of a "bastardised British system", in which Sir John ignored Mr. Scott's recommendation of Norma Wade Miller for Chief Justice in favour of Richard Ground.

"We still have a bastardised British system, because the Queen would never have made that decision, so it would not have been a consideration.

"The Queen makes the decision but it's on the clear advice of the Prime Minister, and the Queen would not do anything but take the advice of the Prime Minister."

Sir John admitted that he did not have a definitive answer to the problem of closed government.

"It's a subject that needs dialogue. If we want to stay ignorant in the dark, we should stay in the dark. I just don't like being treated like a mushroom, that's all."