How much diversity is enough?

That's the question United Bermuda Party officials must be asking themselves after coming under attack last week for not having enough representatives of Portuguese descent.

After all, the UBP's record on diversity is much better than the Progressive Labour Party's, which does not have a single white official, MP or Senator.

And the PLP, which may claim to welcome people of all races and backgrounds as Sen. Walter Roban's did in yesterday's paper, is quick to play the race card and did so with alacrity in the last General Election. Black members of the UBP are "sunburned", voting for the UBP will put black Bermudians "back on the plantation" and so on.

By contrast, the UBP has tackled the perception that it is a white-led party head on since its 1998 Election defeat. It worked hard to recruit black members and candidates. It has put black members in senior positions in the party hierarchy and the Shadow Cabinet. There are more black MPs in the UBP's House of Assembly team than there are white.

It may be that the UBP, by making an issue of its own diversity will be held to a higher standard than the PLP. Then too, there will be people who just write the PLP off, at least as far as the Portuguese community is concerned.

To be sure, Opposition Leader Dr. Grant Gibbons was rightly criticised for not appointing a woman to his three-member Senate team. Premier Alex Scott did even worse, failing to make any one of his five Senators a woman.

Now Robert Pires, who has done much to heighten awareness of the accomplishments of Bermudians of Portuguese descent, has criticised the UBP for failing to have more representatives with Portuguese connections.

He claimed only UBP MP Trevor Moniz, was of Portuguese descent, although Suzann Roberts Holshouser is as well.

In the 1980s there were as many as seven "Portuguese" MPs, many of them Cabinet Ministers, Speakers of the House and so on.

Of course, there were a good many more UBP MPs then too. It's worth remembering that you have to get elected first, regardless of your race, gender or ethnic background.

Mr. Pires claims that Allan Marshall was "sacrificed" in Smith's North while his former running mate Cole Simons got handed the safe seat of Smith's South. But the UBP was counting on winning Smith's North if it wanted to become the Government. When Patrice Minors won handily there, she surprised a lot of people in the UBP, including Mr. Marshall.

Few would dispute the notion that reflecting the community makes for better government. People who are in touch with "black" issues, "Portuguese" issues and "women's issues" should be more in touch with the community's desires and needs. They should know when something will work, and more importantly, when it won't.

But there are limits to this as well. A diverse government should be a better government. It does not mean it will be.

Former New York Mayor and frequent Bermuda visitor David Dinkins was justly proud of his administration, which reflected the extraordinary make-up of New York City. But Mr. Dinkins will be lucky to make a list of the best 100 mayors of New York.

Rudolph Giuliani probably could not have cared less about diversity, but he will be remembered as one of New York's best ever Mayors.

Political parties exist for one reason above all others: To win power.

The UBP was more diverse than the PLP in almost every way in the last Election and still lost, presumably because a majority of voters felt the PLP was the best group of people to run Bermuda.

The UBP did not lose the election because it did not have enough Portuguese candidates. It lost because it did not have enough good candidates. The voters said so and Mr. Pires should accept it too.

l Yesterday's editorial on breast cancer failed to point out that Bermuda Healthcare Services also provides a mammography service.