It has been ten years since I have been out of office as Premier of Bermuda. The Progressive Labour Party, coming to power seven years ago as a new and untested Government gave me cause to be restrained in my comments. I waited because I wanted to give the new Government every encouragement to perform well, even to the point of offering my services to help in any way I could. I really wanted the Government to do well because it was in the long term interest of all Bermudians.

The Government?s performance has been less than satisfactory. I have been and have become increasingly concerned by the way I see the affairs of this country going. The Government, with all of their resources, has not completed a new major project since they have been in office.

Government has been building the Berkeley project for approximately four years. To state the obvious, this project is way over time and grossly over budget and still seems to lack managerial and accountable oversight. The over costs and lateness of this project is undoubtedly the fault of the Government.

This clearly demonstrates a lack of capacity of the Government to manage.

In comparison to Government, my small operation has completed three major projects in a seven year period. Renovations to the Swan Building, the construction and completion of Bermuda Commercial Bank Building, the Atlantis apartments complex with sixty units and we are half way to finishing another office project at Par-La-Ville Road.

The debacle of the Berkeley project would have been in most democratic countries a very big deal. Its significance would have lead to the Government?s fall or at the very least the public would have demanded a Minister?s resignation. Ministers have told Parliament and the public a number of times that the project was on time and on budget. The public was lied to. Two years later we are still waiting for the school to be completed. Commitments are not being kept. This project in the private sector would have produced bankruptcy.

Are there two different sets of laws - those for the lawmakers and those for the public?

The few houses that were built on behalf of the Government on South Shore Warwick across from the Shell Gas Station were built for approximately $550 sq. ft. when every developer, at the time, was building similar houses for $200 sq. ft. Not a single minister of the Government would, if they were involved in a project of their own, would let builders cheat them the way the Government has been cheated. Government has let the taxpayers down.

At best it was incompetence in the extreme. At worst it was sheer dishonesty.

The South Side Project that the Premier and the Minister of Works and Engineering announced with great fanfare became a complete fiasco. A lottery was set up and carefully selected prospective buyers had to show good faith by putting down a deposit, only to see their deposit returned when the project came to nought.

It is shameful for the Government to give false hope to people who are desperately in need of housing. In a lame effort to salvage some credibility and minimize the outcry, the Premier announced another housing project.

The housing program is an awful mess. We have seen incident after incident of incompetence which still to this today there has been no recourse.

The education of our children is strengthened by good and affordable housing. Poor housing is an impediment to the education of children who have to live in very unfavourable conditions because the Government?s housing programs have been plagued by scandal and gross mismanagement.

The public, for the most part have lost confidence in the public education system. As a result many working class families are putting their children in private schools. They consider the education to be of a higher standard that will better enable their children to take advantage of what Bermuda and the rest of the world has to offer.

Since the PLP have come to power, Government?s own statistics have recorded that the black economic middle class has been declining; therefore they are less able to afford to send their children to private schools. The working class who can ill afford are paying twice for the children?s education, one by way of taxation, the other by way of school fees.

We must make our public education system more competitive by making it more innovative, more relevant and more accountable. We have to better manage education and make the education of our children our most important national priority. Nothing could be more important, and at no time in our history has the need been greater for strength and commitment in the improvement and preservation of our most vital resource, our children, they are the future.

Our public education system has not caught up with the pace of change. The pace of change has created a demand for more and more skilled workers while the jobs for semi-skilled and unskilled workers have drastically diminished. This has been compounded by a steady decline in our tourism business and we have done nothing to add to the tourism product except to allow hotels to be converted to condominiums and sold to foreigners.

The economic engine of Bermuda is driven primarily by foreigners. Approximately 30% of our work force are foreigners. Almost all of our hotels are foreign owned, our international business is wholly owned by foreigners and our cruise ships and airlines are owned by foreigners. Moreover our largest financial institution, the Bank of Bermuda, has become foreign owned. Therefore the substance of our actions and our consideration must be in the context of this reality.

We must, therefore, do everything to continue to create the social and political environment that the international and the financial sector require in order to continue to satisfy the needs, expectations and aspirations of all Bermudians. Our economic survival now depends on it.

We should be welcoming our guest workers who are only here by our consent through government policy and whose labour plays an instrumental role in our prosperity. We should stop blaming them for all of our social ills. We need their services not only to do essential jobs, but their expertise and involvement in many charitable, voluntary and sporting activities.

We must embrace all people, even those that do not look like us.

The incompetence of the Government does not inspire confidence that this Government can take us to Independence in a judicious, orderly, efficient and comprehensive way. With such a track record it would be prudent for the Government to step back and do something that demonstrates competence before putting the issue to a referendum.

I am not against Independence, but I am against the incompetence that might lead us to Independence.

This country is obviously on a downhill slide and I am struck by the civic and social partners: i.e. the unions, Employers Council, hotel employers, the Chamber of Commerce, BIBA, the Corporation of Hamilton, the UBP and even the media who have become complacent in their scrutiny of the Government?s management of the country?s affairs. I remember a time when they would not hesitate to criticize me and the Government of the day.

This Government seems not to observe the principles of collective responsibility which is part and parcel of our form of Government. Ministers seem to act independently rather than in concert. They do not seem to realize that every time a Minister makes a statement, he is speaking on behalf of the Government.

Some organizations and a number of individuals (including some political supporters of the Government) have come to me with their concerns. The obvious question I ask is why they do not go directly to Government. If they can not get satisfaction, go public. The simple answer is that they fear reprisal. This has lead to people being complacent and silent.

The Government is not short of good speakers but are woefully short of doers.

There is a saying that in a democracy people get the Government they deserve. We have a Government that has not kept its promises and shamefully the civic and social partners and the average citizen has let them get away with it.

The United Bermuda Party might have some good aspects but their more recent lack of popular appeal has only given the Government the feeling that no matter what they do, the UBP is not seen as an alternative by the majority of Bermudians.

This is partly to do with a legacy consciously or unconsciously of how blacks within the UBP have been and continue to be treated when there is disagreement. In spite of the majority of its leaders being black for most of its history, the UBP legacy still remains that of a white-dominated party. It has depended more and more on blacks for its existence but the party make up does not reflect this reality. Only through a partnership amongst the races, local and foreign, can we arrest our decline. ?United we stand, divided we fall?.

Our political destiny is in grave danger by competent blacks being discouraged by the circumstances of the UBP. Equally they are not identifying with the PLP thus leaving the process to the least competent.

I really believed that the PLP would bring more civility to the mainstream of Bermuda something that the UBP attempted to achieve with its bi-racial make up. The PLP seems to want to treat those not like themselves as they believe, real and/or perceived, they were once treated.

The PLP has failed and the UBP has not changed. Therefore, the country remains divided.

The PLP leadership, for the most part, have education, intelligence and charisma. They rose to power but they have not risen to the occasion because they view power as an entitlement rather than a privilege to serve.

They bring a sense of confrontation rather then conciliation, belligerence rather than humility and gracelessness rather than gracefulness.

Rather than examining issues with an open mind, they find it difficult to rise above ideology, prejudices and personal biases.

By personalizing power, some of our leaders undermine rather than boost national and international institutions like the Auditor General?s office, the Privy Council and even the office of the President of the United States.

The PLP promise transparency in their administrations, but they are very secretive. Consequently, they become very paranoid and insecure toward people that they perceive as ?not like us?.

We have resolved to seek justification for our incompetence by blaming each other and then our guest workers and when things really go wrong, we blame the rest of the world.

We need to acknowledge our problems and the worth of the individual by becoming civil, maybe a little humble and less racist by all sides. We also need to have a competent, honest and committed political system that serves the greater good so that in these rapidly changing times we might not wake up to find that by our own doing we have done ourselves and the future security of this Island harm.

Our destiny is determined by the mind, body and soul of every Bermudian. What do you want for Bermuda will determine what the next generations will feel is worth sacrificing for future generations.

When we have reconciled our differences with one another through an individual assessment of our own ways and deeds, maybe then we can make a determination about the greater good for our future.