How to start healing

December 31, 2007

Dear Sir,

Now that the rhetoric has ceased following the election, here is a suggestion for Dr. Brown for one of his New Year resolutions:

"As the Premier of Bermuda with responsibility for of all of Bermuda's residents I will make a statement early in the New Year asking all members of my government and members of the Progressive Labour Party to be more inclusive in their remarks regarding those residents who do not look like us or who have different political views than us."

Such a resolution will begin the healing process which must be started. Who better than Dr. Brown to make this resolution?

JOHN BARNETT

Southampton

Required reading

December 29, 2007

This was sent to former Progressive Labour Party MP Renee Webb in response to an opinion piece published on December 22 and copied to The Royal Gazette.

Dear Ms Webb,

That was an astounding opinion piece of yours – honest and perceptive and tremendously eye-opening. I have started – again and again – a letter to both editors who have printed it, wanting to say publicly how much I have learned from you, but I can't sort my words out. I can't do justice to you or to myself, so here goes, just for you.

My husband and I both feel that your article should be required reading for every person residing in Bermuda. The truth of what you wrote should resonate with everyone. But it does leave me feeling bleak … My own conviction is that it is culture rather than original ethnicity in itself which separates groups and makes them suspicious of each other – i.e. I am at ease with those who share my customs and values and sense of humour, and ill at ease with those (whose) customs are strange to me, and whom I may inadvertently offend by doing or saying something alien to them.

My sense of bleakness is increased by the realisation that I don't know a single country where two ethnic groups have blended homogeneously, and live in peace. Nowhere in Europe, nowhere in Africa, nowhere in Asia – and I certainly wouldn't classify the US as successful in this respect!

As a wartime refugee myself, I have searched for a peaceful and fair existence all my life, and it will not happen, will it? One group or the other has to be dominant, the boss. It's not what we would wish for, but it is the reality. That, I think, is the most piercing truth I've gleaned from your words. It makes me very sad. All the very best to you. Sincerely,

HELLE PATTERSON

Hamilton Parish

A constitutional crisis

December 30, 2007

Dear Sir,

Once again you have shown disdain and disrespect for the Premier of Bermuda, Dr. Ewart Brown. I'm sure you will have an editorial note at the end of this letter explaining to the people of Bermuda why you ignored protocol when publishing Christmas messages in Monday's (December 24, 2007) Royal Gazette.

As I recall, protocol has it that the Premier is next in line to the Governor, not the Bishop of the Anglican Church. Therefore I cannot understand why you chose to publish the Christmas message from the Premier on Page 2 and caption the message as a message from the Progressive Labour Party.

The Premier's message was written as a message to the people of Bermuda in his capacity as leader of the country, not as leader of the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party. Also, the message from the Acting Leader of the Opposition, Mrs. Patricia Gordon Pamplin, should have been placed next to the Premier's message. All of Bermuda is aware that the Opposition UBP is now in a dilemma as to who should lead the party and hence serve as the constituted Opposition Leader, however until such time Mrs. Gordon Pamplin has to serve in that role as she was/is the Deputy Leader of the UBP. By the way, I cannot understand why Mrs. Gordon Pamplin accepted the position as Deputy Leader of the UBP if she could not serve as Leader, should something have happened to the Leader.

As I see it, it should have been clear from the time that Michael Dunkley chose to switch constituencies that his position as leader of the UBP was at risk. It was not as if Smith's North (Constituency 10) was a marginal seat and that it would have been easy for Mr. Dunkley to convince at least 100 voters to switch party allegiance and vote for him instead of Patrice Minors. But being the supremacist that he was prior to 8 p.m. on December 18, 2007, I can understand Mr. Dunkley thinking that just because the majority of Bermudians buy Dunkley's milk, the majority of people in Constituency 10 would vote for him. The people of Bermuda in general and the people of Constituency 10 in particular have spoken and the message is very clear – the people of Bermuda have rejected Team UBP and its previous leader.

Although Mr. Dunkley, Mrs. Gordon Pamplin and others who were proud members of Team UBP, spent countless hours criticising the PLP and our leader, Dr. Ewart Brown, one thing is for certain, the PLP has not been the cause for the present constitutional crisis in Bermuda. The PLP's constitution is very clear on the role of the leader of the Party and states that should the Party be left without a leader for whatever reason; an election should be held within 48 hours so that a new leader could be duly elected. Although Parliament is not scheduled to re-open until February, unforeseen circumstances might cause this to change. The present constitutional crisis in Bermuda may give rise to the new governor, Sir Richard Gozney, exercising his constitutional right and appointing an Opposition Leader himself.

However, I don't expect this to happen. What I do expect to happen is that members of the leaderless UBP will impress upon the MP for Constituency 20, Mrs. Louise Jackson, the importance of having Mr. Dunkley as a Member of Parliament and suggest that she step down and make way for a by-election so that he could return to Parliament. It is obvious to me that the UBP is lost without him. Why else would Mrs. Gordon Pamplin, the acting Opposition Leader, use Michael Dunkley's words and not her own in the UBP's Christmas message? She has never been one to be at a loss for words.

By the way, to all those detractors of the PLP, like Tim Hodgson, Christian Dunleavy, the Limey in Bermuda, Bermuda Sucks patrons, Facebook patrons, Pat Ferguson and others who used various mediums to try and convince the people of Bermuda that it was unwise to give the PLP three straight victories at the polls, I believe that Bermudians do now have a government that we deserve and one that will move Bermuda forward. Contrary to the popular belief of the aforementioned, we did not vote purely based on emotion, but on well thought out reasoning. And no, Mr. Austin Warner, we did not vote for insanity!

LAVERNE FURBERT

Hamilton Parish

Editor's Note: As predicted, there was a reason for the placement of the Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops on the front page, which is that as Christmas is a Christian holiday, it was right t o put the Island's two most senior bishops on the front page, along with the Governor as the representative of the head of state. However, this is something we will look at again next year. Ms Furbert is quite correct that Dr. Brown and Mrs. Gordon-Pamplin should only have been referred to as Premier and Acting Opposition Leader, as these were speaking in their government, as opposed to party, roles.