AS if he doesn' t have enough on his plate trying to solve all of the problems facing Bermuda, Premier Brown has called for sweeping changes in the way his political party selects Parliamentary candidates. In a completely unrelated story, it turns out that the Premier's Minister of Education, namely one Randy Horton, was de-selected to run as a Member of Parliament by his branch committee. I hate to point out the bleeding obvious but this is a democracy and if the people don't want you to represent them then you can't simply behave in an autocratic manner and change the process to effectively gerrymander in your personal choice.I guess it needs pointing out that this candidate vetting process stood up just fine when it came time to select Dr Brown. By threatening to change it, Dr, Brown has, probably unintentionally, called the selection of himself and other sitting Progressive Labour Party Members of Parliament into question.

If it turns out that the people were wrong in their choice of Marc Bean, then so be it.

A democracy allows us to make those decisions and mistakes and we have all survived bad election decisions in the past and we will again. In this case there's absolutely no evidence to suppose that there is anything wrong with the selection of Marc Bean. Incidentally, I honestly believe that there are no accidents and that everything happens for a reason and these reasons always emerge as time passes.

The fact is that democracies are based on bottom-up systems stemming from the grass roots supporters and if a majority of our citizens in a small voting district choose one candidate over another who are we to question their choice of representative?

After all, who knows the individuals up for election better than their constituents?

In this instance we obviously have a situation where one or more overriding factors has ousted a sitting Cabinet Member, no less, in favour of a younger, more energetic newcomer.

And while it would be nice to know the specific rationale behind the majority decision, it's a matter for the PLP's Southampton West Branch and not for the public domain.

However, I'll go as far as to say that Randy Horton's ousting comes as no great surprise to me if you view this result as a defeat for the incumbent versus a win for the challenger. Quite frankly, detractors of this decision simply need to practice a little acceptance and if Randy Horton wishes to serve the public again, maybe he needs to earn back the support of those Bermudians that exercised their democratic right against him.

I would sincerely hope that Dr Brown does not pull an Alex Scott by awarding a "get-out-of-campaigning" free card to Mr Horton (like Scott and Jennifer Smith did by appointing the unelectable David Burch to the Senate).

Relying so heavily on his hatchet man in the Senate, combined with a plethora of other unwise moves, was instrumental in Alex Scott's low approval ratings and ultimately one factor contributing to the demise of his leadership. It's a wise man that learns from the mistakes of another. It is my hope that our leader continues to prove himself wise.

The Premier's call for independent polling to cancel out alleged "aberrations" extant in the candidate selection process is disingenuous at best given the results. The PLP heavies need to be reminded that they came in after the 1998 election and redrew constituencies under the claim they were enhancing the democratic process to reflect the "one man, one vote, all votes of equal value" ideology. When they don't like the results of this same process in their internal selection process, they cry foul and threaten to change the rules.

Setting the aforementioned aside, what truly alarms me in my reading of the reporting surrounding this whole episode is the message that's coming through clearly and that is that the leadership of the PLP believe that their primary purpose is to win the next General Election. IT IS NOT.

Any members who believe that they cannot serve the people being in Opposition are even less likely to be the ones that serve the people when in power. Any elected politician's role, nay duty, is somewhat of a fiduciary one to serve his or her constituents and those who truly believe that you can only serve if you are the ruling party have no business being in politics.

It is obvious by the actions of a few people who have been changing horses in midstream, that they have no real loyalty to anyone but themselves and hold the misguided view that is a vehicle for self-advancement rather than public service.

It's the one instance where you can actually witness rats swimming toward the sinking ship of their own morality and those people who do switch sides when power does simply show their true colours in the process.

Not all party switching is suspect as we all have the potential to change when our own ideologies change due to life altering events that provide growth in emotional maturity (or sadly, immaturity).

I would hope that with this Premiership, Dr Brown can transform himself from a good to a great leader; time will tell.

Good leaders focus on their area of authority to serve, protect and improve the existence of those who put them into that position. With the vast changes and improvements in Transport and unprecedented success in Tourism, Dr Brown proved himself to be more than a good leader.

When the people had enough of his predecessor's high-handedness and unwillingness to listen to them (along with his insertion of certain unelectable and unqualified cronies into positions of political power to further his pursuit to become the uncrowned King of Bermuda), the natural democratic process played itself out to reward Dr Brown and dethrone Mr Scott.

Now a great leader meets both success and failure with grace and acceptance and also picks his or her battles wisely.

In fact I'd cite Sun Tzu in this instance by pointing out that the great General of the East always maintained that the best battle is the one that is won without being fought. It is my personal belief (based on a little too much experience) that sometimes defeat only comes when and because we have chosen to fight.

So if Premier Brown wants us all to believe that he has been considering an overhaul of the selection process at the constituency level for some time, the timing of his announcement after Mr Horton's ousting was, at best, ill-advised.

At worst it appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to not getting what he wants at the expense of the people's wishes. After all, res ipsa loquitur.