Government will not consider setting up a truth and reconciliation commission to help Bermuda overcome its painful past, Cabinet Minister Dale Butler told the House of Assembly yesterday.

The Minister with responsibility for human rights listened to speak for an hour and 20 minutes on the need for the Island to confront its history of slavery and segregation and move on.

After the speech he told MPs: ?While we do not feel that we will have a truth and reconciliation commission, we feel as a government our actions will help to remove the pain and suffering.?

Ms Webb had tabled a motion that the House ?take note of the compelling need to establish a truth and reconciliation commission based on the South African model to assist in healing the country of the vestiges of racism?.

She said Bermuda was still suffering from the scars left by slavery, colonialism and racism and that a commission could be used to determine what really happened. ?The objective has to be a recognition that there is a problem within the society,? she said. ?The commission is a necessary exercise to enable Bermudians to come to terms with their past.?

Ms Webb referred to the recent beating of Rui Medeiros, a Portuguese Bermudian, outside Docksiders as an example of the racial tensions in Bermuda.

?We even regress in our country, rather than move forward,? she said. ?I pray that what we saw this week is not going to be repeated in the future.?

She criticised the use of certain language by those in positions of power. ?We had a Minister who called a group of people ?house niggers?,? she said. ?We have to ask whether in this day that?s appropriate behaviour. Because it?s a black person saying it to another black person does not make it acceptable. You know if it had been a white person who had said that ? there would have been an uproar.?

Ms Webb said Bermuda still suffered from institutional racism and economic inequalities and that the Government needed to implement positive discrimination policies.

?There has been no process in place to address systemic inadequacies and institutional discriminatory practices,? she said. ?We do not have an equal opportunities policy in the public or private sector. We do not have an effective economic opportunity policy in the public or private sector. White people generally have more money and hold higher positions. The ownership still by and large in the main is in the hands disproportionately of a minority group.

?The majority has not been able to benefit in a real way from the successes of the economy.?

She added: ?Many people believe that blacks have been hamstrung. They have been kept back both politically, economically and through the effects of education or mis-education.

?We still find ourselves in a situation where the economic stronghold is in the hands of a certain group.?

She said she did not advocate a Zimbabwean-style reparation policy but wanted an examination of where inequalities existed.

Ms Webb said just 30 percent of blacks were in professional positions and that almost 70 percent of those earning less than $25,000 a year were black.

?There is a perception among blacks that they are not being treated equally in their society,? she said. ?Blacks in Bermuda simply do not have the same opportunities as their white counterparts.?

Mr. Butler said the Government recognised the pain and suffering which had resulted from Bermuda?s history and was trying to address it with its social agenda.

He said race issues were still like a ?pebble in their shoe? for many people who had lived through segregation and that the challenge of how to deal with that remained.

But he said bodies like the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality and Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda were helping to effect change.

Mr. Butler agreed that language could be inflammatory and claimed Opposition MP Michael Dunkley had recently ?thrown out? a comment in the House about ?Aunt Jemima?. said Mr. Butler was misleading the House as the comment had been about waffling and referred to pancakes., said South Africa?s Truth and Reconciliation had been led by the likes of Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu but Bermuda did not have their equivalents.

He said: ?The Government could have come and said ?We don?t agree with the South African model but there is something here to work with and let?s work with the Opposition?.?

Mr. Simmons saw the way forward as being through the setting up of a joint select committee with members of both Parties involved.

?Bermuda is at a critical point in its history and a dialogue is needed,? he said.

Referring to the attack on Rui Medeiros, he said he attended Wednesday?s public meeting at the Vasco Da Gama Club and witnessed people there speaking of abuse and attacks that black people had suffered in the past.

?We have to first see that what happened to Mr. Medeiros was wrong and whites have to see that what happened to us was wrong. We are victims of similar pain. How can we go forward to build on this? We in this chamber have to show leadership,? he said.

There are two Bermudas, and the split goes further than race it is also economics, said Mr. Simmons.

?Twelve percent of the population is described as poor, 18 percent as nearly poor and those figures go back to 2000 so we can assume they are now worse. There is a frustration building.?

The frustration is created in part by Bermudian workers being ?supplanted? by overseas workers accepting lower wages.

He believes part of the solution lies in Government investing in small businesses to help build institutions for the local workforce, providing opportunities for creative and talented Bermudians, be they artists, musicians, performers and alike through tourism.

Mr. Simmons said the political parties had to work together to encourage and inspire the people to work together. agreed a joint select committee to address the matter was the way forward.

He said blacks and Portuguese are represented at all levels of Bermudian society from boardrooms, law firms, investment houses, audit firms, drug stores, and heads of construction companies, to heads of real estate businesses, hotel managers, Belco, Delta Airways, and American Airlines.

?My point is that I have a problem when we say we can?t address institutionalised racism today. We have to let these people in the higher echelon know that they have a role to play. They must mentor and bring our young folk along,? he said.

Mr. Simons said that, at the HSBC each executive has a junior manager that they must mentor to ensure there is a new generation to replace them when they retire or move on.

?MPs and Senators, the leaders of the country and the Premier need to talk to the presidents of these large institutions and say ?we are taking Bermuda to the next level and you have to make some more substantial contribution?,? said Mr. Simons.

He said the whole community had a part to play in addressing the problem, and he saw the solution as coming through economic empowerment of all Bermudians.

Mr. Simons did not think the PLP had a policy on race relations and if it did then he was waiting to hear its vision.

He added: ?Bermudians are just as smart as our ex-pat community and the sooner we believe it the more effective and productive we will become.

?The whole community has a role to play. We have to stop blaming others, we have to come to the wicket and get on with believing in ourselves and not feel victimised because of race. If you feel victimised then you will be treated as a victim.

?The South Africa model is a noble model, but the model I want most is for the leaders of this country to get together and say ?enough is enough? and we have to play a role in economic empowerment for all.? said he had at first wondered if the motion was viable or productive or would merely ?open the wounds? of the past.

He then went on to speak about the history of Bermudian society and the role of indentured servants, slaves and immigrant labour force, notably those from Portuguese and West Indian descent and how they had over the years fitted in to Island?s social order.

Mr. Perinchief said the Portuguese had eventually been granted voting rights by the ruling ?white oligarchy? as a buffer against the increasing political involvement of blacks in order to maintain the oligarchy?s rule and the status quo of power.

He said other groups such as British and Canadians workers had previously been used in a similar fashion to ?neutralise the black vote.?

He compared the dynamics of different ethnic groups in Bermuda jostling around for ?a piece of the rock? as uncomfortable and similar to the movement of the Earth?s tectonic plates.

He spoke in support of a letter in the Bermuda Sun from Frank Garcia that had claimed ?Anglo Bermudians have pitted Portuguese against blacks? but also recognised that some ?ignorant Bermudians? had, in 2005, derided Filipino people. Mr. Perinchief said there appeared to be less and less participation by Portuguese and white sports teams in mainstream events creating a polarisation, a ?white flight.?

Speaking of his own experience of apartheid in Bermuda, he said there needs to be a shift of some of the Islands wealth to the black people, that, he said, would start to bring ?a kind of parity?.

However , called Mr. Perinchief?s speech ?sanctimonious? and lacking in any substance as far as addressing the problems.

He accused the PLP of not so much wanting to solve the problem and said: ?Bermuda suffers from a legacy of its racist past, but the difficulty we have is that we have some people who see that their political gain is extending that legacy as far into the future as they can manage it.?

In contrast he said the UBP had brought together people of different ethnic backgrounds.

Referring to Ms Webb he added: ?The member who put this motion, one of her famous statements on the floor of this House was that she didn?t care about Portuguese people, as far as she was concerned they were just white like the rest of them.?

He said the motion that had been brought was ridiculous and he had not heard any support for it from the Government ministers who had spoken.