P., this is becoming so tiresome
ON Monday morning we were woken bright and early with a VSB news flash from our very own “democratically” elected/selected P. — an excerpt from his winding-up speech for this Parliamentary session. Just in case anyone has managed to miss P.’s latest populist catch-phrase, he hammered it out repeatedly in various irritating permutations: “No country can be a democracy until it has achieved Independence.”
More than irritating, because in oh-so-typical fashion, a slogan which happens to be utterly misleading — just plain false — is repeated ad nauseam until the remaining stalwart Progressive Labour Party supporters start to repeat it.
Anyone capable of even the slightest independent thought can trot out a long list of Independent countries which are widely removed from the modern-day understanding of a democracy.
Large or small, take your pick, the list is long and depressing: North Korea, Kazakhstan and Somalia are just three examples that come readily to mind.
If we look at the smaller island states in the Caribbean far to the south of us we have Cuba and Antigua as “shining” examples of Independent countries.
Ask the citizens of these two countries if they would rather live in Cayman, St. Maarten or even Bermuda and you would be fighting off a stampede.
Ask Bermudians whether they would like the democratic privilege of a referendum on the question of Independence rather than leaving it to P. and his wooden Cabinet — well, we already know the answer but he just will not listen.
In all honesty, do we really have the naivete to hand over control of the police, the army and the judiciary to this or any other self-interested group?
Do we really wish a Caribbean Court of Appeal to replace the Privy Council (the International Business sector certainly doesn’t)?
Clearly not, Mr. P., because the electorate is considerably smarter than you estimate.
This is becoming tiresome.EYES TOWARDS SAFETY NET
City of Hamilton
