Over the last 30 years we have experienced the vitality of life in a booming economy with political freedom and economic liberty. Good Government, the rule of law and market economies transformed Bermuda into one of the most successful countries in the world. A grand slam for the hard work, ingenuity and human spirit of all Bermudians and guest workers who have contributed to this phenomenal success.

If the present generation of politicians and government are prepared to embrace change with civility, humility and a completely open mind, and not be encumbered by biases and prejudices, the Government could rekindle the feeling that most Bermudians had immediately after the last election, a feeling bubbling with excitement and intoxicated with hope.

One of the main tasks of the present generation of politicians is to understand the scale of change the world is undergoing together with the ability to articulate the change and to offer some guidance to the average citizen how to reorganise their daily lives. Moreover, politicians need the ability to simultaneously reorganise the Government that affects much of our daily life.

In the foreseeable future we will be inundated with new inventions, new discoveries and new entrepreneurs. These will create new goods and services.

The new products and services created by this new change are creating vast opportunities in employment, health and higher standards of living for improving everyday life. Politicians must explain these opportunities in simple straight forward language that most Bermudians can understand and to offer a better future, with greater quality of life, by absorbing these inevitable changes into Government and politics. The Government has a responsibility or an obligation to use these significant changes to develop far more effective and appropriate Government services. We have a moral responsibility, therefore, to deal with present issues with a complete as possible understanding of their impact on the present and the next generations.

Politicians' expectations for the future need to be realistic and their appraisal of the future not be so encumbered by biases and prejudices that it lacks vision. We need a national recognition that the future is ultimately grounded in the capacity to confront change and to adapt. As expectations change, the process of Government, management and labour must change.

Government, management and labour can all operate, at times, as centres of resistance rather than factors of, change. Ideology inhibits, thought; bureaucracy stifles thought; habit freezes thought; fear or bias paralyses thought; and without bold thoughts there is no bold action. All four breed prejudice and kill initiative. If Government, management and labour get too caught up in their own separate toils they become powerless to give leadership in thought and action.

Good Government consists chiefly of foresight and the courage to be guided by it matched by reasonable competence in the execution of plans, policies and procedures.

In this rapidly changing world people are overwhelmed by the pace and complexity of their lives. Most people have a very difficult time keeping up with changes that affect their lives and their children's lives. They must focus most of their time and energy on the tasks of everyday living. It is, therefore, incumbent on the Government to understand this rapidly changing world and applying its technology, science, innovations and creative energy to creative energy to create better solutions for delivery of Government goods and services.

We are in the middle of an ongoing series of changes that will force us to continue adapting for the rest of our lives. These changes will not only focus on computers and communication but the development of new medicine, new diagnostic tools and new bio-technology.

A number of commentators indicate that in the next decade the Human Genome prospect will teach us more about humans than our total knowledge to this point. The development of new technologies will increase our understanding of the human brain in ways previously unimaginable.

Living with constant change without succumbing to the violent disruptions of society, without surrendering taste and judgment to organisation and methods, without destroying the spiritual and cultural values which give human life its dignity and purpose. These are the challenges of Governments of our time.

Government cannot meet these challenges without the continuing and concerted effort by all of the vital forces in the economics life in the community; the will and skill of Bermudians and non-Bermudians, and the guiding and restraining hand of the Government.

Bermuda, in its process of rapid economic and social change, may outgrow some of our institutional arrangements effecting and adjusting to change. We obviously have to adjust our traditional forms of Government, trade unions and business, and the relationship between Government and the economy may need radical reconsideration. Bureaucracies of Governments and trade unions are very much slower to adapt to change than are business institutions.

No government today can afford to stay aloof from problems and challenges which arise from the economic and social changes that are taking place, or to ignore their effects on Bermudians. Our politicians must take the lead in embracing change. They must be an instrument of genuine dialogue without rancour together with action, policy, and with law.

Action, policy, and law are all forms of dialogue. Dialogue is the art of evolving a rational common purpose from a conflict of wills or interests. The urgent need for more fruitful dialogue touches life at many points. More fruitful dialogue between races, more fruitful dialogue between ideologies, more fruitful dialogue between generations, these are among challenging needs of our time.

Finally change is the life law; is the discipline of orderly change; the social function of law is not to hold us in the past but to guide us into the future. Law expresses policy but draws its authority from reason and morality; policy requires law to give coherence and consistency to its application to everyday affairs; law is not the antithesis, but the necessary framework, of practical action.

Politicians and Government must play a vital and distinctive role in the development of institutions that embrace rapid economic and social change.

Social justice cannot prosper without economic and political stability. There can be no stability in a rapidly changing world without orderly processes of change. Unless social justice is founded on economic growth, its content will be too stunted to satisfy any reasonable sense of justice.