A pledge to Restore civility to politics
Bermuda’s latest political group says it hopes to field candidates for the General Election, but prefers to “fly under the radar” and not make details public yet.Restore Bermuda founder and spokesman Cornell Fubler was unwilling yesterday to state how many supporters the group has, and said it has not been ready for publicity until now.“If we had our way, we would fly under the radar. We want to be about the people’s business, not showboating,” he said.However, he was happy to discuss the reasons the group was founded and its aims and objectives [see sidebar].“We got started in 2010 when it was just a few of us. We were pretty much frustrated and fed up with the way the Country was heading,” he explained, declining to identify who the other founding members were.“We decided to form a group to properly represent Bermuda. We were tired of the polarisation, and tired of the rhetoric, and tired of seeing our Country go further and further downhill.”He said he believes the polarisation is along political and racial lines, with people perceiving the PLP as the black party and the One Bermuda Alliance as white.Last year, Mr Fubler said, the founding members of Restore Bermuda invited other people to “come on board”. He would not put a figure on the number of party supporters to date but said that “it’s not a big group”.He added: “Unfortunately we are very entrenched as a community into the two different [political] groups. We’ve had difficulty attracting people but we believe in our cause and we will press on. We would love to be able to field candidates for the next election. Whether we will be able to do so or not, we will let the people [earmarked as candidates] decide.”Another option, he said, is “encouraging alliances with Independent candidates” as “we have not had the momentum to galvanise a party and we can’t call ourselves a party unless we have a certain number of candidates. We would have to coalesce around Independents to say to Bermuda that we are probably better with a coalition government”.The group is still trying to decide on a name, and has published various ideas on its website — the Democratic National Party, Bermuda Diversified Alliance, National People’s Party and Restore Bermuda Coalition.Asked if he felt Bermuda would benefit from a coalition government, Mr Fubler replied: “Most definitely.”He added: “I think a coalition government can bring to the table different interests. Right now we have 22 [PLP] seats versus 14 [Opposition and UBP] and any group can do what they want, but if we have the deal-breaker [of independent MPs] we need to look to each other. Some more sensible plans can be laid out as opposed to ‘we are the Government, and this is what we are going to do’.”Mr Fubler, 43, from Smith’s, is a certified public accountant. He worked at Gibbons Deposit Company and Ernst & Young before deciding to devote his efforts full-time to Restore Bermuda.He has no prior political experience, but as one of the founders of mentoring charity YouthNet, he said: “I’m very familiar with starting organisations.”As to the issue of party funding, Mr Fubler said: “We get donations from different individuals and entities.”He believes political organisations should reveal who their donors are, and that this should not have to be enshrined in legislation.“There’s nothing wrong with trying to tell the public,” he observed.Asked if Reform Bermuda would be publishing who its donors are, he replied: “If that’s the policy then yes, we will.”The group meets each Tuesday and Wednesday at 5.30pm at its headquarters on the second floor of 91 Reid Street the same building that Shine Hayward’s nightclub is in.“We welcome everyone’s involvement,” said Mr Fubler.Useful website: www.restorebda.bm.
New political group Reform Bermuda has a number of aims and objectives, according to founding member Cornell Fubler, who listed some of them as:
Getting the economy back on track
Overhauling the education system
Focusing on family life
Addressing crime
Putting the service back in the civil servants
Stopping racial division via initiatives to reconcile and heal