Few people will have been sorry to see the back of 2011, a year in which the Bermuda economy continued to decline and the spectre of serious crime still hung over the Island.So it is better to look forward rather than backwards, although it is to be hoped that the mistakes made in 2011 will not be repeated.The big event of 2012 is likely to be the general election. Although Premier Paula Cox could hang on until early 2013 to call the poll, the likelihood is that it will occur within the next 12 months.It is obvious that a great deal hangs on this event. Bermudians have the opportunity to decide the Island’s course for the next five or so years, depending on whom they place their trust.The economy and crime will be the major issues in the election, although education, healthcare and other issues will play a supporting role.Then too, judging by past elections, racial issues will also be present, both overtly and covertly, and the party which is best able to show that it can narrow the wealth gaps between whites and blacks will have an edge in the election.The fact that the One Bermuda Alliance will be fighting its first election will also play a part, and its success will be predicated to a great degree on whether it can show it represents a genuinely new form of politics.Invariably, the question of character and personality will also feature.Bermuda’s challenges are such that successful Bermudians who have shied away from politics in the past now need to come forward in this time of need.Whether they do or not, the election will be decided through the strange electoral alchemy of politics, personalities and the national mood, the latter often being the hardest to read and the most difficult to change.Is it too much to ask that the election will be fought on the issues and that all candidates will avoid the negativity, distortions and personal attacks that shamed Bermuda in 2007?There is, quite simply, too much at stake for this election to deteriorate into petty bickering and race-baiting.Regardless of the election, it is also to be hoped that all politicians will come together to work for the common good, and that if ideas are presented that stand a good chance of working and helping Bermuda out of its current morass, that they will be adopted by all and not rejected simply because of where it came from.With regard to the economy, there have been some signs that the Government has recognised that much more needs to be done to make international companies feel welcome and that it is worth their while to invest in Bermuda and to have substantive operations on the Island.This also requires that Bermuda’s labour market becomes more competitive. This means Bermuda has to raise its productivity, but red tape and expect less in wages and benefits than has been the case in the past, especially in the international companies sector.At the same time, Bermuda has to ensure its tax and regulatory structures are appealing to international companies and the Island also needs to bury the idea that somehow Bermuda is doing businesses a favour by “allowing” them to do business here. At best, the relationship is a mutually beneficial one from which Bermuda gains as much as it gives.On crime, this newspaper welcomes the movement towards adopting the Ceasefire programme pioneered by David Kennedy in the US which this newspaper has long advocated.It is not the whole solution, but it seems to be the best approach to stemming the tide of violence. That must be done in conjunction with the attempts to solve the causes of crime, and the conditions which give rise to gangs and youth alienation.