Sir John Swan has found the enemy — and the enemy is us.

Bermuda’s longest-serving premier, for decades one of the island’s most successful businessmen, said more must be done to improve conditions in Bermuda.

He was speaking in the context of The Royal Gazette’s five-part series addressing Bermuda’s shifting demographics over the next seven years, and the challenges they present for the island.

“The country’s big economic middle class is rapidly sliding into economic despair,” Sir John said. “Nobody is talking about it, no one is saying ‘I am hurting and we need to do something about it’.

“People should be shouting at the top of their voices because the promise of Bermuda is not being fulfilled when we once had so much.

“We had so much, in fact, that people thought we had too much. Now, we don’t have enough and we, as fellow Bermudians, are not doing enough to restore things to the extent that would afford our people the confidence and the security that their needs can be met and that there are opportunities for economic growth.

“Even the Chamber of Commerce, the Employers Council and companies generally have all put their heads down. It is no secret than many businesses are not doing well.

“However, business people are not involved enough in getting something done, so we have stagnation. We talk about international business, but on the domestic side, we are not doing near enough ourselves.

“We are like the comic strip character Pogo, who said ‘I have found the enemy and the enemy is us’.”

Sir John said we must “grow the economy by creating a critical mass so that we can get economies of scale on things such as healthcare and food that have become excessively costly due to our small numbers”.

He said contributions to the Bermuda economy can vary by industry sector.

“The service and hospitality industries require a lot of manpower,” Sir John said. “We don’t have enough Bermudians to fulfil all those jobs. We have brought foreigners in to fill the gap. Most of these workers do not or cannot bring their families with them and therefore must support their families at home by sending them a regular portion of their income.

“Therefore, this money does not circulate in the Bermudian economy and does not contribute to the creation of jobs through the use of goods and services.”

The island’s Fiscal Responsibility Panel, in a report released in November, said that immigrants and returning Bermudians with the right skills will help to create jobs, not displace them, in a growing economy.

Sir John says he understands that an increase in the number of foreign nationals in the workforce can be a highly political issue. “Bermudians feel the foreigner will displace them,” he said. “However, if a person is displaced due to a lack of economic activity, that person is displaced anyway.

“We have to look at how we can serve the Bermudian people by creating conditions that bring about economic activity and accept that we can’t always do it by ourselves. How much tolerance do we have?

“There might be naysayers, but we need to attract foreigners here like we did in the past. Those non-nationals created jobs that you, or maybe your parents or even your children enjoyed, and that allowed people to have a comfortable middle-class life.

“By middle class, I mean you pay your bills, your rent or mortgage and have money left over for recreation and to educate your children so you can prepare for their future.”

Steps must also be taken to reinvigorate the City of Hamilton, Sir John said.

“We have to create economic activity for the City of Hamilton because, like it or not, it is pretty dead,” he said. “We need to look at Hamilton as we once looked at Dockyard years ago. We asked ‘what should we do with this place’ and our answer was a tourism and cruise ship resort. Similarly, we need to make Hamilton an economic growth destination by allowing buildings — hotels or apartments — to be owned by foreigners. That will bring foreign capital into Bermuda and would not be a drain on our Bermuda dollar position.”

Sir John called on Bermudians to support Government’s efforts to diversify the economy.

“Fintech and blockchain technologies have great promise for Bermuda if we get it right and I think we can,” he said. “That is why we should support the Government in their efforts to bring the industry here. There will always be the naysayers when something new is being introduced. I encountered that when I was negotiating the tax treaty with the United States, but with persistent perseverance for five years, it happened, and we enjoyed the greatest period of success we ever had. At the time, we had no debt as we do today and far more Bermudians enjoyed a comfortable middle-class life. Therefore finding an additional pillar of the economy is a must. I am giving support where I can and I ask everyone to do the same.”

The time to act is now, Sir John said.

“Not only are we on the edge of a cliff, we are falling off,” he said. “We have an ageing population, a shrinking youth population and the number of non-nationals in Bermuda has decreased by over 4,000.

“Unemployment of Bermudians has been on the increase. The number of people covered by health insurance is shrinking and the cost is going up. People can’t afford healthcare, corporations can’t afford healthcare, and there doesn’t seem to be enough being done to change things and ease that pressure. Economic growth is desperately needed to restore our economic viability.”