Michael Dunkley, after reflection on his massive loss, conceded that not doing enough for the black community was one of the failings of his administration. However, by examining his own words, we gain some insight into what specifically he perceived that failing to be. The Royal Gazette article quotes him as saying: “Pretty easily we could have made decisions to try to do some things to help people in certain areas, but against the backdrop our hands were tied with budget constraints, with the debt that we had. We didn’t want to encumber ourselves any more.”

Taking his words, it could be understood that he was referring to some form of help or assistance. Not to suggest that there are not needs and lots of them in a community riddled with unemployment and a host of social problems. Yet his view of where he and the One Bermuda Alliance failed reveals another problem of perception, which is so pivotal and fundamental when diagnosing the disconnect between the OBA leadership and black Bermuda.

The 1977 Pitt Commission Report, in essence, disclosed that the economic marginalisation and gap in the marketplace were the primary culprits for the frustration and social breakdown in the black community. All the Government’s commissioned reports since then have stated the same. The creation of the Bermuda Small Business Association was a direct response to the Pitt recommendations, underscoring the need for increasing black entrepreneurship and participation in local business. Without demeaning the benefits that have ensued from the BSBA, the well-informed know that its efforts are paltry when weighed against the economic gap that it is trying to fill.

For the leader of the OBA to posit the position that his hands were tied, essentially because of financial constraints, hinges on the assumption that the black community needed a handout, as in more social welfare or government-sponsored programmes. Again with that presumption, if there had been money from a stronger economy for more government programmes targeted at the black community, the suggestion is there would have been a different result.

If that were true, it would be a terrible indictment of the black community. Such indictment would mean the black community is intent on being a welfare society dependent on the success of the established white business community. The economy, under that assumption, is to be viewed like a spectator’s sport and not participatory.

He is not alone, unfortunately, when it comes to the economy or the leading components that make it work because aside from labour, blacks are largely invisible — not just in presence but also through their very aspirations. Putting aside what anyone considers of the Corporation of Hamilton, the waterfront deal was an aspiration.

We can go up and down the country and find aspirations either frustrated or killed. There has been an invisible law operating essentially as a taboo with an institutionalised resistance to significant enterprise owned by blacks. If we had heard Dunkley, the former premier, once utter a word that meant black economic empowerment, he would be in line with Lord Pitt’s assessment, but we have not.

Perhaps the former premier is too young to realise that this black community has a legacy of once participating in every field; for example, dominating the construction industry and holding a strong presence in every other aspect of commerce, including grocery and imports.

However that has become as invisible as its history, to the extent that a major political party such as the OBA can become completely blind to the deep desire and need for the black members of this society to participate in this economy and regain their self-esteem.

That desire and need for fulfilment, Mr Dunkley, did not cost the Government anything. Nothing tied your hands from allowing or facilitating the numerous designs that would have cost the Government nothing, except consent. The only seeming visible tie on the Government’s hands was its entrenched commitment to preserve the status quo, along with the not-so-visible blindness to the needs of his fellow Bermudians of a different hue. The OBA will never become a contender for government until that blindness is cured. “Cure” is the proper word because it is indeed a sickness particularly in this world of the 21st century. My recommendation to those who have not found their way into this century is: look around you, see where the world is heading, listen to the near-global rejection of regressive thinking, as exampled in the United States under Donald Trump. Take a look in the mirror and reform. If not, leave the arena of politics to another generation.

For the PLP, this is just an opportunity to get it right — and it must because there will be no forgiveness for failure.