You can’t beat the wit of Oscar Wilde. “I live in constant fear of not being misunderstood”, he once lamented. Of course Mr Wilde was no politician. Politicians have the opposite lament: they want to be always understood whatever they say however they say it. The recent SAGE Commission controversy is a case in point.It was troubling enough when it was first reported that Government said that it had waived confidentiality in the matter of the Chairman’s speech, and thus he had committed no breach of the SAGE Act. But the Premier’s press secretary didn’t stop there when she further advised that chairman Brian Dupperault had first cleared what he was going to say with the Cabinet. That, arguably, was more troubling.My surmise — and mine alone — is that Mr Dupperault could not have been best pleased with the latter assertion. It struck at the very heart of the Commission and, until it was corrected, called into question its integrity and independence. The Commissioners are facing a difficult enough task, having to review and recommend how Government can make itself more modern, and more efficient and affordable.I have already commented publicly on how the unions quite reasonably view the body with some suspicion (in the absence of direct representation) and regard it as a kind of Trojan Horse for a predetermined agenda.Correction came quickly enough from the office from whence the error originated. The Premier conceded Cabinet had no power to waive confidentiality, and never did so. Chairman Dupperault had only provided a copy of his speech ahead of time by way of a courtesy.There was no prior consultation and/or review. The error was ascribed to “informal e-mail exchanges” (a new one for me) and phrasing that was “perhaps” mistaken. Perhaps?The Opposition made no mistake and predictably pounced. It was grist for the political mill on the emotions to adjourn down and up the Hill. But one question remains: whether the chairman ran afoul of the Act when he spoke at all.The relevant section was drafted pretty widely: Commissioners and staff are required to “maintain secrecy in respect of all matters that come to their knowledge and attention in the exercise of the functions of the Commission” (emphasis mine).Arguably, the wisest course of action is not to keep your mouth closed. But I read and re-read what the Chairman was reported to have said and I cannot see that the section was designed to prevent him from engaging the public and expressing an opinion on what he has seen and heard, some of it at meetings that were public.I am reminded of a great line which former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker uttered in the House of Commons when members were in an uproar over the photograph of a naked John Lennon with Yoko Ono, from a record album I think it was.A lawyer himself, he gave one of his shortest speeches ever when he made reference to the well known legal maxim: “De minimis non curat lex”. The House on the Hill there was reduced to laughter. Roughly translated: the law takes no notice of small matters.But it remains to be seen just how small a matter this turns out to be; politically, not legally.Survey SaysSpeaking of which, survey says that well over 90 percent of Bermudians feel safe in their neighbourhoods. It begs the obvious questions which quickly surfaced on the airwaves and on the blogs: who were these people who were polled and from what neighbourhoods? I have a couple of my own observations too.Poll someone after even a break-in or a series of burglaries in the neighbourhood and you are sure to get a different result. I also expect that a lot of people will always feel safer in their own homes than in someone else’s. You wonder then not at the wisdom of releasing the poll but crowing about it, and in a Ministerial Statement in the House on the Hill.This is just the sort of beating of chests that often gets Governments into trouble. The danger is that they start believing their own press and their illusions soon become delusions and delusions, whether of grandeur or not, invariably lead to disillusionment. Seen this played out before, recently.*Share your views on The Royal Gazette website or write jbarritt@ibl.bm