Over the past quarter-century, I have been a racial justice activist, consultant to two premiers and a Member of Parliament elected to two terms. During much of that time, I did not spare my criticism — sometimes withering — of Sir John Swan.

Why? Because, at heart, I recognised his undoubted leadership talent and enormous political capital during the 1980s could have been used to achieve more for Black Bermudians. But I also recognised that he did make enormous contributions.

When historians examine Sir John’s legacy, they will undoubtedly highlight the US tax treaty that he negotiated. I would rather highlight the seminal role he played — along with the Bermuda Industrial Union, the Bermuda Public Services Union, the hotel industry and the advocacy of the Progressive Labour Party — in the emergence and growth of Bermuda’s modern Black middle class.

He did so by dominating the housing market beginning in the 1970s and also by his determination to ensure that qualified Black Bermudians got a fair shot at employment in Bermuda’s expanding Civil Service.

However, structural changes to Bermuda’s economy in the 1980s had an enormous impact on his legacy. Those changes include:

• The decline of tourism

• The rise of Portuguese contractors and companies in the construction industry, and a decline of a Black presence within the industry. Some of that reflected the rise of their political influence within the United Bermuda Party.

• The significant expansion of international business in the global insurance industry, in particular and the financial services sector more generally

There has been a lot of talk about Sir John of late by the two established parties. As a founder of the Movement for Independent Candidates, this can only confirm the growing threat that they both feel as the movement gains momentum.

Let’s put this in context. In contrast to Jarion Richardson and David Burt, Sir John’s presence in today’s political landscape says more about the significant deficit in our existing political leadership than anything else.

People are not voting because to do so makes no difference in their lives. Sir John is still a giant in comparison to the very small politicians that we have today. The world has changed considerably just over the past five years. I wrote in my last published op-ed that Gaza is where Western liberal democracy went to die. Seemingly, we are entering a period once again where it is the might of nations that makes right.

Sir John and Renée Webb and their kind can make a huge contribution to the change we so desperately need in our island home. They both know the world and how it works.

We also know as independents that we do not have all the answers, but we know where to go and who to see to get them locally and critically in the context of what is going on in the world — internationally.

Sir John will run as an independent and not as the leader of a non-existent party. This “Swan’s Party” slogan is a bogeyman conjured in the nightmare of terrified status quo party members and their advisers. Sir John will get elected on his own merits like any other candidate aligned with the growing Movement for Independent Candidates.

The fundamental problem with parties

Parties, regardless of their initial mission, eventually prioritise the party over the people. The party system is demonstrably a clear and increasing danger to Bermuda and Bermudians. Nothing illustrates this more dramatically than the following story.

Perhaps many of you saw the article in this newspaper about the status of the living-wage initiative on September 30. I did and I concluded that young Mischa Fubler, a PLP candidate and the newly appointed chairman of the Wage Commission, did not get the memo from David Burt, Jason Hayward or Chris Furbert. That memo stated that the living-wage initiative had been already implemented.

Let us not forget that the AME pastor Reverend Nicholas Tweed, from the sanctified pulpit no less with Mr Burt in attendance, broadcast live to the country in 2022 that the Premier had delivered on two promises:

1, That the living wage had been implemented and its blessings would be bestowed upon a long-suffering public

2, Our healthcare system had been fixed

Now, I am sure the listeners were ecstatic; especially the thousands without health insurance in a country with the world’s fourth-highest gross domestic product per capita. They would have assumed that after waiting nearly eight long years, affordable healthcare for all was finally here.

It was certainly welcomed by the Premier sitting in the congregation in his Sunday best with a big smile on his face. To this day, he has never set the record straight. But why would he? This spectacle was performed by the loyal pastor only days before the PLP leadership contest. Curtis Dickinson, as honest as he is, could have and should have made a good meal out of this.

In fact, Mr Burt and his government delivered on neither of those promises. Recently, at the PLP’s delegates conference held in Mr Tweed’s church hall, the party leader proudly asserted: “Promises made, promises kept.”

Had he been honest, he would have hung his head in shame and said, “Promises made, promises not kept.”

And the list of broken promises, not from the 2020 election but still from 2017, gets longer by the day.

As to the pastor, he is obviously loyal to a fault. Literally.

• Rolfe Commissiong was the Progressive Labour Party MP for Pembroke South East (Constituency 21) between December 2012 and August 2020, and the former chairman of the joint select committee considering the establishment of a living wage