Well, it is no secret that General Election fever will be with us soon. When it is called, this will be the most consequential election in a quarter of a century. Bermudians, particularly Black Bermudians who comprise more than 90 per cent of the Progressive Labour Party’s base, seem to have finally adopted the maxim “once bitten twice shy”.

What occurred at the recent Gombey Festival made that clear. The emcee tried three times to get the crowd to clap to acknowledge David Burt’s presence. In what represents political death for a politician and leader of the country, sullen silence was all they could muster. By the third attempt, even the emcee realised it was fruitless and raised the white flag.

What the party leaders don’t understand or are in denial about, though, is that the growing dislike once reserved for the Premier alone has inevitably migrated to all of them — from the Cabinet on down.

This should not produce cheers for the One Bermuda Alliance, the “dead man walking” party. Burt’s twin, Jarion Richardson, is just as much a status-quo politician as he is.

I give you Exhibit A

Some weeks ago in The Royal Gazette, there was a story featuring George Daniels, a professional chef who has worked for 30 years at the highest levels internationally. He wanted to bring his family back to Bermuda, along with his well-earned experience. Daniels returned only to have his dream crushed because he was unable to land a position on island. He believed his expectations were dashed precisely because he was a Bermudian. In his words, restaurateurs preferred to hire foreigners at less pay. Sound familiar?

Mr Daniels stated: “I am a Bermudian chef who had ticked all of their boxes and even exceeded their requirements. I wasn’t given serious consideration. I felt he was checking a box showing that he had tried to hire a Bermudian, but just could not find one who could do the job.”

What is dispiriting now is that decades later, this is still happening. Under the United Bermuda Party, the OBA and the PLP.

As chairman of the parliamentary joint select committee, I conceived and designed the statutory-wage regime, with the living wage at its core. The living-wage initiative was designed to upend and thoroughly eliminate a hospitality industry’s business model. That model was predicated upon using low-cost, relatively low-skilled foreign labour to drive down wages — in some cases to poverty levels by Bermuda standards.

This has had the effect of making it virtually impossible for Bermudians, particularly Black Bermudians, to afford to work in certain occupations. It also is a trend that is spreading like a virus throughout the construction and landscaping industries.

The trend has contributed to Bermudians leaving the country — in the case of Mr Daniels, twice in one lifetime.

Nearly eight years later and we still do not have a living wage, and that has been intentional. Thus, the race to the bottom on wages continues at the expense of Bermudians such as Mr Daniels.

More than likely, the owners and managers of these establishments are first-generation Bermudians or foreigners. The foreign-born presence is not just with the low-cost workers, it is also at management level and at the very top of these companies. In some cases, their thinly disguised animus towards Black Bermudian labour and males specifically has a long track record.

After nearly a quarter-century of a PLP government, including close to eight years of the Burt Administration, there are hundreds of stories such as Mr Daniels’s still prevalent in Bermuda.

Bermudians are not really wanted in the industry. They certainly will not be able to afford to work in the industry when one considers the cost of living here, even if they were not discriminated against, as Mr Daniels was. That’s how bad things are here.

Even people with six-figure salaries can no longer afford to live in Bermuda.

There is an exception to that rule, though: a shrinking sliver of those who may be working on the international business oasis, the top tiers of our Civil Service or the few Cabinet ministers.

An industry figure who spoke anonymously in response to Mr Daniels’s damning experience blamed Bermudians for their lack of presence in an industry their parents and grandparents once built and dominated, often invoking laziness or some other character flaw justify discriminatory actions. This is Bermuda’s dirty little secret. Successive governments have been complicit in allowing it to continue.

What Mr Daniels endured is Bermuda’s loss. So, while Jason Hayward, the Minister of Economy and Labour, talks about Bermudians returning to the island, he and Mr Burt’s public policies are producing the direct opposite. Based on this government’s lack of attention to ensuring that incentives are actually working, the only conclusion one can arrive at is that our leaders have no interest in making them work. Mr Daniels’s plight amply demonstrated that.

Both parties, or should I say all three of them including the Free Democratic Movement, should be rejected at the polls at the next election for political malpractice.

We should thank Mr Daniels for having the courage to speak out on this issue. Let’s stop this farce and elect independent candidates island-wide at the next election. They will represent you and not the status-quo parties. The change we need cannot come soon enough. The Gombeys will be dancing for joy when it does.

Is the experience of Mr Daniels what will await other qualified Black Bermudians at the Fairmont Southampton? Clearly, when all is said and done, we are talking about the same business model — now even worse, frankly — that originally marginalised Bermudians in the industry in the first place. One in this case sanctioned by our government.

• 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