Log In

Reset Password

New activist group aims to bridge island's political gap

GROUPS of moderates from both major political parties are now involved in talks which could effect political change in Bermuda.

And they believe that Sir John Swan's recent criticisms of the United Bermuda Party (UBP) opened the door to public debate on whether both the Opposition and the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) are in need of restructuring.

"I think Sir John's recent comments ? what he perceives as the inadequacy and the viability of the United Bermuda Party to be able to attract the vote that will give them a majority ? are valid," said political activist Khalid Al Wasi, one of those involved in the discussions.

"Opposition Leader Grant Gibbons responded by saying that the UBP is looking very closely at the race issue and the dynamics it plays; (PLP Works & Engineering and Housing Minister) Terry Lister, said that from time to time all partisan parties need to transform or go through some sort of reassessment.

"So I think all the stakeholders have essentially given the public a licence to look at those dynamics and explore the options. To not just look at how the parties deal with themselves, but at how party politics operates and how people connect to it. We now have the opportunity to carry Swan's dialogue forward."

The sentiment expressed by Sir John ? that the UBP's white elite are a turn-off for voters and potential black candidates and that a transformation of the party is needed in order to win an election ? is one which has been discussed for months by groups of "centrist-thinking individuals, people on the fringes of both parties", but which had been applied to both the UBP and the PLP, he said, adding that he had himself expressed similar thoughts in the past through letters written to the editor of the .

Mr. Wasi likened the present situation to that of 1964 when there were three political groups ? the Voters' Association headed by John Cox, the Progressive Labour Party, and a third group, headed by Jack Tucker who was attempting to form a biracial party.

"There were those who saw a real possibility of racism being enshrined into two different camps ? the Labour Party camp and the Cox camp ? two racial groups diametrically opposed to one another. And it was the centrist group that came along and formed the United Bermuda Party.

"It was the pragmatism of Jack Tucker at the time, who saw that things could not continue as they were; that they had to change and create something relevant for that moment. That essentially is the paradigm we've been living off for the last 30 or 40 years. Today, we're at a similar crossroads.

"Our hope is that the same genius that translated in 1964 and 1965 is alive and exists today and this time, can help the country unite.

"Basically, we're asking who among the public and in the parties is brave enough to do what's relevant today, notwithstanding their partisan positions; notwithstanding what you think of the UBP and what you think it has done over the years; notwithstanding what you think of the PLP and what you think it's done over the years. Who is brave enough to forge a destiny that is relevant for today and now? (We) are going to put that question very firmly in the public's mind so that they lean on the parties to change."

Mr. Wasi added that the group ? which remains unnamed and whose members want to remain anonymous for the moment ? would not be announcing its formation as a political party but was hoping that with the public's backing, it would be able to effect change.

"You just can't make a symbolic meeting or a symbolic gesture; say that we all want to work together and move ahead. It literally has to take the form of a politic. But we can't afford to have an National Liberal Party experience; you can't start a third party and hope that somehow or the other down the road the group will coalesce and mushroom to some sort of electoral victory.

"So long as there's these two race camps in operation, it's not going to happen. So the idea of transformation is probably the only real option; transformation of the parties which currently exist."

Mr. Wasi admitted that if neither party saw the need for transformation, little could be done.

"The only thing we could do (in that case) is become a social action group, trying to develop people's minds and presumably working to make the best of a bad situation. The question I put to the two parties is whether they wash their linens or, whether they discard the linens and get some new garments? Because what we need, essentially, is a new garment.

"The truth of the matter is our youth need a party now. Neither party has anything they can pass on to the youth, aside from the race and party wars that have been going on over the last 40 years. The country is crying out for a greater vision.

"There's a tremendous opening and appetite for this level of discussion to go forward. It's up to individuals to see the need, first of all and there are people right now who are beginning to get together and move that discussion forward. There is that hope.

"(Those involved) go straight down the middle of Bermuda. There are bodies of people who are engaging in debate and I think in this year you'll see far more visible action along those lines to help further that debate."