United Bermuda Party candidate Mark Pettingill has never been a stranger to controversy and, as a prominent trial lawyer who knows the value of thinking before he speaks, it is likely that he knew his comments to the effect that the only black men who are prospering in Bermuda are Cabinet Ministers were going to cause some ire.

It?s reasonable to accept Opposition Leader Wayne Furbert?s statement that Mr. Pettingill was only relating the views that he was receiving from Warwick residents he had canvassed.

But it does not really matter where they emanated from. Mr. Pettingill would not have repeated the comments if he did not think they had some validity, and they are reasonably valid, if a little overblown, for two reasons.

The first is that in politics, perception is reality, and there is a strong perception that the Cabinet ? male and female ? is more interested in its own perks and and privileges than in the general wellbeing of the Country. Fair or not, that?s what happens when you drive oversize GP cars, build your own parking lot in the middle of Hamilton at vast expense, demand first class travel, renovate grand residences for the Premier and vote yourselves big pay rises.

Of course, some Cabinet Ministers work hard and all take a level of abuse that ordinary people would never tolerate. And one would assume that most do have the good of the Country at heart. And some Cabinet Ministers are better than others. But the fact remains that the Cabinet as a whole are their own worst enemies when it comes to the image game, with the salary increases a classic example of a public relations disaster.

So Mr. Pettingill knew he was striking a chord when he made that part of his statement. In general terms, he was also right when he stated that other black men were not prospering.

Of course, it is true that some black men are doing very well. But the reality is that progress in narrowing the wealth gap between blacks and whites in Bermuda has been glacial, and after eight years of a predominantly black government, one would have expected better.

But the other perception in the community is that the one thing ? apart from being able to vote yourself a fat pay raise ? that will certainly help you to get ahead is to have friends in Government. And it doesn?t matter whether you?re black or white. The immediate and predictable rejoinder to that is that the same was true under the United Bermuda Party. Certainly during the UBP?s last decade in power that wasn?t as true as it was perceived to be, but nonetheless, all of that was supposed to go away in the new Bermuda.

The truth is that the Government talks the talk when it comes to black empowerment, but it hasn?t been at good at walking the walk.

The truth is that the Government has only begun to seriously put empowerment programmes in place in the last couple of years, and then largely at the prompting of the Opposition.

Prior to the 2003 election, the only empowerment that seemed to be going on were the ad hoc programmes driven by then-Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb. In 2003, voters were told by then-Transport Minister Ewart Brown that a vote for the UBP was a vote to return to the plantation.

But the reality is that under this Government, blacks have not seen their living standards improve in any real way. That was the fundamental point Mr. Pettingill was making, and for that, he should not apologise.