Just a few days ago, the citizens of Bermuda declared, by means of their vote, that the Bermuda Progressive Labour Party (PLP) was the best party to govern Bermuda. Many reasons have been given for the outstanding victory of the PLP. Personally, I believe that the PLP won the general election of December 18, 2007 because they promised to implement policies that will correct the imbalance of blacks in leadership positions in the Bermuda economy. It is also clear that the supporters of the UBP did not fully support this goal and they have made this very clear in many statements following the general election. In this article, I would like to add my viewpoint.

When we vote in a general election, we are determining who will wield the mighty power of government. This power is the right to make laws that determine how we live in every aspect of the word "live". This includes how we raise our children, how we direct our families, how we worship, how we are educated, how we make a living, what sort of government we have, and how we protect ourselves. This is awesome power.

Although awesome, this power is far from absolute. First and foremost, It is restricted by the will of God. This is something we forget all too often when the party of our choice makes declarations that it will do this or that, if it is elected.

We are also restricted by the will of powerful nations. As a colony of England, we are very much controlled by the will of England and of the European Common Market of which England is a member. Of equal or even greater importance, we are controlled by the will of the United States.

Despite these very, very substantial external restrictions on Bermuda's autonomy, it remains true that the result of the general election of December 18 has settled two major local issues: Firstly, it has decided that the Progressive Labour Party (PLP) will have the opportunity to try to affect the policies of the major nations who exercise considerable control over our international relations. Secondly, the election determined that the PLP will get the right to tell the residents of Bermuda what they can or can not do within the territorial limits of Bermuda.

Given the reality of the seriously circumscribed power that the two political parties were seeking, why were both parties so excited about trying to win the recent General Election? From my point of view, there are two fundamental answers. Firstly, the PLP winners will be able to influence greatly how Bermuda's major races relate to each other. Secondly, the PLP winners will be able to determine how Bermudians relate to the non-Bermudians who exist among us in ever increasing numbers.

In the recent election, both parties avoided discussion of these goals in any depth. However, they were heavily in the news in the media comments following the election, leaving no doubt that both parties were fully conscious of the major issues. The PLP's strategy to provide equal opportunity and the UBP's promise to provide income support to the poor, strongly supports the conclusion that race relations were very much in the forefront of concerns of the competing parties. In addition, the PLP's promotion of the workforce equity legislation and the UBP's concern with the impact of this policy on the International Sector, certainly indicates the importance of the existing relationship between Bermudians and non-Bermudians to both major parties.

This is not to say that there are no other issues with which Bermudians need to be concerned. One might reference the plight of the aged, education, housing and drug related crime. Still upon closer examination, these issues have their root causes in Bermuda's history of racism as well as with relations between Bermudians and non-Bermudians.

Bermuda's aged are much more likely to be in dire straits if they are black than if they are white. This is because historically, in the private sector, Bermuda's blacks have earned much less than Bermuda's whites, even when both are employed in similar positions.

White Bermudians have always had far greater access to the education resources than their black counterparts. This situation has always prevailed even though the white school population continues to be very much smaller than that for Bermuda's blacks.

The acquisition of adequate housing has always been a problem for Bermuda's black population. Currently, the housing challenge has become even more intense because of the economic boom and the importation of labour from non-white countries. These newcomers are competing for housing in black areas that were previously shunned by the previously, predominately white imported labour force.

With respect to drug related crime, we know that attempts to deal with this issue will impact much more severely on black youth than on white youth even with the PLP in power. This is because the black population in Bermuda is far more likely to be living in conditions that are more likely to produce criminality among the youth than is true for white Bermudians.

To some, relationships between the races are improving. I disagree! There can be no doubt that the black majority is having success in pushing for far better jobs in the Bermuda economy, since the PLP came to power in 1998. Further, they have every reason to expect for this to continue at an even greater rate now that the PLP have been returned to power, yet again. Further, the economically powerful blacks (and there are more and more) will no doubt redouble their efforts to increase their share of the businesses in Bermuda's buoyant economy. However, these opportunities that are expected to accrue to blacks in an economy that was once almost the entire preserve of white Bermudians and will no doubt have the effect of making whites feel less and less secure and more and more hostile to the new PLP government.

The unease that may be felt by whites due to the increased competition from blacks, will also be reflected in the International sector. Here, the presence of blacks in high level positions is becoming more and more apparent to the extent that some companies are hiring blacks from the Caribbean; this changed policy certainly will give the impression that the International Companies are cooperating with government's goals. However, it is also true that the existence of West Indians in high level positions, especially in Bermuda's banking industry, already has the result of encouraging even more black Bermudians to strive to reach the top in the international finance industries. These events certainly do not ease the growing insecurity of white Bermudians.

In my view, the influence of race and nationality will be so strong in Bermuda's future that we can give thanks to God that he guided Bermudians to elect a government which is committed to the continuation of current trends to level the playing field in the economic sphere. This was clearly a major election goal of Dr. Brown and the PLP. Unfortunately, this cannot be an equally important goal of the UBP, since it receives well over half its vote from white Bermudians, many of whom already consider themselves under threat by the PLP policy objective to increase the employment of blacks in the upper echelons.

Certainly, there is a need to enter a new level of organisation of Bermuda's economy which involves black Bermudians in top management to a far greater extent than is currently the case. Happily this fact has been grasped by many leaders in the corporate world. However, these corporate leaders expect the persons selected to serve in the higher echelons to be fully educated and experienced. Premier, Dr. Brown supports this principle and has made public declarations on several occasions that, our continued success in an increasingly competitive world requires nothing less.

calvin[AT]northrock.bm