T he Premier's belated call for "One People – One Bermuda" in his recent television address is a teachable moment we cannot afford to overlook.

Like many of his executive actions, the idea seems to be more of an afterthought than a bona fide policy mandate. So we are faced with a half-measure that risks becoming more of a hindrance than a genuine foundation for reconciliation of our racial differences.

For example, this call for unity has been issued more than three months after Minister Louis Farrakhan visited Bermuda. At that time, the Minister offered his assistance to our community as we struggled with the increasing incidents of gang violence within our society.

To date there is no sign the Premier has seriously considered the offer of a peace summit that would help our community leaders break through the wall of silence that inhibits local law enforcement.

Instead, he chose in his speech to reintroduce a red herring dispute with the Governor over the delegation of police powers. This is not leadership. It is a distraction.

So the burden now falls on the rest of Bermuda to read between the lines and choose a course of action that can make the goal of "One Bermuda" a tangible reality, not just a buzz word.

Before Minister Farrakhan's visit there were many who may have been sceptical about his motivations, especially in the white community.

Minister Farrakhan has attracted a host of detractors both internationally and locally because his confrontational style of oratory has been stereotyped by the media as one dimensional.

In the past it has seemed that he simply intended to demonise "whites" without acknowledging our shared capacity for good and evil.

Indeed the Minister's negative stereotype seemed to be personified in the leadership style of the Hon. Dr. Ewart Brown, who has taken great pains to variously threaten, stigmatise and condemn historically white institutions for their role in the injustices of the past. In addition a vocal chorus within the PLP seems to have embraced this behaviour.

Given the racial sensitivities aroused at the time of the visit, I was obliged to make a snap call and confirm with the event organisers, the Emperial Group, that it was indeed the intention of Minister Farrakhan to advocate "unity in the community – world vibe".

More importantly, anticipating the potential anxiety in the community, I thought it appropriate to do my part and try to help create an environment of trust that could move us beyond the messenger and focus on the message.

Based on the way that the Premier's recent television address has been received in the media, it seems the Emperial Group's message of unity has prevailed and that new possibilities have emerged; one which obliges us to not just talk the talk but walk the walk, to work for a society in which everyone observes the same obligations and rights, a changed society where everyone works together in unity.

I think it was more than coincidental that the Premier's "unity message" coincided with the 14th anniversary of the historic Million Man March which first occurred on October 16, 1995.

I think the speech has unintentionally signified our chance to shift towards the language of "atonement" that our country is going to need in order to move beyond the punitive culture that has dominated our politics for too long.

For the past 11 years, my colleagues and I have taken every opportunity to expose the failures and shortcomings of the PLP; in part to ensure the island stays on the right track but also to win voter support. We've relentlessly questioned their approach to government and few bore the brunt of our concerns more than Dr. Brown.

However in the cut and thrust of this process, perhaps we lost sight of the obvious reality that we have never in our history earned the confidence of a majority of voters in the black community.

The nature of this oversight is no doubt rooted in our island's history of racial, social and economic stratification.

Now it appears that we have moved from an archaic laissez-faire culture tinged with patronage and entitlement to a modern framework that is now based, essentially, on voter manipulation.

What do I mean by this?

It's simply a fact that our politics are now driven by opinion polls and focus groups, not relationships.

Finding a better way forward is going to take a brand new attitude to leadership. I am therefore grateful to Minister Farrakhan for reminding us that leaders must also be teachers.

I believe that in order to be trustworthy teachers, we must be able to learn from our mistakes as public citizens and as public servants.

Indeed, the problem with the Premier's call for "One People – One Bermuda" is that he has avoided the obligations of truth, reconciliation and forgiveness that will be required to bridge the gaps in our society that are a direct result of bad policy making; both by the PLP and the UBP.

As rivals in a confrontation-oriented Westminster system, the PLP and UBP, by playing their roles as government and opposition, have eroded our common interests and connections. The "winner takes all" mentality has desensitised our supporters to the damage we are inflicting on our fellow citizens.

In addition, racism has been an easy crutch to avoid our social responsibility to respect each other across the parliamentary divide.

Even now, it has become far too tempting to suppose that everything would be better if the UBP were to simply disband. Such a decision would deny the reality that the PLP's existence owes much to the UBP, including the adoption and maintenance of many of the policies that originated in our party, while thriving on the strengths of an economy built on the UBP's watch.

So where do we turn if our Premier and Government is unwilling to move beyond sloganism toward a unified country?

What do we do if our dissidents are too sceptical to commit to this journey with the UBP?

I believe we must go directly to the people of Bermuda and negotiate a new social contract based on atonement and not conflict, based on a message of hope and not hate, a message of respect not indifference, a message of understanding and tolerance.

It is time to end the separations; it is time to build a new society; a just society, a fair society and a compassionate society.

We must embrace Minister Farrakhan's offer to engage the white community in more than just a "Big Conversation". We must give permission for a new generation of leadership to emerge that will deliver on the possibilities of this new social contract.

We need to work together to bring closure to the culture of racial hostility and resentment that has defined our slide toward mediocrity. We need to become teachers, not just protesters, of the oneness that has shaped our common inheritance as Bermudians.

We need to begin this journey together now.