its course, Bank of Butterfield President and Chief Executive Officer Calum Johnston said last night.

And he called on local and international business leaders to sit down with Government to thrash out differences and said proposed strict race reporting in the workplace should only be foisted on employers who were way out of line.

Mr. Johnston told Sandys Rotarians at their weekly supper club: "It is a near tragedy that, at this time of great opportunity for Bermuda, our society seems consumed by the futile debate about race, expats and work permits.

"A debate that almost certainly will have a negative effect on business in Bermuda and on business thinking about coming to Bermuda, a debate that seems most unlikely to contribute to solutions to the very real problems connected with race, expats and work permits.

"There are real problems for the Government to solve but extreme statements in the Press by hard line expat CEOs or by those opposed to expats or by those who have problems with racial diversity will not bring us any nearer to the solution Bermuda needs.

"Such statements serve only to confuse and to further alienate one group from another to the disadvantage of all in Bermuda.

"As I watch the situation deteriorate I am minded of my days in Jamaica in the 1970s when Michael Manley was at the heights of his powers.'' Bank chief urges end to `futile' debate Manley's aims of better health care and education and a fairer distribution of wealth were laudable, said Mr. Johnston.

But he added: "As he himself admitted later in life, the way he went about it resulted in near disaster for Jamaica.'' Mr. Johnston said he had watched Ghana descend into poverty from being the richest country in Africa under the well-meaning but misguided leadership of Kwame Nkrumah.

He also cited problems in the Bahamas under Prime Minister Lyndon Pindling.

"Bermuda has more to lose than those countries ever had,'' said Mr. Johnston.

But he said too many groups were thinking only of their self interest.

"And as a result of their being too many groups, Government has consulted with too few.

"The Government should state very clearly the objectives it wishes to achieve and the reasons for these objectives.

"Business interests, both local and international, should find a way to assemble a reasonably sized and representative group to sit down with Government, preferably behind closed doors, to find a way to assist Government to achieve its stated objectives in a way that serves the interests of everyone in Bermuda, while keeping firmly in mind that we are dealing with a democratically elected Government.'' Mr. Johnston then addressed the Commission for Unity and Racial Equality race reporting workplace regulations which Government hopes to reintroduce after the Senate threw the bill out last month.

He said: "We must guard against creating a bureaucracy that is so expensive that Bermuda becomes even less competitive in world markets as a place for business and tourism.

"It would be preferable for Government to monitor, say on an annual basis, the progress made by each company towards meeting the Government's specific objectives.

"Only if insufficient progress is being made by a particular company should an expensive day by day, job by job, interview by interview monitoring programme be imposed on it.'' DISCRIMINATION DIS