RECENTLY Chamber of Commerce president Philip Barnett said:"We ask people to leave their country; leave everything behind. People do it because they will be secure in their job, anything we do to take away that security is possibly jeopardising the future successes of any company in Bermuda."

Mr. Barnett made this statement in the wake of the Goodwill Plus employment initiative recently unveiled by Premier Dr. Ewart Brown in Washington, DC. In this initiative, Dr. Brown essentially called for the protection of the job aspirations of young Bermudians who desire an upwardly mobile career in Bermuda's offshore business sector.

Yet instead of recognising that something needs to be done to promote qualified Bermudians in the island's primary industry, the president of the Chamber of Commerce went on to state that "foreign staff may become demotivated if they know their stay in Bermuda is restricted."

If a president of the Chamber of Commerce in any other jurisdiction would dare make such a statement without taking into account the natural and legitimate aspirations of its citizens, how long thereafter would he remain in that position?

I have said it before and I will say it again, Bermuda is not someone's personal corporate entity, it is a country whose people have legitimate national aspirations - and among these aspirations is the desire to enjoy priority employment rights within the economy of their own country.

A Bermudian cannot go to another man's country and expect to enjoy employment rights over and above those of the citizens of that country, The government and political leadership, including the business leadership, in other jurisdictions would not dare take a position like Mr. Barnett just did without incurring the wrath of their nationals. Their people would rightly take offence and consider that their legitimate national rights were being abridged. especially if they decided the diminishment of such rights in the employment sector was something that certain financial interests in their country were prepared to countenance.

Sometime ago a former United Bermuda Party Premier was fond of referring to Bermuda as Bermuda Inc. I never accepted that term as a short-hand description of my country. For I knew that it would be used to justify the belittling and the downgrading of the national aspirations of Bermudians in favour of the narrow economic interests of the few. And I also knew that by placing this special emphasis on Bermuda as a business centre rather than as a country there would be a concurrent diminishment of the employment rights of Bermudians in this country and the value that is placed on the Bermudian worker by employers.

Bermudians have been very pragmatic and tolerant of the economic migrants who have come to work in our country. I use the correct term "economic migrant" rather than "guest worker", which gives such workers a sort of status which does not really belong to them.

It is clear from the comments made by the president of the Chamber of Commerce that there are some in positions of economic power on this island who put a premium on these non-Bermudian employees, valuing them more highly than the working people of Bermuda and their national aspirations in their own country.

The foreign workers who come to take up the employment opportunities in Bermuda are not economic missionaries come to save Bermuda. Rather it is our country whose economy that has given them employment opportunities.

While I am very well aware that, in certain specialised areas, Bermuda needs such economic migrants to maintain an economy that has grown well beyond the ability of Bermudians to maintain by themselves. Simply put, we cannot supply the manpower to fill the many jobs that

have been created since the boom in the off-shore financial services sector began in the late 1980s. But this simple fact should never be used to deny the legitimate national rights and aspirations of the people of Bermuda to enjoy priority employment opportunities within their own country. After all, this is a right that is very well understood internationally.

Premier Dr. Ewart Brown is quite correct to move to protect the national rights and legitimate aspirations of the people of Bermuda and to safeguard the future of their children as he has done in announcing the initiative. I would expect nothing less from a leader of my country.

A brief reply to the comments of Dr. Eva Hodgson (pictured below). It has been quite clear to me that you do not share my desire to see the creation of a Bermudian nation which will come in the form of an Independent country.

If the British control our airspace, what makes you think that they would not seek control of the natural resources that may be discovered under the waters of this British Overseas Territory? They would quickly move to exploit any such discoveries just as they have moved to exploit the oil, natural gas and other resources that have been discovered under the waters near the Falkland Islands.

If such natural resources are discovered under Bermudian waters, it will be necessary to engage a partner with which to exploit them as Bermuda can never hope to raise the capital or provide the scientific know-how to embark on such an undertaking by itself.

I would rather see Bermuda doing this from the position of being an Independent country which will put us in a much better position to be able to negotiate with any potential partners.

Right now we would have to negotiate from a position of weakness. As a British Overseas Territory, we wuld probably have to allow the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office (or consultants they recommed) to take the lead in any such talks.