Reaction to Sports Minister Glenn Blakeney’s decision to overrule the nominating committee’s selection of Roy Allen Burch as Male Athlete of the Year and instead bestow that honour on World Racquets champion James Stout brought overwhelming reaction from the public yesterday.

Here are a selection of the e-mails and letters sent to The Royal Gazette.

As a former President of the Olympic Committee and a person who has dedicated some 20 years to the Olympic ideal, I find this decision deplorable.

I suggest that the Director and the panel should resign. More importantly the Sports Minister should resign.

Athletes will always speak out through there frustration of what they deem to be a lack of funds. The list of Bermuda athletes who have spoken out is long. Burch is not the first.

The IOC frown on Government interference in sports.

Sports is the one vehicle that brings people and a country together. If this is left unchallenged then the Government will be telling sports organisation who should and who shouldn’t represent the country. This will be a sad day for Bermuda.

At the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, the crowd at the opening ceremony rose to their feet as the small Iraqi team entered the stadium for the first Olympics since the fall of Saddam.

The team were led by Najah Ali, a 106-pound boxer who carried the red-white-and-green flag. Later, the pint-sized underdog pumped his fists after winning a bout in an early round and shouted from the ring that his victory was “a symbol of freedom.”

Bermuda you are on the road to dictatorship.

AUSTIN B. WOODS

When I think of the many thousands of hours that Roy has spent in the pool since he was a youngster and the sacrifices he has made, it is very painful to see what he is going through right now.

He has given heart and soul to working to be the best that he can be and is a tremendous role model to other young Bermudians, at a time when there is so much negative publicity about the attitudes of many young people on this Island.

If the reasons for him not getting the Athlete of the Year Award are true, then it is a great injustice to him and sends the wrong message to his peers regardless of whether or not they are athletes.

Knowing Roy for the young man he is, he will gain nothing but strength from this and it will not deter him from continuing to reach his goals and set new standards in local swimming.

All recipients of the awards on Saturday night should hold their heads high just as I know Roy is doing.

This should never have happened.

GREG HOPKINS

The decision of the PLP Government to deny the award to the originally chosen Male Athlete of the Year is disgraceful, disgusting and scary!

It is yet another glaring example of anti-democracy and dictatorship which we continue to be subjected to under the present Government leader and his ‘honchos’.

God help Bermuda !

BARBARA COOPER

What else would you expect?

MAC

THE PLP ought to be ashamed of themselves.

They’re a disgrace to to themselves, Bermuda and democracy.

BEN AND VAL MACKEY

The newspapers and radio shows certainly help inform the public, including myself, on different topics. This time it is the selection process with the Annual Sports Awards.

I’ve had an interest in these awards for many years. Now through the reasons for it, recognising what our athletes do year round. Some people I’ve nominated have been recognised, thank you for all awarded.

All this time I thought the committee set up by the Sport Ministry chose the persons awarded (not only me) but found out otherwise from Thaao on HOTT 1075 this morning. It was said by him that the Ministers have that final decision. I’ve heard in the past that the Ministers make final decisions but I didn’t think that on this none national importance issue. (If this is how the Heroes Award is done, then a rethink should be made here too).

I’m against the Ministers making the final decision here. There are two methods that could be looked at for choosing the Awards.

1 I feel the committee should be the final choosing group. They should vote for each position, and the majority rules. In case of a tie amongst the committee then the person with the most nominations should win.

2 A people’s choice decides. All the people’s choices from the newspapers forms, radio and TV call-ins plus any other official methods are tabulated and decided if correct from the committee then counted. The most votes wins.

How do you feel about these suggestions?

ROGER LAMBERT

Denying Mr. Burch his award is as ridiculous as removing $75,000 from the Sailing Association!

In one breath Government is advocating ‘do more’ for black males and in the next breath they are going against what’s supposed to be their very own principle.

HOLY TRINITY

Ever since the PLP became government, everybody and their momma have freely ‘expressed themselves’.

I gleefully ‘expressed’ from my toes that under the PLP government democracy ‘rocks!!!’.

I vividly remember two former members of Alex Scott’s cabinet who were not included in Premier Brown’s cabinet having no trepidation in going to the ‘enemy’ (sshhhh!!) and articulating their ‘disappointment’ in being ‘excluded’.

Shucks, even white kids have marched on Parliament!!!

What saddens me is that Mr. Burch is a young man – not a graduate of the hustle truck initiative, not a young man who sat on the wall and needed fire put under his butt for him to accept ‘personal responsibility’.

But Mr. Burch is a young man who had goals at a very young age and through discipline was determined to achieve them. I hope this situation with Mr. Burch is not an indication of an ‘acid reflux’ condition!!!!

JUDITH PARSONS

This reminds me of just before the1994 Commonwealth Games where I was denied going because I spoke out.

I know there are people that are going to look at this situation and say we have ah, black Government and they are power hungry and out of control.

My experience in ‘94 showed me it has nothing to with colour but more to do with ‘know your place’, which takes me back Burch’s comments . . . no Bermuda Government does support sport the way it should, they support interest, self interest. An example of that self interest was (I have to slap myself when I say this figure) but $500,000 (half a million) bid to host a few Games of the World Cup cricket, that they failed to get.

I was in St Vincent at the time working on radio and if you heard the talk around the Caribbean amongst the media behind the scenes, Bermuda was looked at as a big joke. Comments like you think you can throw your money around and get what you want because your a rich island?

So this self interest has to change if it don’t . . . well you’re already on a slippery slope

Comments like Burch’s come from pain and hurt and disrespect on a next level. I don’t know what was said or not done to help his sport that hurt him enough to speak out, but to give you an example of that self interest I mentioned, was after returning to Bermuda from the ‘98 Commonweatlh Games and attending a reception luncheon for all the athletes that competed in Malaysia when then Premier Pamela Gordon gave a speech and in her speech she said how happy her Government were to see how many athletes they had worked hard to support to help get them to the Games.

I couldn’t believe the nerve she had to make a comment like that. I begged and borrowed just about every cent I received from the wider community those I knew and those I didn’t know to prepare to get to those Games. I could fill this whole article with the people that helped me. I am just trying to imagine the success we would have had as a team if 40 percent of my preparation had not been spent on hardship and a 100 percent on preparing for the Games. What would the end result have been?

The Government needs to be a little more willing to invest in programmes on a more open minded and realistic scale. Government, this one or the past, will be quick to say to you ‘what if you don’t make it that will be a lot money gone down the drain, or will it?’

If you invest in anything no matter what it is, plant a field of corn, will every seed produce? No they won’t, but this you know . . . but you still have faith that you will get an outstanding crop, but you would invest 500,000 to a bid that you knew you only had a 50/50 chance of getting.

Bermuda has the finance to produce some of the best sporting centres in the world but that is not of any interest to the Government, one only has to take a look at how long it took to get to the stage the sporting centre is at now. You took away a fine trade school and sporting ground for Colts FC who produced some of Bermuda’s best footballers for a project that some years later is still not finished.

Government you need to change you mindset towards your young man and women that are reaching for that goal of getting on the world stage, and you won’t get comments like you got form young Mr Burch, you will get more winners on the world stage. But until you take time to even address what he has to say (and other athletes like him) you will get more comments like mine and like that of Mr Burch to whom I say ‘hold ya head up’. And wether Government likes it, I am sure a few of words you said holds some truth and maybe stung Government in the ass. Maybe because it was the truth. If he is wrong, prove him wrong and show me I am wrong, and step up and address what he has said and try and build on it.

It is easy to trip a person, do you now have the character to help get back up we. Will see. When you read this, if you even bother (Government), after reading this I am sure Government will say who am I, what am I doing with my life and what have I achieved?

And my answer to that is I have achieved everything my Government expected of me – that is to fail and I congratulate you.

To Mr Burch, again I say keep your head up, you are young and if you get too much fight down in Bermuda, there are lots of other countries that know how much it means to have a top class athlete compete for them and the investment of getting you to any major Games will never be worth more than seeing you on the start line at any major Games regardless of the result.

MCINNIS LOOBY

It’s clear that His Brownship wants all people to know . . there will be no dissent on his plantation!

ALEX EUCARE

I could not believe the headline in the weekend papers that informed the public of the decision by Cabinet to overturn the Sportsman of the Year award and give it to someone else.

Surely this must be a typo, but as I read on it became quite clear that this was not the case.

I did not think that Government had the power to do this as the Committee who had performed so well in the past was still in place.

The Minister for Sport, Mr. Blakeney, should resign without further ado. And the rest of the Cabinet who voted for this shameful decision should never again hold up their heads.

I really believed that one had a certain freedom of speech here in Bermuda, but it is apparent that this no longer exists.

The young man Mr Burch has worked extremely hard to get to the level where he is now and this decision must surely leave a very sour taste in his mouth. I believe he had a right to say what he did as he was not lying about the allocation of funds to certain sports.

I suppose next week the Cabinet will be looking in the island’s bedrooms and decreeing that sex between consenting couples can only take place on Tuesday evenings between 7 and 8 p.m. in the spoon position and during full moon.

BILL NEARON

Just look back to 1998 – with the election of the first PLP Government we would have a “New Bermuda”.

No longer would the people of Bermuda need to feel intimidated, no longer would there be the fear to speak out.

Did we not hear “The french fries taste better”!!

Shame on this the Government of Bermuda.

Let’s face it, the allocation of funding for cricket and football is viewed as a better return on votes at the polls than funding for any Olympic sport or any social need! This is sad not only for Roy Allen Burch but also for James Stout.

This time it is sports! Who will be next?

Let us hope that the Bermudian voter will pay attention and remember such actions by the “People’s Government” at the next election. Wonder who Roy Allen voted for?

MY LIPS ARE SEALED

They say a picture is worth a thousand words but your photo today on the front page of your Sports section speaks volumes.

The caption says that Mrs. Aitken and Mr. Stout “flanked” the Premier and Mr. Blakeney when in fact they are standing behind the two obvious “stars” of the show.

What a shambles!

Keep up the “transparency” boys.

R.KEILL

Please allow me to offer a few words. I am not into sports as are many here. It seems to me that Bermudians thrive on it.

I am wondering what Mr. Stout was thinking!

How can anyone accept an award for someone who did not earn it.

He should have done the right thing and told the Government thank you but no thank you.

If this is the kind of sports they practice, I am glad I am not heavily involved.

The young man Is now marked, everyone will say – him? Oh yea, that’s the guy that got the award because the Government used him to make a point - for the rest if his life.

I am grateful you are not my dad.

You will also be looked down at just like Ewart is in the RG picture. Looking down on you .

Thank you for your time.

ROBERT DESOUZA

I am sick of both parties at this point.

We fight against one another every step of the way. If it is true that Roy Burch was stripped of this award for speaking out against this party then it is a shame.

While I believe Premier Brown has done a lot of things to help this country his arrogant attitude is a big turn-off.

The Island needs a fresh party which has the entire country’s best interest at heart and not just a select group. We need to be backing everyone who is representing Bermuda in a positive manner and if Mr. Burch stated this fact we need to stand behind him not chastise him for having a valid opinion.

TANASHA HOLDER