For his charm and jetset lifestyle, many call Ewart Brown the Playboy Premier. The name fits for another reason. A reader points out that he’s probably the only Bermudian to have been the focus of an editorial in Playboy. It was back in 1969 when, as a campus radical, he was among the leaders of a student takeover of the Howard University administration building …
Ewart Brown on the importance of Press Freedom
I feel that the networks have actually performed a public service by dramatizing the fact that the students are deeply dissatisfied, and enabling a lot of people whom we couldn’t have reached on our own to hear our demands. The universities would like to sweep these disputes under the rug, but they can’t do that with the TV cameras on them.
Ewart Brown on the problems of Elitist Leadership
Jive! The students don’t think of themselves as any kind of an elite but as people who are challenging the real elite-those who control all of our destinies, those who control the system. The students would like to make democracy real instead of just a slogan. My knowledge of the subject is more or less restricted to the black campuses and black students, and we don’t consider ourselves a smug elite but people who are angry and disenchanted with everything around us. The only lives we want to control are our own, and we turn to militant measures only because all other means of effecting change have failed.
In the name of Public Access to Information, we demand that this important publication be put on display at the National Archives. So we can read the editorials.
Explaining the huge sums being spent on Beyoncé and others for the Bermuda Music Festival, thus spinneth the Disco Doc:
This festival like most music festivals in the world are not done to make a profit but they have an effect far beyond the show itself…
He added that anyone focused only on how the money was being spent was “being narrow in their perspective”.
Most music festivals in the world are run by concert promoters not Governments. Their goal is explicitly to make a profit.
Taxpayers have every right to question how the money is being spent. The harsh reality is that we are paying for Government to provide services to us, not for politicians to live out their Hollywood dreams.
UPDATE: It now appears that an overseas media campaign is underway publicising the huge sums Bermuda is paying Beyoncé. According to Rock Newman “This event will garner more worldwide attention for Bermuda than anything that has ever happened here. Folks around the world are going to say Bermuda has got it going on.” Either that or, in the face of a global economic downturn, they will shudder at our foolish excess.
Government now has dozens of civil servants working in communications and public relations. It has also invested huge sums in building websites.
Yet, to read most statements from Government Ministers, given in their official capacity, one must visit the PLP website. These official statements do not appear on the Government website or CITV.
This blurring of the Official with the Political is wrong.
There should be an Government policy enforcing that all official statements, announcements/news releases, and events must be indexed on the homepage of the Government website. Public access to information applies not only to the stuff they want to hide; it also ensures that obviously public info may easily be found.
They just passed a law that any one locally who publishes something about Bermuda must submit it to a central repository. You’d have thought that Government statements deserved the same public access and preservation.
As noted herepreviously, the Government of the Cayman Islands is in the midst of a massive public consultation regarding modernisation of their Constitution. The proposed draft was to have been put before Caymanians this summer, before taking it for a constitutional negotiation with the UK.
That plan is now changed, revealing some of the FCO’s desires regarding referenda on consitutional change.
The Cayman Opposition there has been critical of the proposals but has not yet voiced its position. The Cayman Government has decided to proceed directly to negotiations with the UK partly, they claim, in the hope of forcing the Opposition to participate. A statement from the Leader of Government Business, Kurt Tibbetts, says:
A referendum now, before we talk to London, would be best for the country if the country was ready to vote. But, thanks in large part to the Opposition, it seems the country may not yet be ready…
If we went ahead now with the referendum and there was a low turn-out, the referendum result would make little or no impression in London…
There would be a strong probability that we would need to hold a second referendum to make the final decisions.
“To ensure balance and full transparency of the process,” the Cayman delegation negotiating with the UK will be made up of members of the Government and the Opposition, as well as NGOs such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Cayman Ministers’ Association. The change is supported by the Opposition.
The “pre-approved” Consitutional proposal would then be taken for a full referendum next year before it could become effective. The referendum would be held simultaneous with Cayman’s planned General Election. Note that the current proposals include the specific reference:
We believe that there is no desire in the country to seek independence. Our aim is to improve the relationship with the United Kingdom, to make our internal government more democratic, efficient and accountable and to prevent any recurrence of the unfortunate incidents that have in the past strained our relationship with the Mother Country.
As the 1999 White Paper pointed out, the United Kingdom’s policy towards the Overseas Territories rests on the basis that it is the people of each Territory who determine whether they wish to stay linked to the United Kingdom or not. The United Kingdom has no intention of imposing independence against the will of the people concerned. It has been the established policy of successive British Governments to give every help and encouragement to those Territories where independence is the clearly and constitutionally expressed wish of the people, where this is an option. At this time, the presumption of the United Kingdom Government is that a referendum would be the way of testing opinion in those Territories where independence is an option. But the final decision on whether a referendum is necessary, and what form a referendum might take, would need to be determined by the United Kingdom, in the light of the particular circumstances in each Territory.
The Governor made his usual mystifying clarification this week on the means to adjudge public support for independence in an overseas territory:
While he offered a referendum as one option of gauging if Bermudians want to cut ties with the UK, he said that it was not the only one, though he did not clarify others.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the UK parliament was a little more enlightening a few months ago, albeit still buried in diplomatic noncommittal wishywash:
Q270 Chairman: We will come on to some detailed questions about the Falklands later. At the moment, may I focus on more general questions? This may seem academic, but I think I should ask the question anyway. Could an overseas territory be granted independence without a referendum taking place in that territory?
Meg Munn: The Government’s position is that that is the way by which we would expect a territory to indicate that it wanted to have independence, but that does not rule out other mechanisms that might be acceptable-for example, if a political party went into an election on the basis that it would pursue independence and there was a clear majority for that party. We would have to look at each circumstance, but our position is that a referendum is the preferred route…
Q272 Mr. Moss: I was part of the delegation that went to Bermuda and as you well know, it had its referendum some years ago. It was put to us strongly that many people there would be against the second proposal to which you alluded, whereby a party could go into an election with a manifesto commitment to have independence. If you look at the results of the last Bermuda election, the percentage difference in votes was tiny. If there is a low turnout, there would be a move towards independence on less than 50% of the popular vote. Are you suggesting that would be acceptable?
Meg Munn: No, which is why I was saying that if a territory wanted to go for independence on the basis of something other than a referendum, it would entirely depend on the circumstances. If a political party went into an election saying that it wanted independence and received 90 per cent of the vote, that would be a different situation from the scenario that you have described. We would want to consider that matter.
The combined union turnout around Parliament this morning was truly impressive. The unions’ obeisance to the PLP has worked to the disadvantage of their workers, and a correction is occurring.
The PLP was re-elected on the myth that its elite are the embodiment of the people. Take the emotion out of the equation, and it is clear that is not true.
I think Dr. Brown saw last year’s election as a mandate to rule without restriction.
I think the people saw it as a chance for the PLP, after 10 years in Government, to finally take the training wheels off and govern with moderation.
It is surprising how quickly the goodwill is being squandered by Dr. Brown’s Government … from unionised locals to international business people and from the disillusioned young to the swing voters who must now wonder what they did with their vote.
The Department of Tourism has announced that the tourism statistics will now only be released quarterly as part of the Minister’s luncheon. For the past eight months (wrapped around an election and amidst claims that the tourism numbers were being artificially boosted with business arrivals), they had been handed out monthly. The schedule and content of the numbers have bounced around significantly for years (both the PLP and the UBP played this game).
It goes without saying that this situation is ripe for abuse.
I reiterate my earlier calls for Bermuda Government statistics to be entirely neutral and free from both departmental and political influence. Numbers that have been massaged are not useful management tools, nor are they a fair scale for accountability.
Statistics must be gathered and analyzed by an entirely independent Stats team.
The Stats team releases its results to the public and to Government at the same time (reducing the urge to pick out the most flattering data and craft a message for public consumption).
The Stats team independently chooses how to present the data (reducing the spin surrounding statistics - by the time the public have had time to digest the numbers behind the hype, the news has moved on).
The Stats team chooses the release dates for statistics (reversing the trend of choosing good days or fancy lunches for burying bad news).
An independent watchdog should annually comment on the quality of the statistics and make binding recommendations for improvement.
All of the above are best practices already used in other countries.
I am pleased to see the following Motion in the Senate this afternoon:
(4) Motion to be moved by Senator M.H. Dunkley, notice of which was given on 12th March, 2008: “That the Senate recommends that a Joint Select Committee be established to oversee the introduction and implementation of Public Access to Information legislation in Bermuda.”
Notwithstanding the unexplained delay since March (while other Motions on the Agenda are only days old), this should be a no-brainer as both political parties are on the record as supporting PATI.
Right?
[Footnote: they rolled the motion over again. The last thing this Government wants is a PATI law, particularly one that has been arrived at by consensus.]
I am told that the UBP has begun posting the agendas for the Bermuda House of Assembly and for the Senate, as well as some draft legislation, at their website. Good job from them; this is a solid start.
The more information they post, the more insight people can gain into the machinations of our Government.
But this is not enough. The Bermuda Government needs to step up to the plate with:
Longer term legislative agendas (months ahead instead of this week).
Full Hansard (ie verbatim) transcripts of House and Senate.
Listing of Committees along with reports of their activities.
The list of parliamentary questions and Motions pending.
Statements of MPs.
Proper public consultation of draft legislation - this should normally occur BEFORE legislation gets tabled for the House.
For his charm and jetset lifestyle, many call Ewart Brown the Playboy Premier. The name fits for another reason. A reader points out that he’s probably the only Bermudian to have been the focus of an editorial in Playboy. It was back in 1969 when, as a campus radical, he was among the leaders of a student takeover of the Howard University administration building …