Vexed Bermoothes

The duty of leadership is misunderstood by most of today’s politicians.

They claim their role is not to “represent” but to “lead” and considerable resources are put into burnishing their image of what a leader should be.  Hence the entourages and trappings of power.

However elevating politicians, who are supposedly representatives of the people, to the status of leaders can only create problems particularly in a “small town” like Bermuda.

It is only human that eventually the dictate of “doing what the people want” gets replaced with “doing what I want.”   Decision making gets removed far from the people … it is unaccountable and opaque.  Interests diverge … and politicians are confused by who they answer to.  The entire populace or an inner clique?

For an example, look no further than Dr. Brown’s harping insistence on independence when the idea carries little favour amongst Bermudians.

Or, the recent approval by the Minister of the Environment, overriding a rejection by his Department and loud public protests, for the construction of a bar on one of Bermuda’s only remaining undeveloped beaches (with, according to local radio news, the promise for a permit to build a permanent structure after two years).

Just think of all the miscarriages that go on in the name of leadership.

Democracy entails that political parties lay out a platform of action, and allowing citizens to make their own choices and mistakes in the voting process.  The winning party is later judged on how they delivered.

But in Bermuda, the absurdo ad reductum of race is deployed to derail political debate … and so political platforms and accountability are left by the wayside.

Instead of elected representatives who are hired to do our bidding, we end up with “leaders” who think we serve them.

And we pay for it.