Vexed Bermoothes

Parliament is about to reconvene after their long summer recess (yes, it’s November).

No information has been made public about the parliamentary agenda for the coming months.

Oh, except the backbenchers want a pay increase.

That tells you what the priorities are, doesn’t it?

Ya ya, I know the Throne Speech is coming up.  But that normally ends up being a piece of populist puffery and self-justification rather than a real agenda.  If we are to have a professional, accountable, and transparent legislature, Bermudians need a lot more information about its plans and its delivery.

Bermuda’s been waiting for the promised Public Access to Information law for many years now.  Meanwhile, the list of countries moving ahead with such transparency laws grows and grows.

Barbados has now tabled a draft Freedom of Information law [pdf] that is going through consultation in public town meetings.

The humour in the situation is some local media allege that, after many official promises and delays, big chunks of the draft law were copied from Wikipedia and the World Bank website only days before it was released!  This rush has raised many local suspicions about the law and its possible omissions.

But, I suppose we should count ourselves so lucky.  A cynic might opine that Bermuda would pay an overseas consultant $500,000 to do the cutting and pasting, then exempt most Government activities from the law, finally hold an impromptu public consultation by invite only 5 minutes before the House vote, and then blame the UBP for its inadequacies.

Barack Obama, with his message of change and hope, has won the US election with a thundering mandate.  It is a remarkable day.

Like Bermuda, America wants new faces and a determination to face the issues rather than wallow in past battles and fears.  Put simply, the electorate is tired of the same old shit.

Obama’s “New Dawn” victory speech is well worth reading in its entirety:

Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House - a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn - I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

Some messages in there for Bermuda too.

Dr. Brown was fast off the mark, releasing a press statement to the Caribbean congratulating the President-elect:

There are moments in the annals of history that give us pause. Tonight we have experienced such a moment. We are elated and humbled by an occurrence that many of us never believed we would see in our lifetime.

A generation (or two) newer to world, I did not doubt that I would see a person of colour assume that highest office.  But it’s not about race, it’s about belief that a candidate can make a positive change for the country no matter their hue.  And the reasonable expectation that the victory is not a mandate for payback but a license to govern with transparency, accountability, and equity.

Randy Horton has been sacked as Minister of Education. That lends some credence to the rumours that he was engaged in a leadership challenge.

El James will become the 7th (!) Minister of Education in the past 10 years, in an area of Government that is troubled and turbulent, and so terribly important.  I wish him luck.

I wish that this didn’t smell so much like a political clearing of the decks rather than a real managerial shakeup.  In the past two years, many of the PLP old guard have been shuffled out in favor of Ewartistas.

It is also unfortunate that the move comes on the same day that Minister James (with his old Environment hat on) stated that he would fight for Southlands to become a park.  So that little saga continues.

Finally, PLP party whip and HOTT owner Glenn Blakeney will become the new Minister of Sports, Environment, and the Combined Imposition.

On November 15, the PLP will “celebrate ten successful years in government” at a big swishy banquet.

I suppose that’s an accurate description if you define success as “being in government” as opposed to “creating success for Bermuda”.

So, have your hopes and dreams of 1998 for “change in governance” come true?  Do you think Bermuda is better now as a result of PLP initiatives?

Are you getting value for the extra HALF BILLION DOLLARS a year that they are spending?  This is not a wealth transfer from the rich to the poor.  It’s a transfer from future Bermudians to this generation.

The PLP insiders often complain about the swirl of innuendo and distrust directed towards them by a broad cross section of the community.

But it’s little wonder this happens when so often their opaque actions breed a lack of trust.  Example at hand:

The proposed hotel development at Southlands was shoved down the community’s throat with a rushed SDO, that was only retracted in the face of strong local protest.  Then, a sweet land swap was arranged with the developers to give them a large tract at Morgan’s Point instead.  At the time, the Premier announced that Government intended to protect Southlands as a park.  In good faith, the move to protect Warwick’s open space received much local support.

But since then, nothing.

In fact, to the contrary, environmental groups are now complaining that a significant piece of Southlands will be zoned R1 - for intensive development - in the new Draft Bermuda Plan 2008, and little information about the Morgan’s Point land swap has been made public.

Inconsistent actions like this tell the community that we cannot trust the words of our leaders.

Dr. Brown continues his media sweep in the UK, this time looking ill-at-ease on CNBC.  It’s interesting how he continues to be marketed as “Prime Minister”.

When questioned about how Bermuda will respond to attacks from onshore tax and regulatory authorities, the Premier responded:

“I believe that if we have a President Obama, he will be sensitive to Bermuda, sensitive to the fact that international business is to a certain extent the lifeblood of Bermuda, and that we can find ways that are mutually beneficial.”

To which the announcer quipped:

“Umm, ok, that sounds like the stock PR answer.”

It’s not clear to me what the Premier hopes to achieve with these media appearances beside raising his personal profile.  If the point is to position Bermuda in the face of the current economic and regulatory challenges, my view is that he is not clearly communicating Bermuda’s business value proposition.

Here are some substantive talking points from ABIR and the Ministry of Finance.

Many local schools are out for mid-term break this week, leading to the sudden evaporation of Bermuda’s morning rush hour.

Traffic has been very light all week.  Poof!

I think Bermuda doesn’t have a traffic congestion problem.  It has a school transportation problem.

The Premier was filling space on late night BBC World radio broadcasts tonight, sounding tired and very “off-message”.

Pondering Bermuda’s economic uncertainties in the face of declining international business and tourism revenues, the announcer Roger Hearing asked the Premier what Bermuda intended to do.  His answer:

“We haven’t been able to come up with another pillar for our economy.”

The Premier then grabbed a straw and firmly announced that Bermuda was looking at developing gaming as a new industry, including internet gambling.

Now, that’s a new twist to the story, as it extends the scope of previous announcements that Bermuda was considering allowing hotel casinos or starting a national lottery.

I think that messing with internet gambling would be profoundly misguided for Bermuda.

I am sure that a number of Bermuda executives fell off their seats, as a move towards internet gambling could taint Bermuda’s reputation as a serious business jurisdiction.

Moreover, the US is taking a hard line on offshore jurisdictions that offer online gambling to Americans, to the extent of arresting executives of foreign companies engaged in the business and shutting down financial and other channels to countries that host their operations.  Very treacherous ground to tread on.

The announcer moved on to ask if Bermuda might come a-begging to the UK for financial help, or if Bermuda might find itself embroiled in the international drugs trade.  As I said, the interview was way w-a-y “off message”.

I guess you can add the BBC to the vast media conspiracy of the Combined Opposition.

As a symbol of hope and change, Barack Obama has a lot of support in Bermuda (which is craving for a good measure of both from our local politicians).

But we must remember that candidate Obama is potentially a major threat to Bermuda.

Bermuda has made huge investments to meet international standards for regulation and transparency in its business sector, and those efforts have been recognised by entities such as the OCED and the IMF.

However, in the US, which is searching for both scapegoats and revenue, Senator Obama has co-sponsored a Bill titled the ‘Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act’ introduced by Senator Carl Levin.

As well as providing a statutory framework to define ‘offshore secrecy jurisdictions’, the Bill includes a list of 34 countries which will be automatically considered as tax havens and targeted by the US Government.

That list includes most of the “business” Caribbean islands, as well as Bermuda.

Just remember that.