11/19/2008 10:25:00 AM Horton was asked to resign from his day job But doing so would have made him too financially beholden to Premier Ewart Brown
Stuart Hayward
After my column on the firing of Education Minister Randolph Horton, I received several phone calls offering theories on reasons behind the dismissal. A synthesis of the most plausible left me with this:
Mr. Horton was asked, during a Cabinet meeting, to resign, not from the Ministerial post but rather from his "day job" at the Fairmont Southampton Princess Hotel. The reason given for requesting the resignation was that he needed to devote more time to the Education portfolio. In other words, he was being asked to become a full time Minister. This seems quite reasonable, particularly as the reform seems to be tangling in its own threads.
The twist, though comes from this speculation about the Premier's motives and methods. If Mr. Horton quit his day job to become a full time Minister, while his income might not suffer, his dependency on the Premier for his livelihood would take a huge leap. Dr. Brown could choose at any time to remove Mr. Horton from Cabinet thus reducing him to having only his salary as an MP. With that kind of power at his whim, the Premier would be able to keep Mr. Horton in check and reduce any inclination Randy might have to mount a challenge for the leadership.
If, the story goes, Mr. Horton had accepted the request to give up his day job and devote full time to his Ministerial post, the Premier would then be justified in asking the same of two other part-timers, Ministers Butler and Cox, who also happen to be potential contenders for the leadership. In giving up their day jobs, they too would become more beholden to Dr. Brown for their financial well-being and stability.
This is one drawback for every PLP MP (and every UBP MP, should that party win the government), of increased parliamentary salaries. The bigger the salary, the more that will be at stake from keeping or losing the job, and the more carrot and stick the party leader will wield.
He/she would have a potentially tighter grasp on the political fortunes of every candidate and could command greater loyalty.
This is the stuff of which dictators are made. They increase the power they have over those around them until everyone is reduced to puppet-on-a-string behaviour: do what the leader wishes, or else. In most countries where dictators evolve, such power comes at the muzzle of a gun.
A long list of examples
In "another world" that is Bermuda, the dominant source of power is economics, and Dr. Brown has shown his craftiness at collecting and distributing millions of dollars of the public's money in ways that secure loyalty, stifle dissent, or punish any who don't toe the line.
There's a long list of examples of the use/abuse of this kind of power. They range from the government's role in redistributing ownership of the Bermuda Cement Company; the not-yet-fully-disclosed funds doled out for ferries, airline services, golf tournaments, entertainers and so on; the various gifts, also not fully disclosed, to "charity" events such as the one Dr. Brown's son hosted at the Playboy Club; the largess of hosting a tourism "conference" in China, student dinners in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., and "official receptions" wherever a high-level local delegation touches down; no-bid contracts; selected temporary dumpster permits that become permanent; to the bloated severance payments given to people fired for 'disloyalty', essentially paying them not to talk.
This history of "unethical but not illegal" (at least not yet proven so) conduct lends credence to the suspicions.
And that's Dr. Brown's self-made dilemma: how can he possibly do what needs to be done - accelerating education reform, for example - without being perceived as self-serving? It's the bed he has made, however, and now he and his party have it to lie in.
Posted: Thursday, November 20, 2008
Comment by:
A young black bermudian man
I find it sad that we have to now construct conspiracy theories to attack Dr.Brown...Point and fact...Randy Horton is a nice guy but obviously the Premier does not confuse that with an efficient worker...Randy was given an opportunity to remove himself graciously...I think it would have been better to do that...He did not do that...he chose to leave with acrimony and rancor...I think Randy is a wonderful person..but friendship must be subordinate to performance...Dr.Brown is known for one thing, getting things done...if indeed that is his reputation why do we suspect that things will be different with the most important thing in the entire country...education of black children to overcome the legacy of slavery and discrimination and to give them a fighting chance to compete globally...you can waste time listening to the likes of stewart hayward but what has he gotten done...Let Ewart do his thing we all benefit from his focus and energy...Blacks and mostly whites...he is your Premier and has your best interest in mind...certainly if he is willing to risk a freindship over principle that says a lot about his characater...now all of this supernatural divination by stewart and the blair witch projects is not helpful...stay focused on the prize...justice....for all!
Posted: Thursday, November 20, 2008
Comment by:
Bob Legere
Thank you
great article
Posted: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Comment by:
josseline Philip
Warm greetings Sir,
It feels SO GREAT, so fresh to read the real thing- a journalist writing and thinking as an independent entity, not simply flattering establishment. I think this piece of focused writing is an example for many columnists who often only think of "fame" and mostly profit, even if they never get neither nor but still do not hesitate to lay so low in front of power hoping for crumbs.
Please, sir keep giving us all, around the world, the power to feel we are powerful with you by giving us facts, the conclusions of a " free man". Everyone wants a small piece of Mr. Obama but do they ever think of his achievement as a true example of promotion for human rights within the walls of our own houses, regions, counties, countries, Islands. I LOVE BERMUDA because Bermuda holds my lost love and also, I know for fact that people in Bermuda live with fear, the fear of losing their jobs EVERY DAY. It can often be a case of comply or die.
Now, unfortunately, your straightforwardness today could put you in great danger of losing what you love and what you've built. It happened to me , in Bermuda, in my own “nice and famous PLP "loving" family”.
Politicians around the world seem to "steal" power under false pretence, promising the world to people who so strongly believe in them and dare to dream . They then show their real face as soon as they get the power they had only been pursuing for self-motivated purposes ignoring the real needs of the people who elected them and which was never their priority. Further, some would just promote their family members and /or friends to comfort their position. They have no scruples using funds trusted into their hands for the good of the public to deal with very personal matters but they would always have the ordinary person, those they think gullible and uneducated- because they never bothered to really educate them in the first place, they would always try to have us believe that " It is all for the "Greater Good of All". Does that remind you of Voldemort in “ J. K. Rowling’s “ Harry Potter” . It is a work of fiction but the madness of wrongly using power stays within the heart of any unscrupulous human, particularly when there can’t be any safeguard and when people who would stand up to oppose them are simply casually cast away with a “flick of a magical wand”, deprived of their deserved livelihood, deprived of the food sometimes they put in their children’s mouth and quickly forgotten by who they wanted to fight for, ignoring their personal comfort- the real leaders of the people.
Good, good , good for you, I admire you today for standing tall and try protect what you believe in but just watch your back because you might just become “disposable material and a mere ant among other ants in the eyes of the greedy self -motivated, power-seeker men and /or women who divide to rule, use insult , attack people’s characters to avoid discussing their genuine ideas . Isn’t it sad for example to think that a teacher is just a “gym “teacher. Who ever saw the kind of the “gym teachers on the field monitoring healthy and energetic teenager to say the least would for ever RESPECT a “gym” teacher . Ordinary people like us cannot tell any bankers they are simply “bankers” who could not foresee the massive mess with the financial crisis and potential slump they’ve silently allowed to spread around . It is so much easier to insult a “gym teacher”. How ever, ever, ever can people feel that such derogatory slander can ever be justified? I do not always agree with teachers but contrary to bankers and financiers, teachers have been very positively loud for years about the changes needed towards the improvement in educating young people. How many teachers lost their teaching positions only for voicing their due concerns? How many people faced no other option but work in other fields?
The very best to you
Josseline Philip
Posted: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Comment by:
josseline Philip
Hello,
This is SO GREAT to read the real thing, a journalist writing and thinking as an independent entity, not simply flattering establishment.
