OBA hit back at Roban over term limits

Mr Walter Roban, the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, has complained that Minister Michael Fahy has shown “blatant disregard…towards the electorate” by moving ahead with abolishing Term Limit Policy instead of merely suspending it for two years while a thorough review was carried out.

The One Bermuda Alliance rejects his comments as aimless politicking…criticism for nothing more than criticism’s sake.  As Minister Fahy said yesterday, a thorough review was carried out.  Among the findings were these:

1. Term Limit Policy has absolutely nothing to do with protecting the jobs of Bermudians.  Work permit policy does that.

2. Abolition of the Term Limit Policy will have no negative effect on the right of Bermudians to fill jobs for which they are qualified before non-Bermudians are considered.  That policy has been in place for many years, and is effective.

The Progressive Labour Party has known this since they put the Term Limit Policy in place.  The only effect the Policy has is to make non-Bermudians feel uncomfortable.

We believe the reason they went ahead with putting the Policy in place was to pander to the xenophobic views of those Bermudians who would like Bermuda to be foreigner-free.

The One Bermuda Alliance has no patience with xenophobia.  Bermuda needs non-Bermudians to operate successfully.  They have built this community alongside Bermudians, and will continue to work here, welcomed and appreciated by those Bermudians who understand how this island functions.

What is the point of having a policy in place, even a policy under suspension, which does nothing except make non-Bermudians feel unwelcome?

This Island remains in a serious state as a result of the excesses of the former government.  The elimination of the Term Limit Policy is, we hope, a big step forward in remedying that state. It represents the red carpet approach, making it clear that Bermuda is open for the business we so desperately need.

The One Bermuda Alliance would remind Mr Roban, on the subject of disregard for the electorate, that he and his colleagues in the former Government allowed suffering among our population on a scale never experienced before, because they failed to act on matters like Term Limit Policy, which they knew well was resented mightily by the international business population, which shrunk because of it.