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Dear Sir:

It must be clear to many people that Dr. Brown's spin troops are working hard on his behalf.

Glenn Jones, his press secretary, says the documents on the BHC scandal should be called "stolen" documents, not "leaked" documents. Julian Hall mentions a conspiracy among Police and KKK connections.

Last Friday, June 22, another spin trooper sallied forth in your newspaper to deflect public attention from the real issue.

LaVerne Furbert bemoaned the fact that the BHC scandal was called a scandal, and then defended the conduct of PLP government ministers as unethical but not illegal, at least in the eyes of a public prosecutor.

It is a shame we have so many people working so hard to mislead and confuse ordinary Bermudians from seeing the hard realities of the BHC scandal.

The real story is not the leak of police information but the findings of their investigation as reported by the Mid-Ocean News and a widely circulated e-mail by the so-called "Son of the Soil."

As a country, we cannot allow these reports of widespread corruption at the highest levels of our government to pass unanswered or be lost in spin. Our reputation internationally and our own standards of governance hang in the balance.

That is why, given the spin and the stakes in play, we believe our call for a Royal Commission into the BHC affair is the right one. A Royal Commission offers the best chance for an objective, impartial, open and comprehensive investigation into the BHC affair, as well as recommendations to strengthen our Criminal Code to account for the kind of behaviour we read about some weeks ago.

Focus on the issue

A Royal Commission would give us an opportunity to shore up principles of good governance - principles such as accountability, integrity and ethics that are being eroded by the scandal and the aggressive hunt for whoever leaked the documents.

Right now, Dr. Brown and his spinners are working hard to rouse the loyalties of their supporters to get away from the realities of the situation.

We urge people to remain focused on what really matters. This scandal is about what is acceptable and what is not in the conduct of our public officials. It doesn't matter so much how the BHC information came into the public realm as what that information revealed, especially since nothing has been denied by anyone - though the opportunity to do so is there every day.

How we deal with the situation could say much about Bermuda. If we properly investigate the situation and adopt recommendations that strengthen our system of governance then we can turn this national negative into a positive, and trust in government can be restored.

Until then, people like LaVerne Furbert will continue to try to spin people's attention away from what really matters: Which is the need for members of the governing party to account for their behaviour.

I urge everyone to hold steady and think of what is best for Bermuda. A Royal Commission offers a formal opportunity to do the right thing. Surely, the country comes first.

Jon Brunson, JP, MP

Acting Leader,

United Bermuda Party[[In-content Ad]]

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