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Remember the excitement and hope of November, 1998?

It's a long time ago already.

But this week in the United States kind of reminds you of Bermuda a decade ago - the end of a tired old political era and the beginning of a new one, filled with energy and expectation.

But it also reminds you how quickly that excitement faded, and how little time it took for a new government to become the "establishment", and for cynicism and cronyism to set in, along with the assorted other ills that governments are prone to as they age.

Of course, many of the important accomplishments of that November 1998 election victory are with us still.

The most important, by a long shot, is the sense of belonging that it gave to so many Bermudians - the sense that white rule had finally ended.

Many people (myself included) sometimes objected to this over-simplification: Black voters had long outnumbered white voters, and were free to vote how they wished.

This was true. But the practical reality was that Bermuda's black population never got the government it voted for: Almost every white Bermudian voted for the UBP which, combined with a small minority of black UBP supporters, was enough for the UBP to win every time.

Those days ended in November 1998, and it has proved a lasting legacy. Bermudians will happily vote for a white man or woman, but it is hard to imagine they will ever again elect a political party that is viewed as white.

The UBP's failure to regain power in the last two elections, despite overwhelming evidence of PLP incompetence and unethical behaviour, is almost certainly a reflection of this lasting change.

November 1998 ushered in other changes, of course.

Most notably, there was a great inrush of new people, not only as premiers and cabinet ministers, but as members of government boards and commissions, as advisors and consultants.

New experiences

This caused plenty of problems, of course, as the Government sorted through who was competent and who was not.

But it brought a lot of new experiences to the table, and a lot of fresh ideas too.

After 10 years, however, it seems increasingly clear that - despite new faces, and new ideas - some fundamental things remain fundamentally unchanged.

Wealth is still unfairly distributed.

Bermudians still complain of lack of opportunity.

Housing is still over-priced and hard to find.

Tourism is still struggling.

We are still over-dependent on international business.

Our public education system is still a mess.

Our races still remain divided and suspicious of each other.

Our political system remains acrimonious and divisive - often deliberately and wantonly so, as the last election demonstrated.

Government is still too often guilty of secrecy and cronyism and pettiness.

It often seems that one set of insiders has replaced another, and one type of favouritism simply substituted for favouritism of a different type.

Bermuda has moved forward, dramatically, over the last 10 years. It can never be the same after November, 1998.

Yet in many ways it has stood still, unable to make significant inroads in many of the country's most serious issues.

In 1998, we saw the exciting and inspirational transfer of power in Bermuda.

Ten years later, as we watch the exciting and we, inspirational transfer of power in the United States, it is a good reminder that we in Bermuda need to aim higher and try harder to create the fair, open, honest and inclusive government we dreamed of then.

This week, Nelson Mandela sent a letter of congratulations to Barack Obama. "Your victory has demonstrated," he wrote, "that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place."

Great things have been accomplished. But we, too, have dreams of a better place.[[In-content Ad]]

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