‘Mr Bean, you are dragging your country into the mud’

I’m sure everybody understands by now that Mr Marc Bean has gone ‘all in’ with his strategy to bring down the Government, and substitute his own leadership for that of Mr Craig Cannonier.

I, for one, am suspicious that he is making these allegations just as the One Bermuda Alliance has been able to point to some solid progress in its fight to repair the economic and social mess the island has been facing over the past few years.

With numbers looking up in job creation, company incorporations and government revenues, Bermuda has reasons for optimism.

But reasons for optimism are reasons for pessimism for Mr. Bean and his colleagues — the more effective we are, the less chance he has to make political gains against us.

If one thinks Bermuda is finally turning the corner, Mr. Bean may see it as his last chance to make inroads against the OBA.  

And so he has come up with this extraordinary campaign of the dirtiest kind of politics, to throw us into disarray and to damage our support among Bermudians. 

The questions about his motives and his campaign are clear to me — why did he wait for so long? Why didn’t he call the police? 

Why on earth would the Premier make the statements Mr. Bean claims he made to him, his principal political rival, who has made no secret of his hatred for the OBA?  

I don’t want to waste time making a list of questions — suffice it to say that Mr Bean’s story is fantastic. It defies belief.

I believe in Mr Cannonier.  He is our leader. If he says Mr Bean’s story is a lie, I accept that, not least because Mr Bean’s story doesn’t sound like the Craig Cannonier I know.

For me, the bottom line in this scandal has to be this — the OBA Government has the most important kind of work to do. 

People across the island are suffering severely because of the PLP’s maladministration and we need to deliver help to them as quickly as we can.

This is a really ugly and damaging sideshow that Mr Bean has cooked up.  

It is taking us away from the business we should be focused on.  It is undermining confidence, not just in the OBA and its leaders but in the political system in Bermuda.  People are bone-tired of this kind of nonsense.

I beg Mr Bean and his friends in the PLP hierarchy — stop doing this, or prove your unsubstantiated and serious allegations. You are dragging your party down into the mud.  

You are dragging your country down into the mud.  And in order to do it, you are driving a dagger into the heart of Bermuda and its efforts to get back on track economically and socially. 

Michael Dunkley, JP, MP, is the  Deputy Premier and member of the One Bermuda Alliance.