Audio: Minister Perinchief’s Maiden Speech

[Updated] Newly appointed Progressive Labour Party Senator and Minister of National Security Ryan Robinson Perinchief delivered his maiden speech in the Senate yesterday [July 15], marking his first formal contribution since being appointed to the Senate.

Update 6.10pm: The Minister’s full statement follows below:

Thank you, Madam President.

It is with great honor that I rise in this chamber for the first time in my capacity as Senator and Minister of National Security to deliver my maiden speech. I am humbled by the task before me, grateful for the trust bestowed, and mindful of the sacrifices borne by those who came before me. First, I thank God. I also thank the Premier for the confidence placed in me with this appointment, my colleagues, and the community, for the welcome I’ve received.

As I begin to chart this path, I must say that while I have a deep understanding that this role is an immense privilege and responsibility, I also know that I chose Public Service. I decided to come home immediately after my Masters studies at Oxford to be immersed in community and my presence today is the result of intense preparation, intention, guidance and support. Therefore, to many, my decision to answer the call to public service is no surprise.

A few years ago, I stood in the Supreme Court as a newly qualified barrister and attorney. I looked around at the state of Bermudian society, and it was evident to me that our community needed more people with integrity and courage who are willing to advocate for our people and represent their needs. I had a strong view that our island needed leaders to help uplift, empower and restore the moral and social fabric of our society.

In that moment, I asked myself where I am best placed to assist in this charge, and I stated that regardless of whether I was in a court of law wearing a wig, and advocating, or representing elsewhere, that my commitment to advocacy, integrity and the cause of justice and nation building would remain unwavering.

Madam President, It is with that same spirit that I sit among colleagues in this upper house today, where I aim to articulate a vision on the subject of answering the call of public service, the mission of transformative leadership and nation-building.

Madam President, I was raised by dedicated public servants who lived out its pressures, its disappointments, and its potential in front of me long before I came to understand exactly what it would eventually ask of me. My mother is a dedicated member of the Seventh-Day Advntist Church, serving as president of the Bermuda Conference’s Community Services. My father and his siblings were dedicated public servants, on both front line politics as well as within the civil service itself. I woke up on Sunday mornings to the smell of codfish and potatoes, and the sound of politics in action: shouting, debating, and most importantly, civic interest. My family would passionately debate the latest issues and policy proposals during the early days of the Progressive Labour Party’s rise to power, when an entire country was riding the wave of hope for a new Bermuda – a moment in time that we still remember today as a date with destiny. A milestone in our democratic history that gave Bermuda an alternative government for the first time since the party system began. My upbringing shaped how I view our island home – a place with much potential, yet to be fully realized, but one I have always strived to serve as a great duty to the community. It is a duty and a privilege I do not take lightly.

That is why the bulk of my professional journey has been shaped by my dedication to the goals of community, nation building, and empowerment. I chose to study law to gain an understanding of how societies work – I wanted to understand how systems and rules shaped the way of our world. Feeling helpless as a student overseas, watching my island change while being physically removed from Bermuda, I developed and founded the Future Leaders Programme to provide a platform to inspire the next generation to challenge the status quo and empower them with the skills they need to take charge of their futures as leaders. Following law, my decision to study public policy at the Blavatnik School of Government was to obtain a broader perspective on good governance and brainstorm solutions to some of the most pressing challenges facing society among dedicated leaders from around the world.

Madam President,

I recognize that the call I have answered is one that has been answered by many before me. Though I must admit that I did not anticipate it would come this early. I am 29 years old – and soon, I will enter my 30th year. As I think about a life in 30 years in pursuit of public service and community empowerment, I know that I stand on the shoulders of many giants – servant-leaders who demonstrate that age is not a measure of one’s ability to lead; rather, true political competence requires a synergy of character, vision, and the capacity to deliver tangible results for the people. These are the qualities that serve as the foundation of public trust and for transformative leadership. Let us look to our friends down south; the Honorable Mia Mottley was just 26 years old when she entered politics upon her appointment to the Senate of Barbados. Madam President, nearly 35 years later, The Honorable Mia Mottley’s legacy is still being defined – as Barbados’s first female leader, a transformative figure with global influence. I reflect on some of my childhood heroes – Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. At age 29, Malcolm X – a man who only a few years earlier had been serving a prison sentence – was one of the most compelling voices of a nation, commanding platforms and audiences that few would ever have predicted, based on where he started.

Martin Luther King Jr was already a prominent civil rights leader at age 29, he published his first book, negotiated with President Eisenhower, and laid the groundwork for his famous “I Have a Dream “speech.

Madam President: Both Malcolm and Martin would only live another ten years, both being assassinated at age 39. How thankful we should be, Madam President, that they did not waste any time in answering the call to lead, or take seriously the advice of those who suggested that they should wait a little longer for their turn, or that maybe they were too young.

Madam President: When we consider the impact of these transformative leaders, in just a few short years of youthful, energetic activism and public service, it should remind us that our precious time on this spaceship called Earth must not be taken for granted. And when we consider the events shaping our world today and the pace of change, it is clear that right here in Bermuda we too can afford to waste no time nor take the future for granted when presented with the opportunity to lead.

Madam President,

Dr. E.F Gordon was 29 when he arrived in Bermuda from Trinidad. Not much longer, he established the Bermuda Workers Association and cemented his place as the founding father of trade unionism. Our own son of the soil, Dr. Pauulu Kamarakafego, was around 29 when he established the Bermuda Committee for Universal Adult Suffrage in 1961. His campaign succeeded by the age of 31 in the form of the Parliamentary Election Act – one man, one vote. On the back of his own activism, Pauulu was elected to Parliament himself at age 35. Dame Jennifer Smith ran for Parliament at 24, and became a Senator at 33.

So Madam President, when we suggest that our young people must wait their turn, let us remember that if the portraits of those inspirational figures in history were taken at the time when they made the courageous decisions that got them there, they too would have been on the receiving end of what some have said in relation to me, and my appointment – as “just a bie” which evokes skepticism in some, and hope in others.

Madam President,

Having paid homage to some examples of the transformative leaders, who just happen to be young, I now wish to speak briefly to the specific responsibilities I have been entrusted with. National Security is a portfolio that touches the lives of everyone in Bermuda daily because it is about providing the foundational safety needed to maintain a stable society.

Every Bermudian deserves to enjoy the peace of mind that comes as a result of this foundation of safety and stability, so that as a people we can move on to reach our fullest potential. In that same spirit of restoring and building up our community, I look forward to collaborating with the dedicated servants within my Ministry to advance this mission of ensuring a safer Bermuda.

Madam President, National Security is not a portfolio that should be making headlines daily. It is a Ministry full of quiet heroes – who show up every day and whose work in many ways requires them to be laser focused – trained to shut out the noise, publicity, and commentary that would otherwise lower the standard of their work. When our first responders arrive at an accident scene in our most critical moments, we rely on their dedication, diligence, ethics and competence to see the job through – regardless of who is watching, who is commenting, or who doubts their ability.

Madam President: If we are doing our jobs right, there is often no headline at all: the reward is simply that nothing happens, and our community enjoys the comfort and peace that creates a stable foundation for prosperity. It is a Ministry about reliability, not visibility. Fittingly, as the first portfolio I have been entrusted with, I take my cue from our firemen and women, our police and customs officers, and our regiment – without pomp, without showboating, and without regard for the politics of personality that too often shape our decisions around leadership, and our perceptions of what this island truly needs to prosper. In that regard, Madam President, I intend to be judged on my integrity and the stability and security that flows from that work of my Ministry, in the same tone as the brave public officers that I am accountable for within my remit as Minister of National Security.

Madam President,

Although National Security is about core safety and stability, I recognize that there are also many in our community today who suffer, who feel hopeless. In the political context, we are at a crossroads in our Bermudian society, and in this current moment in political time – amidst constitutional reform, amidst leadership change, and a geo-political environment that has shifted drastically within our lifetime – many of us are seeking a vision and direction for the future of our island home.

Madam President,

As an academic who is passionate about self-determination and nation-building, during my studies, I took a keen interest in the challenge of development faced by small island nation states. I questioned how we can compete and grow in a world of much larger countries with far greater resources. I read Lee Kuan Yew’s book, “From Third World to First,” where he details his leadership as he transitioned Singapore from an impoverished colonial outpost to a thriving and wealthy nation renowned for its sophistication, stability, and world-class civil service.

I reflect on the qualities necessary to achieve this type of transition: pragmatism – not being so tied to a particular ideology that it comes at the expense of what works; meritocracy – ensuring persons entrusted with leadership are capable and qualified, and that opportunity is afforded based on talent and hard work regardless of where you come from; fairness and social cohesion – a society where citizens’ basic needs are met with dignity, while still being expected to work, save, and build their own path toward self-reliance.

Madam President, these are some of the decision points and features of nation-building – the process of constructing a national consciousness and identity, building unity and cohesion across a country’s population, and fostering a shared sense of belonging and purpose through intentionality and good governance.

Madam President,

I may have been charged with specific political priorities which I intend to fulfill, but my answer to the call of public service is with the goal of nation-building in mind.

I have spent my career learning where power comes from and how it is used – how laws and systems can work for the people’s interest, and sometimes against it – and how some of our institutions have struggled to modernise quickly enough to keep the people they serve at their centre, rather than as an afterthought to their own procedures – where everyday people in our communities are the driver of change and not the victims of it.

Madam President,

I want to end by speaking directly to our young people. Frantz Fanon tells us that, “Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.” I firmly believe that the mission of our generation is to transform and shape Bermuda into a stable and unified nation – a community of people who are bound together with shared purpose and not division or inequality. A Bermuda where we do not have entirely different conceptions of reality or shared cultural heritage depending on racial background, financial status, or what school we went to. A Bermuda where the symptoms of wealth disparity and oppression in the forms of poverty, dispossession, trauma, and violence are closed chapters of our past. One where young people are willingly embraced and welcomed to the table when they come home from overseas and seek to bring their talent, experience and global insights with them – and have a place to call home and build upon when they come. A Bermuda where we do not simply trust that things will work out at the individual level, but where our community relentlessly works to make this a reality as part of a greater whole and with a unified vision. A Bermuda where the opportunity to be a transformative leader is not determined by the politics of personality but where we all have the opportunity to prove ourselves through sound leadership and the force of character.

So wherever you are, whether in International Business, or tourism, overseas or at home, or finding your place in Bermuda today, you do not need permission. This is your home. Let us begin the work of building our national consciousness and shaping a vision for a Bermuda that we want to see. Madam President, Rebuilding and restoring our fractured communities will require a fundamental rethink across multiple sectors of society, but I thank all those in our society who are doing this work, answering the call to public service in pursuit of that process of nation-building and empowerment with the greatest pride and honor.

#BermudaPolitics

Category: All, News, Politics