ONLY IN BELIZE

Contributed

Separation of powers is the political doctrine under which the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches of government are kept distinctly separate so as to prevent abuse of power.  For two years, Belizeans have watched as our country has undergone a dangerously rapid transformation from a peaceful, democratic state to one that now has all semblance of a full blown tyranny.

Where else in the entire world do we see a Head of State appoint his brother to the highest judicial seat in the land?  Yes, Mr. Denys Barrow may be very qualified for the job, but when the highest member of the legislature appoints his brother to the highest level of the judiciary, the local and international community starts to question the direction that Belize is heading.

The whole concept of separation of powers is to ensure that there is not a concentration of power by any one branch, and furthermore it is supposed to provide each branch with weapons to fight off encroachment by the other two branches.

But not here!  Not in Belize.   Our executive and judicial branches of government have come under an unprecedented attack from a leader that has seemingly gone totally mad.   Our first taste of dictatorship came when our Head of State abandoned his elected post on the “legislature” and took on the “executive” roll of the DPP, and announced that former Prime Minister Said Musa would be arrested on trumped-up political charges.  Prior to Barrow’s pronouncement the public had not heard a peep from the supposedly “independent” office of the DPP.

Then before we knew it, he struck again.   Just a few weeks ago the Mayor of Belize City condemned our Head of State when she declared on National TV that Dean Barrow was anatomically challenged for putting a political hit on her while she was in the delivery room.  The Mayor made it emphatically clear that our Head of State was once again interfering in the executive branch of government since he appeared to know before the DPP that the Mayor was going to be criminally charged.

In both cases, the air reeked of an elected official gone distastefully astray, over-stepping his boundaries with total disregard for the doctrine of separation of powers.

But unfortunately for us, it did not end there.  Public confidence would once again be shattered when following closely behind Dean was a bemused Sedi Elrington, who has taken misguided aim at our judiciary, even publicly declaring his personal choice for the next Chief Justice of Belize.

The whole point of having an independent judiciary is not to have the judge’s feel like their jobs are at stake, stupid!!!  Why enter into electoral politics in a democratic nation if you have no intention of observing the sanctity and sovereignty of all branches of our government?  Barrow and Elrington might have also found it amusing when they gave a Supreme Court Justice a six month contract, but don’t get them wrong for one minute – these two trained attorneys are well aware that such a move is a direct threat to our Justices, who are supposed to have security of tenure so as to ensure freedom from political interference.

This most recent attack on the current Chief Justice and other Justices has been the UDP’s biggest blunder in their term in office.  As US Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist once said, the judiciary’s independence is “one of the crown jewels of our system of government”.

But trained attorneys such as Sedi Elrington and Dean Barrow don’t seem to share the same view.  It has now become abundantly clear that Dean and Sedi are content in sailing our treasured democracy into the sunset; and as Crazy Glue himself has said, these characters will land us right on top of the reef.

Even if we were to somehow forget that Dean Barrow paid his ex-wife millions in taxpayer dollars, we cannot forgive him for destroying Belize’s democracy.  Even if we were to turn a blind eye to the fact that Dean Barrow hand-picked his son to collect a handsome paycheck from BTL, we cannot forgive him for this erosion of public confidence.

Belizeans have had enough of Barrow’s poor decisions.  We have had enough of him making his wife and son wealthy people, while the rest of us suffer.   The people of Belize have had enough of his destructive policies and demand of him that he resigns immediately from his executive post, his legislative post, and his judicial post!    To Dean Barrow we say: this is not BTL!  It’s not all about you!!!!!!

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