Hypocrite of the Week

For perhaps the first time ever, the decision on who would be knighted this issue’s Hypocrite of the Week was unanimous. It can be no other than Saint Sedi Elrington, Belize’s bumbling Minister of Foreign Affairs whose famous episodes of foot in mouth syndrome have left him in hot water more often than not.

On Monday at the opening of the Supreme Court, Saint Sedi practically prostrated himself before the Judiciary, apologizing for his blatant attack last year when he launched a very personal attack on the bench. Back then, he spoke about the poor performance and high pay of the Judiciary, accusing the bench of dispensing injustice. It was a performance from the Attorney-General of the country which was seen as an attempt to undermine the Judiciary and hey, looking at what has come since from the AG and from his boss the PM, there is little doubt that it was.

Anyway, so there was the apology. But our learned saint is making a feeble attempt to take the Belizean people for fools. He deliberately chose as public a forum as he could, the opening of the Supreme Court, to play on the sympathies of the public though a calculated act of humility. So basically we are supposed to forgive Saint Sedi all his transgressions because he was a big man and apologized to the bench.

But Belizeans aren’t buying it. Sedi’s little poco-tiempo act on Monday does not take away from his monumental diplomatic and governmental gaffe. Far from it! Belizeans have seen through this attempt at distraction. No one is hurrying to forgive Sedi for his nonsensical declaration that the border between Belize and Guatemala is artificial and does not exist. Sedi was the one who pushed going to the ICJ to settle the Belize/Guatemala dispute not so long ago, saying that it was either go to the ICJ or pick up a gun and go to war. Now Sedi has done a complete backtrack. There will be no relaxing Sedi until he does the honourable thing and resigns. You can take that to the bank.

So for pretending to be a Saint when he is anything but, and for attempting to distract Belizeans from the real issue with an ‘artificial’ apology, Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sedi Elrington is our Hypocrite of the Week.

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