Barrow is bogus

By glenntillett@yahoo.com

Hon. Dean Barrow,
“These are the persons that have been elected, these are the persons that are completely autonomous. But there is a gold standard that the party has set for itself and that the party has set for all those that represent the party and it is the job of the party to hold the city councilors to that standard and it is a job that the party is capable of doing it, it is a job the party will do. I this afternoon want to charge this new Belize City Council with always coming clean with the media and with the public.” – March 9, 2006. Channel 7 News

“The responsibility that comes with the victory, of course, is for her Lordship and the members of the Belize City Council to discharge the trust that has been placed in them with absolutely rectitude. There can be malice towards no one and there must be justice to all.

“When there are personnel changes that perhaps will have to be made, please be fair to all involved and ensure that there is due process. We cannot operate on the basis of partisanship.” – March 9, 2006. Channel 5 News

The momentous occasion was the swearing in of a UDP Belize City Council and Mayor, the first after 16 years of PUP rule. It was the first major election victory under Barrow’s leadership of the United Democratic Party. It was a sunshiny day filled with promises of better yet to come.

Dean Barrow and all the UDP hierarchy were in prominent attendance. In fact in my memory’s eye I can still see UDP economic miracle maker former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Manuel Esquivel front and center of the line of newbies.

One of my people confessed to me the following day that she had voted for Zenaida whom she described as “a breath of fresh air” in our stale all-male political bastion.

Why do you all keep criticizing the woman, she demanded of me. If she was a man you wouldn’t treat her that way.

No sweetie, I told her half-jokingly, if she was a man it would be worse. The woman knows little and cares little that she knows little.

My dear friend had bought into the Zenaida/Barrow mystique. She could even say accountability, transparency and good governance without a hitch. And even though I tried several times to explain to her that it was transparency, accountability and meaningful participation for good governance she would only give me that fiercely pitying look she reserves for those who can’t help themselves before finding some place to say her mantra.

There is no doubt that the Musa administration had disenchanted my good friend but in the sense that she believed that others had gotten what she had not gotten. I couldn’t figure out why she thought that others had been given what she thought was her entitlement but I do know that in her disenchantment she bit deeply from the apple and drank the Kool-Aid.

By 2007 she would abruptly abort our discussions by simply stating that we (the PUP) were all thieves. Zenaida and Barrow would be Belize’s saviours. Together they would rule equality.

I am unsure when exactly it was that doubts about Zenaida and Barrow had started to seep into her consciousness but it certainly wasn’t until after the 2008 General Elections. I suspect it is after Manuel Esquivel not only refused to endorse Zenaida Moya in the run up to the UDP council convention, but instead questioned her integrity and competence. My dear friend, you see, respects Manuel. She never liked him, but she respects him.

These days the Golden Girl’s feet of clay are on full display, but Dean is no Nebuchadnezzar.  He has sat on the 2006-2008 audit inspection of the Belize City Council report for months, and has yet, as of this writing to say anything.

In my friend’s case they have been weighed in the scales and found wanting. The UDP castle is built among the sand.

Mene Tekel Upharsin. The handwriting is on the wall. Barrow is bogus.

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