UDP Politics as Usual…

Finally…

Thank you Jesus…Praise the good Lord! The Bar Association has just woken up from a long Rip van Winkle like slumber and has come out swinging at Mr. Barrow and his administration. The release from the Association is big, make no mistake about that. It should have come a long time ago, that’s for sure, but it’s big. In barely veiled condemnation and criticism couched in only the thinnest veneer of respect and diplomacy, the Bar Association accuses Mr. Barrow of railroading the Chief Justice out of office for no good reason. It goes farther to accuse Mr. Barrow of interfering in the Judiciary which should be a sacrosanct body. And it goes even farther to let Mr. Barrow know that he is not trusted so it demands input in any new appointments to the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals. I told you this was big. This is a body of about 150 learned attorneys telling Mr. Barrow that he is behaving like a damned dictator and trying to manipulate the Judiciary and they just won’t stand for it anymore. They are telling Mr. Barrow that his judgment and integrity are suspect and they don’t believe he can do the right thing in the matter of appointments to the bench. This isn’t big, this is huge. This is the leader of the nation being accused of improper and unethical behavior. This is the leader of the nation being accused of tampering in the Judiciary. Big props go out to the Bar Association for finally coming out in a matter which threatens the very democracy of the nation.

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A typical response…

Mr. Barrow’s response to the accusations by the Bar Association was typical…typical of the dictator and despot, that is. He refutes the allegations (of course) – see, everybody is wrong and Mr. Barrow is a man of sterling character who would never do anything unseemly, claims the release. According to the release, despite what everybody in the nation is seeing and seeing, Mr. Barrow would never do something as dastardly as attempt to force the Chief Justice off the Bench. What a crock. Oh, and as to the request for input in further appointments to the Bench, Mr. Barrow’s release politely tells the Bar Association to take a long walk off a short pier. When the Unions wanted input in how the government managed the money from the Venezuela Grant, Mr. Barrow told them to step off – we don’t need you. Now Mr. Barrow is telling the Bar Association the same thing. I seem to remember Mr. Barrow’s manifesto promising consultations with all pertinent bodies on every issue critical to the nation. Like most of Mr. Barrow’s promises, those commitments have not come to fruition. To borrow a phrase from a colleague in the media, Mr. Barrow is bogus. We knew it a long time ago. The word is now spreading.

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Subverting the Judiciary…

It is positively uncanny the way Mr. Barrow can so eloquently speak out of both sides of his mouth. If leadership ability was all about saying one thing eloquently and doing the other thing without losing a step or feeling a twinge of remorse, Mr. Barrow would stand a great chance of being elected leader in perpetuity. Hell, what am I saying? The way things are going, Mr. Barrow may very well come up with a new law making him leader in perpetuity. This CJ move is a very bad thing. This has gone way past the point of Belizeans believing that the PM is interfering in the Judiciary. His actions, especially as regard Chief Justice Conteh, are so blatant and arrogant that they defy rationality. Mr. Barrow does not have a hope in hell of convincing Belizeans that he is serious about crime when his very actions say the opposite. The Prime Minister should take notice that bodies which are traditionally silent are blasting his actions in the open. That’s a very bad sign for Mr. Barrow. The leader of the nation should back off his obvious vendetta against the Chief Justice. He should leave the Judiciary alone.

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ReconDev & Ramon…

The driver of UDP Area Representative and Chairman of ReconDev Ramon Witz has been arrested for his part in a corrupt land deal. The arrest comes days after a group calling itself the People’s Committee broke the news about the sale of a parcel of land to a Chinese man in Belmopan. That land wasn’t owned by ReconDev and wasn’t theirs to sell, but an opportunity to hustle was seen and taken. Money changed hands and apparently when this Chinese businessman went to register this piece of land he found out the bad news. The Police situation report released to the public fingers only this small fry, the driver of the UDP Area Representative. But the release by the People’s Committee points out that the bogus sale from ReconDev was done with the proper documents with the proper seal which can’t be accessed by just anybody. The People’s Committee calls names including Mr. Witz and other big UDP players and claims that this is far from the first land hustle involving the crew. I hear that the driver who is in Police custody is talking and he is also calling some big names. The next few days will be very, very interesting for Mr. Witz and his UDP colleagues in Cayo South.

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The connection…

It was a matter of interest for the people in Cayo South when Mr. Ramon Witz was passed over in the recent Cabinet reshuffle/expansion. See, Mr. Witz had already been promised the portfolios of NEMO and Transportation. His people in ReconDev had already received their letters informing them that they would be transferred to NEMO. It was a done deal. Then suddenly, things changed overnight – Ramon was slapped back and Melvin was brought in from political asylum. Ramon wasn’t talking and everybody else seemed mum. Now with this latest ReconDev revelation people are speculating that Mr. Barrow got wind of the corruption in that body and knew it was going to break. That sounds eminently reasonable. What Mr. Barrow now needs to do is launch an immediate investigation into the affairs of ReconDev and his Cayo South Area Representative to find out the depth and breadth of that corruption. How much do you want to bet that this will never happen? Mr. Barrow has shown an amazing penchant for ignoring the stench of corruption within his own administration.

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Mr. NEMO…

As I write this, a weather system is forming and we are reminded of the warnings that this will be a very active hurricane season. That’s not good news for Belizeans, especially since a great aspect of their security and safety in the event of a natural disaster rests in the hands of Mr. NEMO Melvin Hulse. Our Prime Minister claims that there could be no safer hands than those of Mr. NEMO, but leaves out the part where he had already decided to wrest NEMO from those same hands and then was forced to change his decision at the last moment. This is no time to be playing political games, Mr. Barrow. The reality is that even the hint of heavy rains is revealing very serious inadequacies in our roads and bridges and emergency preparations. Mr. NEMO has no idea how to deal with his portfolio, a fact which is patently evident. Almost a month into the hurricane season, and Mr. NEMO is still absent. In the event of a serious disaster, the damage and loss of human life could be catastrophic. Any such loss will be the fault of Mr. Barrow who seems unable to make good decisions and is instead to gloss over serious flaws and incompetence with a light coat of makeup.

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This oil thing…

Mr. Barrow needs to come down out of his ivory tower and get the sense that the oil thing isn’t going away anytime soon. Last reports from US Government sources indicate that close to 60,000 barrels of oil are spewing out into the Gulf of Mexico every day. The best efforts of the billionaire oil company BP combined with US Government resources have resulted in the containment of less than half of that daily. More than 1/3 of the federal fishing area in the Gulf is out of business. Analysts and the brightest minds are having difficulties encompassing the scope of the disaster and where it will all end. More than 25 companies in Belize most of them stakeholders in the environment and tourism, have come out to call for a moratorium on offshore drilling in Belize. The situation seems clear enough – a spill a fraction of the size of the Gulf of Mexico spill would destroy our fishing and our tourism and our reef. We simply cannot take that chance, not for all the money in the world. Mr. Barrow seems insistent on protecting the development agenda and the big money, but he needs to start thinking about the nation. We won’t allow offshore drilling, Mr. Prime Minister – you don’t want to buck us on this one.

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