But the Southside masses, who went overwhelmingly UDP in the March 1 elections which installed Zenaida as Belize City?s first lady Mayor, have been dying to capture a PUP scapegoat for years now, and they think they finally have ?a live one.? The Southside masses would like for the worst possible things to happen to David, and as quickly as possible. The masses grow even more infuriated when they consider that, if the PUP had been re-elected to City Hall for a sixth straight term of office, the matter of the hundreds of thousands would no doubt have been swept under the proverbial rug.
It makes the masses? anger worse when they find out that David is Ralph?s younger brother. It is a most unfortunate, even frightening situation, for David Fonseca, who never provoked the kind of roots hostility that Ralph has. David is in an absolute crisis position because of the fact that he separated from his wife of many years to live with a much younger lover a year or two ago. In the streets, everyone is assuming that the younger lover created greater expenses. The assumption is not 100 percent fair, but the young lover business is politics, big time politics. Perception is more important than reality.
Because he witnessed the UDP?s descent from CitCo landslide victory in 1977 to general elections crash in 1979, UDP Leader, Hon. Dean Barrow, has worked hard to control the euphoria of his party since the UDP swept all nine City Councils and Town Boards on March 1. But it will become more and more difficult to restrain the righteous energy of the UDP faithful. They have suffered for long, sixteen years out of City Hall and eight years out of Belmopan. Their mood is not forgiving. It is vengeful.
The PUP is a party which does not sacrifice any of its own, no matter the pressure. As you have seen, for example, the PUP have essentially protected Glenn Godfrey for two years instead of throwing him to the wolves from 2004. (This has cost them politically, we think.) And their first move with David has been to defend him. He has been installed as PUP secretary general at Independence Hall, replacing Jose ?Chetin? Encalada.
We have pointed out to our readers at various times in the past that over the last quarter century, the ties between the two major parties have grown substantially. These ties are mostly at the level of the lawyers, who are members of the upper financial echelon in Belize. Okay, so now we start with the fact that the PUP has a history of protecting its own, no matter what. Then we move to the fact that PUP lawyers and UDP lawyers are the closest of friends. After that, you can see that the tendency will be for David Fonseca to become the plaything of lawyers, instead of becoming the victim of a UDP lynch mob. That?s figuratively speaking; of course.
A scenario in which David Fonseca continues to receive special treatment, will hurt both the PUP and the UDP. The PUP will be even more detested by the poor working masses who formed their base 56 years ago, and the UDP will disappoint the many voters who voted for them on March 1 because they wanted blood. March 1 voters wanted the head of a PUP, no matter whose. As fate would have it, the very first head that was offered, is that of David Fonseca.
No man should have to suffer the kind of misery David Fonseca is experiencing since last week, but life can be a cruel thing. Sometimes you fall exactly as far as you have climbed. Our question is this ? how come nobody, including this newspaper, asked any questions when David declined to run for a third term? There was no explanation offered by the PUP. David had been the most dutiful and humble of Mayors. He attended every single event worthy of the name. The PUP should be made to tell us now, better late than never, why they decided that David should not defend the mayoralty.
In his place, the PUP ran Marshall Nunez, a man they had passed over more than once for the position of Mayor. The people of Belize City knew of the occasions on which Marshall had been passed over. They must have asked themselves the question, even if the media did not, why remove David now and why give us Marshall now, why precisely now. These are four hundred thousand dollar questions. In the words of Smokey Joe ? study the man and learn his ways.