Elections are about two weeks away, and in our effort to add to the pre-election debate, we intend to bring you a series of interviews with key politicians and political entities. Last week, we requested interviews with leaders of the two mass parties – the PUP and the UDP. We were able to interview UDP leader Dean Barrow on Tuesday, and we have arranged to interview PUP leader Said Musa next Wednesday.
We had questions on 10 topics for Barrow. Below we reproduce what he had to say on some nationally important matters, including oil, health, education, sports, the elected Senate and—in view of reports that the UDP had gotten a $6 million donation from an unnamed source—the question of campaign financing.
NATIONAL PRIORITIES
Amandala’s question:In order of their priority, list the top five national issues that in your view need to be addressed with the greatest of urgency?
Barrow’s response: #1. Restoring a sense of confidence in government by tackling in measurable ways the corruption issue, implementing a reform agenda.
#2. Trying to forge a new social partnership…and I put in one of our documents chartering a national transparency and consultation committee.
#3. Within 3 months of taking office I want to have this huge summit, if you will, among the social partners, government, labor, the churches, NGO organizations, Women’s Issues Network, a two-day summit at which we can discuss and try to come up with recommendations on all the overarching social issues.
#4. The national budget is normally presented about now. The new government will spend at least two weeks putting a Cabinet together, so you’re looking at the end of February before you even think about the budget… I am thinking that there is a provision in the law that allows us to go three or four months into the financial year before presenting a budget in exceptional circumstances, and I will deem these exceptional circumstances. And so then, we would have to be looking at a budget around June or July.
#5. Trying to get a handle almost immediately on what the hell we are going to do about the oil industry in this country. I don’t think anybody is satisfied with where it’s at. I don’t want it to sound as if though I am sending any signal of war against BNE, but I just know that that whole situation needs to be looked at and needs to be looked at urgently. Not just to make sure that we get all that we should get, but to make sure that we are properly set up, with maybe additional geologists, in terms of accountants in the Department of Petroleum, in terms of environmentalists so that we can be preparing for that aspect of the industry.
CRIME
Serious crimes, and particularly murders, have become more pervasive in Belize—especially the Belize District. 97 murders were recorded in 2007. In recent years, the rates of other serious crimes have also escalated. Many Belizeans don’t feel safe in their own homes. What are some of the core proposals to address the crime situation in Belize?
I think we really do have to increase the number of police officers. I really cannot understand why we don’t have a system that is geared towards moving along more speedily than your normal course prosecutions of those crimes that we consider particularly important – gun crimes, crimes of violence especially involving the use of firearms…I can’t understand why we don’t have a special court dedicated to dealing with people charged with those types of offenses so that we can move that process along.
This has been proposed already…We really need some kind of witness protection program so that we don’t end up with a situation where all our prosecutions falter because nobody wants to talk…
I really think though that as well, we will have to do better in terms of social intervention. I’ve already said I want to see – initially it will be a pilot project, and then I want to see it expanded countrywide – a program of targeted intervention for single mothers. We have to able to provide them with social assistance, skills training, with micro-financing if they want to start their own business, even if it is to bake Johnny cakes.
I think that that’s the key together with a school feeding program, because again in terms of kids who are coming from broken homes, which is already a problem, they are not eating properly, I don’t know how they could be concentrating on school when among the very many things that are there to distract them is the fact they are hungry…
We need in Belize City some version of the CYDP [Conscious Youth Development Program], some version of a program that will engage as well these young people on a day-to-day basis…
And also finally the DNA testing facility. I really think that if we can get that going, that will help a lot a lot with crime detection. Of course the whole idea is to stop the crimes from happening before they do but given that crime will be with us always, I think we will do better if we can set up that DNA testing facility and improve the scenes of crime unit…that unit should come under the national forensics program rather than under the police.
Health
There are continued concerns about health and healthcare in Belize. First is the matter of public education on serious health issues. Second is the affordability of quality healthcare – which could be obtained all across the public healthcare system with the proper kind of management. The Musa administration has initiated the NHI, and we know that financing that program is a great concern. In view of all this, what should be done so that Belizeans young and old, rich and poor, get proper healthcare, and live healthier, longer, more productive lives?
I have to say that I think the countrywide rollout of NHI at this time is a huge mistake. Except that it’s being done for political purposes, it is a noble idea and all of us are committed to NHI. That came out of the Health Reform Project which was conceived together with the international community, under the UDP, but the idea was for phased implementation…
I would much have preferred, like I said, to try and do a little better with the upgrading of KHMH and the regional hospitals, where you are always hearing no medicine is available, there is no equipment, to make sure that at least those as your first line of resistance are in good shape and then you do the NHI rollout far more gradually.
I think the first priority is to make KHMH, in particular, and the other regional hospitals to be far more responsive, to enable them to provide care to as many people as need to go there.
Education & Employment
In its pre-election campaign, the PUP is promising free laptops to upper primary school and high school students if it is re-elected to office. They’ve done the recently inaugurated free textbook program, and established several Centers for Employment Training. At the same time, however, our youth literacy and employment rates have declined. What would a UDP government do to improve the quality of education, the access people have to education (and the affordability of it), as well as improve the chances that young people once they get educated will be gainfully employed or that enterprising ones will be able to fulfill their dream of having their own business?
We have a plan and the details of this are best discussed with Patrick Faber, who I can tell you from now will be the Minister of Education, and I don’t think I’m really revealing any secret. But the idea is to try and reincorporate a kind of junior secondary stream so that there are special facilities that deal with first year and second year, with the idea being that thereafter they can be fed into the regular high schools to complete the four or five cycles, but doing this for the reason that there are some people who are not going to get beyond that junior secondary program, but that they should be given a chance of at least that. You’re going to try to work those facilities, so that people who have trouble getting into regular high schools can at least get into those…
We will expand the free tuition that we have started by way of paying now a subsidy for each high school student of $300. We checked, and that is the average of the additional fees that the schools charge… We are not going to do this for everybody…there are people whose parents can pay. It will be limited to those who would satisfy some form of means tests…those that qualify would then be helped on that basis….
I would like to see our curriculum reoriented a little bit to make sure that we are taking advantage of the so-called knowledge economy. Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, the Three R’s that I grew up with, are obviously still fine and dandy, but I don’t know how much in terms of curriculum development, the people in education have looked at where we are going as a society, recognizing that as there is a huge shift from agriculture to service, recognizing that the whole financial services and the offshore sector is a big thing and whether we are doing anything to try and ensure that we do special training along those lines.
Apart from that, in terms of your basic jobs, clearly all sorts of things will happen with tourism. I know because people are through this door everyday. They want to bring Sands Hotel out to San Pedro, or Ritz-Carlton. There’s a guy who is doing a South Beach at the south end of San Pedro, as opposed to where everyone is out at North Ambergris Caye. I had some Irish people come in here connected to the BNE people who want to do a huge thing on the Placencia Peninsula…
The cruise sector again, Luke with all starts and stops and ifs and buts, backed by Michael Ashcroft, I am sure will complete the cruise port here at the Belize City port… A big port where the ships can berth right along is going to happen. Again more jobs, more money… Tourism more than oil is the thing that I think will really lift us up…
I see a tremendous expansion in employment as a result of what I see as the explosion in tourism. But with respect to people in schools being able to have some kind of employment opportunity when they are done, I think that things are going to be far better. I would actually want to see us create a tourism training school.
Sports
Belize has plenty of very talented athletes, but sadly there has not been enough development of sports as a discipline. Likewise, the development of proper sporting infrastructure has not occurred and promised investments in key sporting facilities, such as the Marion Jones Sports Complex, have not come to fruition. What is your vision for the development of sports in Belize, and how do you propose that this vision could be achieved?
With sports, the idea clearly is trying to have a properly run Sports Council, try and spend some money to try and improve the infrastructure. It’s really a shame that there’s this huge controversy, this huge black eye where Belize will play some international home game in Guatemala…but I would certainly like to see a revival of the Belize Games. When we had the Belize Games it was a huge success. I think it left a vacuum when for some reason or the other it was allowed to go by the wayside.
So I think to summarize, the investment in sports infrastructure, the return of the Belize Games, and trying to ensure that the Sports Council is a properly functioning body geared and designed towards efficiency and proper promotion…
The Belize-Guatemala issue
The OAS has recommended that the Belize-Guatemala issue be submitted to international court or arbitration. If the UDP were to be elected to power, how would you propose to address the matter? Should we even be entertaining the thought of going to court?
I think we should. I don’t see any other way of solving it…There is a risk [in going to court]. I’m a lawyer and any lawyer will tell you, there is always litigation risk, but our case is as strong as it can possibly be. In this day and age no international court will do anything to reverse the practical sovereignty of this nation. I think the fear is perhaps that they will do some little gesture that will constitute some kind of nod on the direction of Guatemala and now, how offensive or how unsatisfactory that nod will be to us, is really the question, but in terms of the core issue – land territory intact – our being confirmed as a sovereign state, separate, independent, apart, there really can be no comeback against that sort of thing.
I would think that we would have to be conscious, as I said, that maybe in the area of exclusive economic zone, some kind of economic sharing over mineral rights, or rights on the seabed, that it is there that the court is likely to try and a little something in terms of assuaging the Guatemalans, but even there I think the freedom of movement of the court in that regard will be very limited because while I am no international lawyer, top international lawyers that have already been consulted insist that Belize has a watertight case.
Oil
Oil has been a big issue in Belize, particularly since a commercial find was declared in Spanish Lookout. Is there anything wrong with the way the current administration has been handling the oil issue, and how would a UDP Government ensure that Belizeans get their fair share of the oil wealth?
We’ve already said the 10% equity that Government has in the producing oil field, we think that that should be administered by a national oil company in which shares should be given, sold actually, but at a nominal value to regular Belizeans. There is a fear that if you do that, all the rich men will buy it up…but it’s surely not beyond our resources to create a vehicle that will ensure that only the small Belizeans become the shareholders in this company, but I dearly want to see that happen …
A convenient way is to say any worker on the Social Security roll will qualify. But I would want to end up with a situation where at the end of the year, dividends are paid, people have a few hundred dollars in their pocket, a few thousand dollars in their pocket, because they are shareholders in this national oil company that owns a 10% equity in the oil producing fields, and that will own, by law, by virtue of the PSA’s [Production Sharing Agreements], this 10% stake in every single oil field that’s found. I would want to up it to 20% by way of getting in on the front end…I would want to say everybody who gets a PSA, that is not a Belizean company, must offer 10% of its shareholdings to Belizeans, and again to Belizeans not above a certain bracket, or we say the national oil company will purchase 10% in every single oil prospecting company.
Infrastructure/Transport
Many of the roads and streets across the country, and most noticeably in the commercial capital, are in deplorable condition. Potholes, patchy asphalt jobs, and warped surfaces, as well as bad lighting and the lack of proper road reflectors and signage, are a recipe of death and disaster. Drainage continues to be a serious concern, and traffic stagnation and bottlenecks, especially during the rush hour, frustrate many. How can the problems related to infrastructure and transport be solved?
In terms of the kind of huge infusion of capital that would be necessary to make an immediate dent, it has to come from abroad. Local resources just won’t cut it…
The thing is that the most obvious source of funding for that type of thing is the World Bank, but the present Government had cut off the World Bank, or the World Bank had cut off the current government, because once your debt profile becomes in their view unsustainable, they won’t lend you any money…
We now want to go back to the World Bank for two reasons: we want the oversight, but more importantly we want the concessionary funds that are available and third, you can’t go back to the commercial markets because you [the Musa administration] screwed up there, and you had to restructure and nobody is looking to lend you any more money there…
I am satisfied and I’ve talked to some of the people who were in government, some of the senior technocrats there, and they are satisfied that monies are going to be available, in particular from the World Bank, so that will be the principal source of financing for the type of infrastructure you are talking about… Another source, Taiwan, we’ve indicated diplomatically that we would like to stay with Taiwan.
Elected Senate
The ruling Musa administration has proposed further reforms to the Senate, beyond the reforms of 2001. First, do you think that the reforms of 2001 have benefited us? Second, what further reforms to the Senate do you think are necessary for it to better suit its purpose?
What we have said is that we would like to increase the number of social partner senators to four. There are now three – the churches, labor, business. We want the NGO community to have one. That will make four, leave the Opposition with three…with the social partners that will be seven, and leave the Government with six. So together the social partners and the Opposition will outnumber the Government.
We will then legislate to put beyond any doubt that the kinds of powers that were exercised by the Senate Select Committee, when Godwin Hulse chaired the inquiry with the Social Security, are, in fact, powers inherent to the Senate. There was great legal controversy about whether the law that they were looking at hadn’t fallen into disuse—make that absolutely clear so that the Senate does have the power to do that when it chooses, when it sees the need, but in addition to that sort of overarching inquiry, set up a committee system in the Senate that would have the Senate consider in the same way as the House is supposed to consider – although it doesn’t do so – legislation that comes to the Senate but go beyond that…
What we want is that the areas that are given to the House Standing Committees…are areas that are also given to Senate Standing Committees, but that the standing committees be armed with powers additional to merely asking the public to come and make representations on bills that are before it, that they be armed with oversight powers, that will enable them to say generally…every two months or every three months we need for the Minister and the CEO to appear and give account of what they are doing…and to hold the hearings in public, so that you have radio broadcasts and to periodically issue their reports on how they see the Government, the executive proceeding with respect to the subject areas that are under the particular committees.
You were telling your supporters to vote “no” or ignore the Senate Referendum Ballot on election day. The Elections and Boundaries Department has said that they will take a tally of the “yes” and “no” votes and see which are more, to determine the outcome of the referendum. If people who don’t want the elected Senate ignore the ballot, those who do want it and vote saying so will have more influence on the outcome. Are you still asking your supporters to ignore the referendum ballot?
Now what we are doing is to tell all our people, we usually have sample ballots at the desk, to mark the referendum with a big NO. So in effect, we are now deciding to go one way, which is, vote NO.
Why are you still against the elected Senate?
Because I think it will achieve more harm than good. I start from the position that Senate reform ought to achieve the objective that I think my proposals will achieve, objectives being objectives of oversight, objectives of exercising this restraint where the Government is concerned, objectives of shining the light of scrutiny on the executive and on the lower house, not to be on par with the lower house, not to have similar legislative powers as the lower house, no. That’s the American system… I don’t see it working.
I also think one of the purposes of the Senate is for you to have good people who don’t want to get into the hurly burly of elected politics, but who can serve in Cabinet or who can serve by way of being a watchdog. If you have an elected Senate, to a large extent you are going to mirror what happens in the lower house. Mass parties are running, the parties that win the general elections will win the senate.
I think our proposals have the merit of simplicity… Make sure that the ruling party is outnumbered in the Senate and give the Senate the power to perform the oversight function.
If the outcome of the referendum is “yes” and the UDP rises to power, would you and your party be committed to the elected Senate?
Unless [the outcome] is a huge “yes,” I will have to ignore it. Because it’s a referendum that we said from the start is illegitimate. It’s a referendum that even the proponents of an elected Senate, a major proponent of which initially was Godwin Hulse, who I see has now said, he is not with the elected Senate again, he is with the empowered senate. You put this thing on election day without giving anybody a chance to properly debate it, it is illegitimate. So my position is, I will ignore it. The referendum doesn’t bind anyone, legally. It’s a moral bit of leverage but the way it is being done I wouldn’t even consider that it has any moral force.
Campaign Financing
We are in the heart of the campaign season for the 2008 General Elections. How do you feel about the disclosure of campaign financing? Do you think any new laws should be instituted, and what should such new laws seek to achieve? Is the UDP prepared to disclose campaign financing details?
I still am to figure out how we can make those laws effective. What’s going to stop the big boys from giving the money under the table, how on earth could they ever be caught? But that’s just to signal that there’ll be loads of practical difficulties in trying to make campaign reform laws effective…
We have not received any donation over $200,000. But I will concede that we are receiving more donations than we have ever had. In other words, everybody is coming with their widow’s mite. Everybody is coming with their 20,000, and their 40,000, and their 50,000, and their 5,000, and it’s adding up. And while we are not talking about $5 million or $4 million, I think, I’m not ever sure that we’re going to be talking in the end about $3 million, but it is enough in circumstances that we feel that people are with us, and that they are going to vote for us in any case, and where therefore all the monies that you need is really to do the basics, to pay the campaigners, to buy the fuel, and hire the taxis, and put up the signs, and pay—which is really the most expensive one—pay for advertising.
In other words, we don’t need any money to pay people to vote for us on election day, because it appears to us that they are going to vote for us in spades in any event.
Let me focus for a minute especially on advertising, because that’s where the PUP normally runs away. You can’t match them and you don’t even want to match them, but you have enough to have our message out there.
…We were focusing our efforts on radio and television. We advertised on KREM Radio and Television…I believe that we will do for this weekend and next weekend in the Reporter and the Amandala…It is nothing to do with personal difficulties that exist with the publisher [why there haven’t been any ads in the newspaper], it is not to say, we will boycott Amandala, it’s just a matter of the money, but we certainly will for the last two weeks and that will include, of course, the Tuesday edition [of Amandala].