At the time when UBAD came on the scene in February of 1969, there was a strong and organized Marxist-Leninist move being made in British Honduras. Marxism-Leninism is also referred to as “doctrinaire socialism” or “scientific socialism,” and its enemies call it communism. Cuba is a Marxist-Leninist state, to give you a regional example.
There were people at the leadership level amongst the Marxist-Leninists in Belize who quickly diagnosed UBAD as a problem. The problem was that while UBAD had the explosive mass appeal in the then capital and major population center, UBAD was not organized; UBAD was not doctrinaire; UBAD was not scientific; UBAD was not communist.
As the years have gone by, decades in fact, and we see that we are unable to achieve fundamental changes in the educational system, to speak specifically, I realize that the Marxist-Leninists had and have a very good point. UBAD was an obstacle in the way of the doctrinaire socialists, and probably helped to prevent the Marxist-Leninists from taking power. And UBAD itself did not get the job done in terms of changing the educational system. That’s a fact.
In defence of UBAD, and in explanation of its incredible appeal between 1969 and 1972, I would say that UBAD was indigenous and it was authentic. It was also spontaneous, which was good and bad at the same time. UBAD was sincere and UBAD was nationalistic. Nevertheless, UBAD was naïve.
Personally, as UBAD president I was afraid of communism in Belize. I respected and admired Fidel a ton, but I believed that his system would not tolerate dissent, and I saw myself as a dissenter. During the period when UBAD and the doctrinaire socialists were in a formal alliance, from October 1969 to January 1970, there was one UBAD officer who left UBAD to join the socialists. There were a couple other people who were at UBAD leadership in the very beginning, who ended up closer to the socialists than to us. No one from the socialists ever came over to UBAD. But I don’t want to pursue this line. I’m just setting the table.
In the third paragraph, I referred to the educational system. That’s where I want to go. I want to say, and I’ve never said it like this publicly before, that the main problem in Belize is the fact that there’s a privileged class which is not paying what it should pay for the quality education their children are receiving, because government subsidies are in place for the quality schools, while there are not enough funds to educate children properly who are at the base of the socio-economic pyramid.
My family benefited from the unfair system of education, because my siblings and I were all raised as Roman Catholics and went to the quality Catholic schools. You can’t ask people to give up privileges they have gotten so used to that take these privileges as their due. This is why the present system remains so firmly in place. Amongst the bourgeoisie and the oligarchy, no one wants to discuss the subject, because they are getting away with murder.
In the United States, the Catholic schools are amongst the very best. But they are not subsidized by the government, as is the case in Belize. American parents have to pay top dollar to send their children to the Catholic schools, which are quality institutions.
How the situation became the way it is in Belize, is something that the educated element in Belize prefer not to discuss. In a way, one has to understand their predicament. Everybody’s trying to get their children into the Catholic schools, which are the best in Belize, so no one wants to incur the wrath of the Roman clerics.
It is not only the Roman schools which benefit inordinately from the system. There are schools run by Christian denominations here which are not really worthy of the name “schools,” but the fact of the matter is that under the church-state system we have here, these unacceptable schools are being funded by Belizean taxpayers.
The educational system is a mess, where value for money and efficiency are concerned. Everybody can see the waste, and the thousands and thousands of our children who are being condemned to lives of oppression and crime, almost from their birth.
The Marxist-Leninists can rightfully point their finger at me and say, he has nobody to blame but him and his UBAD organization. The doctrinaire socialists, I agree, would have had a better educational system in place. But it is said that it is useless to cry over spilt milk. Personally, I feel that what we did in UBAD was the best we could. Again, it is said that ignorance is no excuse. I ain’t crying and I ain’t lying.
The fact of the matter is that intelligent parents are shirking their responsibility as Belizean citizens to look at the overall efficiency of the educational system, because they place the welfare of their children above all else. We understand this. Most of us parents are like this. But if we continue being selfish, then it’s no use crying about the crime and the gangs and the violence. The crime and the gangs and the violence are the price we pay for the elitist educational system some of us have been enjoying for some decades now. Straight.