Since the Kremandala Show went on television two or three years ago, the show has become much bigger than it was when it was only on radio. Apart from the fact that television is a more powerful medium than radio, with television you can see who is saying what on the show. In the days of radio, if you didn’t know the individual panelists and their voices very well, sometimes it just sounded like four or five people going at each other. On radio, you could never be sure, to repeat, who was saying what.
On television, Bill Lindo became someone most Belizeans loved to hate, because he spoke for a ruling PUP which has become under more and more fire since the summer of 2004. The leadership of the ruling PUP have been pressuring Lindo to come off the show for quite a while. They feel that he hurts them more than he helps them. More than that, since the ruling faction of the PUP have become openly hostile to Partridge Street, it seems some of them believe that the Kremandala Show’s popularity will wane if William Arthur is ordered to remove himself.
The Kremandala Show began in 1994, shortly after the FM 2000 radio station, which is now the PUP’s Positive Vibes, began broadcasting under the apparent ownership of Gerald Garbutt, who had become Ralph Fonseca’s campaign manager. Mr. Garbutt, ironically enough, was given his radio licence by the UDP’s Hon. Dean Barrow. At that specific time in 1994, Dickie Bradley ruled the radio waves with his Wednesday night talk show and Sunday morning Radio Review. Where talk was concerned, Dickie Bradley was then the voice of KREM Radio. At the ceremonies on Coney Drive to launch FM 2000, however, Dickie was the master of ceremonies.
At that point, I came to the conclusion that I had to begin talking on KREM Radio, which I had pretty much ignored in the five years since its birth. I had to begin talking because I could no longer be sure where Richard Dickie was coming from and where he was going.
Bill Lindo was an original member of the show’s panel, if I remember correctly. During the years from 1996 to 2003, when the PUP won all the elections in sight, I don’t suppose Bill Lindo’s presence on the Kremandala Show was hurting Queen Street any. But I guess they must now be saying that he caused them to lose last year’s municipals.
Politicians are something else, especially when they are in trouble. Henry Gordon was on the Kremandala Show for several years leading up to the August 1998 general elections. Henry was a solid UDP. When the incumbent UDP got shelled in 1998, Henry quickly came off the show. My sense was that the UDP decision makers were blaming Henry’s presence on the show for their unpopularity. Now it’s the PUP’s turn to become jittery.
Personally, I preferred the show when it was just radio. And I miss Leroy Taegar a lot. On the purely intellectual level, the show was outasight when Leroy was the feature performer. But there’s no use crying over the past.
People come and people go, but the show has remained. A couple months ago, Cedric Flowers chaired the show and had Lois Young as a panelist. It was a super show. For several days, I thought maybe the time had come for Cedric to take over and for me to step aside. I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I enjoy the Kremandala Show watching and listening to it more than I do being on it.
There’s a formula involved. The issues are out there, of course, and what we have are trained people discussing them without the interruption of the telephone. The intensity just builds and builds, and the Belizean people like that. If the PUP think the Kremandala Show is going to die because they’re taking Lindo off, they should think again. Things will get even hotter on Tuesday nights. Trust me.
I suspect the UDP, for their part, helped push Ambrose Tillett off the Kremandala Show. Ambrose has denied this. He says it was a business decision, but you can’t blame me for thinking how I think. There’s a pattern with the major party politicians. They want to restrain independent thought. They want robots and zombies and flag wavers and slogan screamers. It’s party politics, baby. Don’t think. Just ride.
The people of Belize, however, have just been getting smarter and more sophisticated with every passing year. This whole elected Senate discussion and the third party debate are functions of the Belizean electorate’s intelligence and growing maturity.
Knowledge is always better than ignorance. Those who encourage ignorance, superstition and fanaticism are enemies of the Belizean people. That which makes man superior to the animals is the brain. Cogito, ergo sum.
Power to the people.