Tourism developer/investor David Gegg decided last week to counter-attack the residents of the West Landivar area of Belize City who are fighting to prevent him from building a large boat marina cum gas station in their fairly wealthy neighborhood. Mr. Gegg chose to design a newspaper advertisement which focused on lashing out at the Perdomo family, who are some of the West Landivar neighborhood leaders.
Mr. Gegg took his ad to the business section of Amandala on Thursday, and was told that he would have to take public, personal responsibility for the material, which he agreed to do. When I saw the ad while I was browsing through newspaper copy, this process had already taken place.
Personally, I was quite uncomfortable with the ad, because the Perdomo family, especially Rommel and Perla Perdomo, have become regular customers of our radio and television stations. In addition, when the war broke out earlier this year between Lord Ashcroft and Kremandala, the Traveller’s business expressed their support for us in a tangible way.
The volatility of the Gegg marina issue is increased substantially by the fact that Rommel Perdomo’s uncle, Carlos, is the Opposition UDP candidate for the Caribbean Shores constituency, wherein West Landivar is located. Where the Gegg marina issue ends, and party politics begins, is absolutely impossible to determine.
I assumed on Thursday that Mr. Gegg’s ad would also be appearing in THE REPORTER, which is the newspaper often preferred by Belize’s business sector. But on Friday morning, I noticed that it did not. Strange, I thought. I was sure that such an ad would have appeared in the Thursday issue of the ruling PUP’s BELIZE TIMES. When I checked Saturday morning, I was very surprised to find that it had not.
Listening to the Gegg marina debate on television news and talk shows, radio news and talk shows, and reading of it in the newspapers, I have come to the conclusion that there are powerful people in the PUP government who are supporting the Gegg project. Mr. Gegg does not appear to have had a problem getting the necessary permits from the relevant Ministries, most notably the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.
This is a large project. There is a lot of money involved here. My sense was that even the UDP Belize City Council, which has the final say where approval of the project is concerned, had wobbled. One assumed that there was money changing hands somewhere, if you understand what I mean.
I don’t know, however, that there has ever been a neighborhood uprising in Belize City as angry and as organized as the West Landivar offensive against the David Gegg marina project. I was startled by the vehemence, for example, of my long time friend, Agnes Martinez Arana, a high school teacher who is the widow of the late Greg Arana. How about Mrs. Chubby Reneau? West Landivar was up in arms, and there were observers who thought that Perla Perdomo was the ringleader.
This is an issue which is causing devastating damage to the PUP Caribbean Shores incumbent, Health Minister Jose Coye. Joe’s fight to retain the confidence of the West Landivar residents has been impressive for its measured maturity. But this is a losing fight for Jose Coye, patently. At last week’s West Landivar neighborhood meeting, both Jose Coye and Carlos Perdomo sat at the head table, along with two or three others. The residents in the audience were firing rhetorical missiles at Coye, who had to be defending what his government’s Ministry of Natural Resources had done, while his challenger, Perdomo, was able to come off as a mediator or as a calming presence.
I think Jose Coye may now be staring Armageddon in the face. He has survived some dramatic political crises, such as the G-7 challenge in August 2004 and the UHS/Belize Bank issue three months ago, without getting burned. He has run with the hares, and chased with the hounds. Coye has had his cake, and he has eaten it too. In this cold world of political expediency and tightrope walking, Joe Coye is second only to Godfrey Smith in any analysis of success in the last three Cabinet years.
In Belize City, I think Smith’s Pickstock may be a hot area in the upcoming general elections. But Caribbean Shores, perhaps the wealthiest constituency of the ten in the old capital, will likely be the hottest of them all. The catalyst is West Landivar. The issue is the David Gegg marina.
Power to the people.