The behaviour of the ruling faction of the People’s United Party since Hon. Said Musa resigned as Leader last month and announced a special PUP leadership convention for Sunday, March 30, has been aggressive, even desperate.
In the first place, we should seek to identify this “ruling faction.” It includes the extended Price family (which has incorporated several other families through marriage), the Fonseca family, the Musa family, the Florencio Marin family, and the two Espat brothers – Mike and Luke. The rest are mostly spear carriers.
While we were tempted in the first paragraph to describe recent PUP ruling faction behaviour as “extraordinary,” when you place that behaviour in the context of all such behaviour since G-7 on August 12, 2004, then that behaviour is not extraordinary. It is following a pattern of aggression and desperation which first became evident on Monday morning, August 16, 2004, when Florencio Marin, Sr., essentially overthrew Johnny Briceño as Leader of the PUP’s Northern Caucus and issued a bellicose press release condemning G-7 and supporting Prime Minister Musa and Finance Minister Ralph Fonseca.
PUP ruling faction behaviour since the February 7 general elections has now focused on replacing Said Musa, who is now disgraced, with Francis Fonseca, who barely won his Freetown seat last month, but who is the best option available to the ruling faction. Actually, to be grammatically correct, we should say the “better” option instead of “best,” since the only other option is the rookie, Florencio, Jr.
There are two factors explaining the desperation with which the PUP ruling faction sought to install Francis. One is the fear of Supreme Court indictments against Said, Ralph, Amalia and others. The second is that the ruling faction need to cover up the mystery and protect the secrecy of the BNE oil company.
The PUP ruling faction was so determined to install Francis Fonseca as PUP Leader that they committed the public sin of instructing the party newspaper and the party radio station to campaign all-out for Francis, and condemn the other two leadership candidates – Johnny Briceño and Mark Espat.
Johnny Briceño, perforce, decided to fold on Thursday, March 13, and Mark Espat cashed in his chips on Monday, March 17. The young men had no choice. The PUP was not about the people of Belize any more, and their ruling faction did not care who came to such a conclusion. The stakes were much higher than they had ever been – freedom from jail, on the one hand, and hundreds of oil millions, on the other.
The role of the billionaire British banker, Lord Michael Ashcroft, since February 7 has been intriguing. The immediate move by the Lord’s Belizean surrogate, PUP Deputy Leader, Godfrey Smith, to assume management of the Francis Fonseca leadership campaign, indicated Ashcroft approval of the Francis option. At the same time, the relationship between the Lord and Johnny Briceño had been considered a cosy one ever since their joint SMART initiative in 2005. Ashcroft’s influence on Briceño, it appears, may have helped to block any Johnny Briceño–Mark Espat coalition.
Francis ends up with a free ride to the top, the bottom line being his absolute, robotic allegiance to Ralph and Said, not to mention the Emeritus. It is difficult to conceive of Francis’ PUP making the important adjustments necessary to restore popular confidence in Queen Street. He is being installed specifically to defend the indicted and to protect BNE.
If the people of Belize seriously wish to benefit from the discovery and pumping of crude oil in this territory, then they must first realize that Belize Natural Energy (BNE) is an entity which has to be owned, at least in part, by those who would be like the Saudi royal family in Belize.
The oil has been pumping for two full years now, and the people of Belize still do not have something to which they can point and say – the oil built this. Nothing. It is amazing.
The ruling faction of the PUP is behaving as though they do not have to win any more elections. They are behaving as though all they have to do is protect what they have already banked, here and abroad, while counting the new money from the US$112 a barrel oil.
The implications of this for the people of Belize, if things are as they seem, are pretty clear. The people of Belize will not be represented for the next five years by Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition – the PUP. The PUP’s priority is not the people of Belize. The people of Belize have served their purpose for 57 years. The people are no longer needed. On Sunday, March 30, the royal family of Belize will have a coronation. All PUP hail Francis I, and long live the new king of Queen Street.
– On Partridge, all power to the people. Amandla. Ngawethu.