The people of Belize have cut the UDP Dean Barrow government a lot of slack, so to speak, because the specter of Musa/Fonseca has remained alive in the leadership ranks of the Opposition People’s United Party. What the people know is that Musa/Fonseca was the only administration since political independence in 1981 which was given consecutive terms of office, in 1998 and 2003. Thus, Musa/Fonseca governed Belize for ten years. All other administrations have been replaced after just one term since 1981.
The question is, what do we have to show for Musa/Fonseca. The answer which drove voters into the embrace of the UDP, was that we got into a lot of public debt with Musa/Fonseca, and we don’t have enough hard assets and solid infrastructure to show for that debt. In other words, the people believe that more could have been done, to put it mildly, with the public funds spent by Musa/Fonseca.
When the charge of corruption is made, the propagandists for Musa/Fonseca answer, like Jack Palance in Shane: prove it. During the second Musa/Fonseca term of office, two major investigations into the misuse of public funds were carried out. One was the Senate inquiry into irregularities at the Social Security Board (SSB) and the other was a three-member commission of inquiry into the carryings on at the Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
The scandalous results of the SSB inquiry were delivered to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions a few years ago, and those files have been gathering dust in the DPP’s office ever since. In the case of the DFC commission of inquiry, which was broadcast nationally on radio and television, the principal focus of the investigation, who had been the DFC chairman, hired a law firm which used legal technicalities to freeze the process after the commission chairman, David Price, died.
Both Said Musa and Ralph Fonseca were arrested for theft involving Venezuela aid funds during the present Barrow term, but neither ever faced a jury. Their cases were thrown out in lower courts.
One of the reasons why the ranks of independent-minded Belizean voters have been growing is because the Barrow administration has been unable or unwilling to punish anyone for the abuse of public funds during the Musa/Fonseca administration. Down the road, the frustration of the Belizean people will be manifested in disaffection with the present UDP government, but at the moment a great concern for the people is the possibility of a Musa/Fonseca return to power in the Opposition PUP.
The euphoria which greeted the UDP victory in February of 2008 was more relief at being freed from the clutches of Musa/Fonseca than optimism for the future. The masses of the Belizean people did not expect much from the UDP. 1993 to 1998 was still fresh enough in our memory. All the people wished for was a government which could handle public funds without disrespecting us in the absolutely cynical manner Musa/Fonseca had employed. There are certain things which remain in the memory of the Belizean people. These include SSB, DFC, Mahogany Heights, the Novelos’ $30 million, the Universal Hospital/Belize Bank shenanigans, and, most outrageous of all perhaps, the incredibly wasteful “housing projects” in San Ignacio, in Hattieville, in Orange Walk Town, at San Pedro Ambergris Caye … Every hungry crony in the PUP, it appeared, was building houses. You can still see the wasted multimillions when you visit the sites in the aforementioned municipalities.
Belize is a small country. Most Belizeans have a sense of how public funds were being misused under Musa/Fonseca. The crushing debt payments the nation must honor until 2029 were bad enough. The worldwide financial downturn in 2007 and 2008 made Belize’s economic situation more negative. It would be easy to start complaining about the Barrow Cabinet, and, indeed, there are political newspapers, radio stations, and television stations which do this every day.
The PUP media are frustrated by the fact that the independent media do not have the bone in their throat that they do. The answer is simple. Our throat is already choked with bones – SSB, DFC, Novelos, Universal, Mahogany Heights, etc.
Mr. Musa, his family members and propagandists say, is only seeking now to clear his name and establish his legacy. Over the last twenty years, however, and especially between 1998 and 2008, it became clear to Belizeans that wherever you saw Said, Ralph was not far behind. And we have understood, we have been convinced, that when Ralph considers political power, what he thinks of is money. The Musa apologists would have you believe that when Said considers political power, he thinks of the opportunity to help the people. This would have been so once upon a time, when time was time, and “monkey chew tobacco and spit out white lime …”