Dear Editor,
How have Belizeans been controlled, and how have people, especially the self-serving people, throughout Belize’s history, gained and maintained power in the Government of Belize, which was given to them by the people of Belize?
If one takes a look at history, and studies the historical works of scholars on the topic, you will find that those in power use methods that have been around for a very long time:
1. Restrict the interest of the majority by regulating our values.
2. Control resources through money.
3. Control the very processes that challenge them.
This is not a conspiracy; these people do not meet in dark rooms and make plans. The TRUTH is funny, simple and yet very sad: This process of manipulation is self-generating. Justified in a step-by-step manner based on narrow self-interest guiding the whole way – vote selling, political loyalism, political protectionism, even at the detriment of the entire nation.
The real power resides in how we, the public, actually perpetuate, condone and support the very system that oppresses us.
What tool has been used to perpetuate the acquisition and control of this power? Elections: general elections, municipal elections, village council elections. We have a value-system disorder in Belize. As long as we continue to place a dollar value on our votes, men who seek power for their self-interest will continue to take advantage of people selling their votes and these men see this as business-a-usual.
Why do Belizeans allow this, you may ask yourself? These men of self-interest who seek power have been taking advantage of the flaw in our system, and have done whatever they can to make that flaw bigger. That flaw is: we have a severely broken education system, thus we have many uneducated people as part of the adult suffrage (voters).
Now, I am not saying Belizeans are stupid. I am saying that too many Belizeans, who should have received a free or very affordable, quality education, did not. And this very fact is used for political manipulation, by men in pursuit of self-interest via political seat. The entire basis of the idea of democracy assumes that the voting public is actually educated enough to know what they are doing.
Do you believe it is a coincidence that our education system has been going, and continues to go downhill? Why our Government can find resources to buy fleets of luxury automobiles and can’t find it to give our children free education and train and pay our teachers like rock stars? Why our young people graduating from tertiary level education, do not quite comprehend the importance of their basic constitutional rights?
If we had enough young people graduating with quality education and they understood their constitutional rights and the importance of their constitution, there would have been a revolt during the push of the 9th Amendment.
Franklin D. Roosevelt once stated, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
Winston Churchill was a bit less forgiving. He stated, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
In conclusion, we cannot continue the paltry blame of the men who make up our Government for using these methods against us. If you can read and write, utilize it. If you do not understand something, ask a friend for help; do research. Question everything you read and are told. Educate yourself. With the advent of the Internet and the access to vast amounts of information with the click of a button, there is no excuse anymore.
You owe it to yourself, to your family, friends and loved ones, to your country and countrymen to put back the power to the people, simply by not condoning and supporting the very system used to oppress you.
Wake up.
Charles Leslie, Jr.