Being a press officer and a public spokesperson for a government is a dicey job under the best of circumstances. This is because (surprise, surprise) governments are hardly paragons of virtue. Politicians do tell lies and it becomes the press officer’s job to defend those lies, which often requires that unfortunate individual to emphatically insist that those lies are not really lies at all.
This is probably an easier task when the press officer is ideologically on the same page as his government, for example, Tony Snow, the former Fox News correspondent who took the job for the Bush administration. What if, however, a person becomes the spokesperson for a government whose ideology is not right wing, left wing or centrist, not free market, or unrestrained capitalism, socialism or communism. What if a government’s ideology is grand larceny? Can you see how being a spokesperson for that government might create some difficulties? The difficulties mount when that spokesperson claims to believe in God, because religious texts, including the Bible and the Koran, point out that God hates a liar!
Obviously there should be a clear conflict of interest going on inside that person’s head. Besides it must be quite distressing for anyone to have to realize that what he is saying, makes him a comedy star. People are not laughing with him. They are laughing at him! As Keith Hernandez and Walt (Clyde) Frazier say in that “Just for Men” commercial, “Rejected! That’s gotta hurt.”
Listeners and viewers of KREM’s WUB morning show last Friday were treated to such an exhibition. I turned it on just a bit after the star came on the air. I mean I was still on holiday and the lessons of life have taught me to make the most of my time off, but my cats must’ve thought that I had lost it. I laughed so damn hard I almost cried!
The occasion was an attempt by the current GOB spokesman to defend the government’s assertion that it was somehow justified in declaring that a contract between it and a private corporation involving untold millions – $33 million or $43 million depending on who is quoting the figures – of public money could and should be kept secret from the very taxpayers who provided that money.
Now let’s face it. This is an indefensible argument. There is no way to win that debate unless your audience is deaf, dumb, blind, lame and terminally stupid, so it stands to reason that an intelligent man would not agree to try to come up with a defense for something that can’t be defended. Then again, what won’t some folks do to make a dollar.
The majority of this so-called defense was based on what the spokesperson referred to as “the law”. Of course he qualified that by saying “as in my understanding of the law. I’m not a lawyer.” Wasn’t it crystal clear to the man that no lawyer was going to go on the air to defend this crap because lawyers know better? Right then, the most prudent course would have been for the spokesperson to just shut up, but no. He stuck his foot even further down his throat by saying over and over again that “we are a nation of laws.”
I kept watching the faces of Mose and Kalilah. Their eyes were rolling back slightly and they kept glancing sideways at each other. Their expressions seemed to say, “We want to bust out laughing but that would not be the best thing to do on the air.” Mose in particular has a way of asking questions that poke fun at a caller who is making an ass of himself. It was beautiful to watch.
The fact is that we are not “a nation of laws” and the spokesperson damn well knows it! We are a nation of some laws for some men and no laws for others!
This is demonstrated on a daily basis in Belize, and anyone who tries to deny it is not worth listening to. The other problem with that argument is that even existing law does not give the government a right to conceal information when the people’s money is being spent. This guy even tried to assert that GOB could conceal information from itself by not releasing that information to the National Assembly!
Senator Godwin Hulse was the next caller and he was livid. I found myself hoping that he didn’t have a stroke or something, he was that angry at the misinformation that was being fed to the public.
THE ONLY INFORMATION THAT A LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT HAS A RIGHT TO CONCEAL FROM ITS CITIZENS IS INFORMATION THAT IS VITAL TO NATIONAL SECURITY! This covers such items such as the exact size of the Belize Defence Force, troop movements, troop postings and armament, things along that line. Deals between government and a private company that allow that private company to benefit from your money, my money and all of our money, are not covered.
The man even tried to say that what if, for example, Amandala and BTL had a deal. Would Amandala want that information revealed, as though that scenario was the same as the Universal deal. Of course the scenario is not even close! Amandala and BTL are both private companies. They spend earned revenue and shareholder capital.
A contract or agreement between private companies that doesn’t involve public money can legally be kept as confidential as the two entities want to keep it. Its confidentiality would only be subject to challenges from shareholders of either company or, if someone outside the company petitioned the courts to order that the contract be disclosed because that disclosure would be in the public interest, and that is a high bar to cross. No judge would rule in favor of that kind of motion without compelling evidence that failure to disclose such information would cause irreparable damage to the public or to the country.
I just shake my head. If a person wants respect from others, that respect has to be earned. When somebody takes a public position that insults the intelligence of anyone within earshot, well don’t ask for any respect because you will not get it. A person doesn’t need a college degree to understand what is real and what is not. If you don’t give a damn as long as you are getting paid, live with it! You asked for it.
BTL defied an order from the Chief Justice in regards to the holding of the annual general meeting. A Minister of government blithely issued a “law” that revised the charter of a private company and the Supreme Court said, “You can’t do that.” BTL said in effect, “We can do whatever we want.”
BTL issued a public statement as regards the ruling of the court in the dispute with Christine Perriott that, although they don’t agree with the judgment, they will “respect it.” Then they went searching for every legal loophole that they could find to try to frustrate that decision!
Look at some of the more infamous things that have been done in the name of fighting crime. A woman, a poor unfortunate woman who had become a victim of the drug trade that enriches some of Belize’s most prominent citizens, was sentenced to five years in jail for an unsuccessful burglary. She was caught in the process of attempting to break into a house. She was arrested before she broke in. She was given five years for the attempt and an additional year for the damage to the door! Are you kidding me? In a country where the social and political elite are routinely protected from what should be the penalties for stealing millions of dollars? Even murder can be finessed if a person is able to pay for his freedom. Another man was convicted of stealing a bag of chips from a school cafeteria. The value of those chips was twenty-five cents – a whole freakin’ shilling! That one cost him seven years of his life. Somebody is crazy here, and it sure ain’t me.
There appears to be a simple reason for trying to bury that sovereign guarantee. Maybe that Universal loan was secured by property, to wit. Universal itself! Why is that important? Because the Belize Bank would be obligated to try to recover its money by seizing the property that was pledged for security first, rather than looking to Government for the people’s money! Maybe GOB is trying to circumvent the very law that its spokesman was so quick to try to use as a shield, because the owner of the Belize Bank is a favored person, a person who can ignore the laws of Belize if he chooses to do so. Nothing has changed; nothing at all.
This is a bad one. The Belize Bank apparently wanted some of the most valuable land in Belize, land on the north end of San Pedro to satisfy GOB’s guarantee. That is almost politically untenable at this time. There apparently has been some discussion as to the 10% of BNE that GOB owns. That is even worse! I wonder how they will get out of this one, especially if they are trying to allow Belize Bank to recover a loan without having to follow the required procedure. Mr. Ombudsman, you should be ashamed of yourself!