There are times when the war of words inside the House of Representatives rubs people the wrong way, but the crossfire of condemnations and personal attacks hurled across the floor at yesterday’s Sitting of the House of Representatives were not met this time with the same level of indignation from the public.
In fact, many people who caught the fiery exchanges via radio broadcasts and the television news reports felt no sympathy for Said Musa, as Prime Minister Dean Barrow used some very colorful words to call Musa out for betraying the State by signing secret deals with his party’s financier that are costing tens of millions to taxpayers.
“Tell us about all those clauses you put in [those secret agreements], how you betrayed the Belizean people you worthless, thieving son of…” Barrow told his predecessor Said Musa from across the floor.
Later on he continued saying, “…there will be no restraint, because that member for Fort George [Said Musa], I consider to have betrayed the Belizean people in serial ways, in multiple ways. This is the man who signed a witness statement…against KREM, against the owner of KREM, who has been his friend for almost 40 years. That is the measure of the man that sits over there and that used to lead this country…I will give no quarter.” (The phrase means that he will give Musa a hard time – no mercy.)
Barrow took his first noticeable shot at Musa during the debate on the Referendum (Ammendment) Bill, which Musa was condemning as “…an anti-democratic, sinister ploy for government to be able to abridge citizens’ rights without allowing people to express their opinion on the matter.”
“It seems like I have riled up the government,” Musa said, in response to Barrow’s condemnation of him. “They have all the power… I am simply stating what this bill is proposing to do, and why are they afraid for the Belizean people to hear it?”
This is not the first humiliation on Independence Hill that Musa has faced since Barrow deposed him as Prime Minister in February. Onlookers at the inaugural Sitting of the House humiliated Musa and the majority of his party members in the House when they booed them as their names were called at the formal ceremony.
Musa was reportedly out of the country at the first business session of the House, but when he showed up for yesterday’s session, Barrow did not spare him.
Musa was standing and giving his contribution to the debate when Barrow called him out as “a traitor to the Belizean people…”
Musa complained to the Speaker about what he termed “insults and offensive language,” and but the Speaker, Emil Arguelles, did not reprimand the ruling party members of the House, even though Musa told him that what was happening was “un-parliamentary language,” contrary to the Standing Orders of the House.
“This is the behavior of our Prime Minister, Mr. Speaker,” Musa protested.
“I am used to that Prime Minister firing off all his slings and arrows. But I will not be intimidated, Mr. Speaker. I want him to know this, and I want all the members to know this. I will stand here because the people of Fort George put me here to defend their interest,” Musa responded.
In taking another swing at Musa, Barrow said Musa does not have a clue how hated, and reviled and disgusted he is in Belize.
“…It is not personal,” said Barrow. “It is because of what he has done. We are grappling with all those – I can’t even call them contracts – all those betrayals that he signed. Anyway, Mr. Speaker, let me content myself with saying that him I will give no quarter…
“Obviously he is either a fraud or a fool. He is a lawyer. He has been a lawyer for a long, long time, far longer than I, and he ought to have known what it took a layman, the Minister of the Public Service [Hon. John Saldivar], to point out to him. So if he didn’t know it, as I said, he is a fool, or at the very best an ignoramus…and if he did know it, he is a fraud.”
Musa demonstrated a fighting spirit, even as the insults came his way.
“I know they are talking about jail and all that. Clearly the Government intends to use all its political clout to try and jail me… to the extent that they have gone as far as to buy off the Director of Public Prosecutions, to get him out of the way. This is what they’ve done,” said Musa. “It shows they will stop at nothing. They will stop at nothing, Mister Speaker, and I put it on the record, because we know what’s going on, man. But bear in mind that I will not be intimidated, Mr. Prime Minister. You can come with all your threats and you can make all your moves. I will not be intimidated.”
Musa said that rather than attacking him, the UDP should deal with their issues, such as the high cost of living, an issue on which, he said, the Belizean people are waiting for the Government to act.
(The full story on Wednesday’s House Meeting will appear in our Mid-week edition.)