We found it interesting that neither The Reporter, The Belize Times nor the National Perspective reported the news of Jorge Espat’s new appointment as president of St. John’s College.
The appointment was announced on Sunday morning, June 5, at the Commencement Exercises for St. John’s College Junior College, where Mr. Espat has been a lecturer in economics for a few years now. Kremandala news people thought the story was so big that they immediately contacted the KREM Radio newsroom, which broke the story on the 12:30 p.m. KREM Radio news that afternoon. This newspaper then carried the story in our mid-week issue, published on Tuesday morning, June 7.
One of the reasons Kremandala would have thought the story important was because the outgoing president, Frank Garbutt, had been virulent in his dislike for Kremandala. Jorge’s appointment meant that SJC would now be moving in a slightly different direction.
You know that this is an extremely powerful institution, and they don’t have to play ball with anyone. It is for sure, however, that the Roman Catholic diocese here has three large primary schools on the violent Southside of Belize City. These are St. Martin de Porres, St. Ignatius, and St. John Vianney. These schools send students to SJC who have had to be rough and real in order to survive in their Southside neighbourhoods.
One of the things you should watch in Jorge Espat’s résumé is that he served as Vice President of Excelsior College when the PUP was out of government between 1993 and 1998. Excelsior is right next to St. John Vianney on Fabers Road. Hon. Jorge Espat also made it a point to support the Princess Royal Youth Hostel Under-17 basketball tournament.
Jorge Espat served in Belize’s House of Representatives from January of 1993 to March of 2003. He won a bye-election and three consecutive general elections during the ten plus years he represented the Freetown constituency in the House. Mr. Espat got into trouble with his own party, the People’s United Party (PUP), because he publicly criticized corrupt government practices on two specific occasions – in early 1993 and late in 2001. After his second controversial speech, the one in 2001, he resigned as PUP chairman and as a senior Cabinet Minister. This is an individual with an impressive record of success and a reputation for integrity and independent thinking.
Beginning in 1969, the publisher of this newspaper has publicly criticized the St. John’s College administration for the absence of African and Maya history from their curriculum. As the years went by, there were people who empowered themselves on the SJC campus by posing as “defenders of the realm” against Kremandala. These people included Frank Garbutt, who rose to the top on the basis of this posture.
Under Garbutt’s presidency, however, SJC’s reputation grew so soft that he had the school stop marching in the traditional Independence Day parade. Garbutt wrote a long letter to The Reporter explaining his decision on the grounds that bystanders on the streets were throwing things at his students. This was SJC, mind you, the school where tough Jesuits like Henry Sutti, Urban Kramer and Jim Carney used to “flex’ in the 1940s and 1950s.
Under the Jorge Espat presidency, we’re willing to wager that SJC will be marching on Independence Day. The new guy is pretty small, but he ain’t no chicken. Good luck, Jorge, and best wishes.