Sun. Aug. 29, 2021
At this stage of our country’s history, when the new PUP government has taken on the challenge of resurrecting the Belizean economy from the doldrums of humongous debt as well as the strangling grip of the Covid-19 pandemic, it would be wise for them, as duly elected representatives of the Belizean people, to assess the likely long-term impact of their economic plans and policies; that is if, indeed, their goal is for “everybody to win.”
If this is not done, come the end of their five-year term in office, the macro-economic numbers may look good, with impressive “economic growth” due to the various agricultural, infrastructural, industrial and service/tourism projects undertaken through “foreign direct investment”; but the masses of Belizean people may still be not much better off. There may be more jobs, but of low pay; and there may be a loss of the quality of life they now enjoy, related to clean and abundant water; safe, plentiful and reasonably priced seafood; and access to our coastal and marine recreation areas that are not beyond their economic means.
They may find themselves still yearning for a more affordable healthcare system that does not send families into the depths of poverty with the first major illness; and praying for an educational system that truly provides the means for the lowest-earning workers to see their children able to realize their full potential through access to learning that is not predicated on financial resources that are outside their reach.
In other words, if the “Blu Plan” is successful, that success must not be marked, come 2025, by a Belize that has the same wide or even wider gap between the rich and the poor. For if that is the case, then as pretty as the GDP and other economic numbers may be, it would mean that only “some a wi win,” and the masses of the Belizean people were once again taken down a road of exploitation and deception by the political servants of the corporate oligarchy.
The PUP government leaders, therefore, need to come clean to the Belizean people, and let them know now, what economic road they are taking, what economic philosophy drives their thinking and their plans. For if, as it is beginning to appear, their economic philosophy is a form of “neoliberalism,” then the Belizean people need to know and understand the implications of that now; or they will be having a rude awakening when it may be too late. Moreover, Belizeans can scarcely afford another bout of disappointment and sense of betrayal by the leaders in whom they placed their trust; such a scenario is fraught with possibilities for a not so peaceful outcome.
When the group of young pioneers in nation building first challenged the colonial system head-on with the formation of the People’s Committee in 1950, the vision was Independence for the Belizean people. And the dream was that with Independence would come more development.
For centuries, the Baymen and their heirs had exploited the forests of this land with no effort at enhancing the livelihood of the slaves and later the laboring class who did the backbreaking work. The merchant class lived at St. George’s Caye and on Foreshore in Belize City. BEC controlled all the land, so the poor city-dwelling laborers were confined to the swamp and to the woodcutting and sawmill jobs provided by the major employers for near slave wages. Waterfront workers were a part of that labor train that kept the Belize settlement going for those who made handsome profits shipping out logwood and then mahogany, and for a while chicle.
But there was no provision or concern for the plight of the laborers in the woodcutting, sawmill and waterfront operations, when the mahogany trees were near done, and BEC just wrapped up shop and sold its properties to some heirs of the Baymen’s Clan.
Where did all the unemployed laborers go? That’s a long story for others to tell; but some major rumblings started following the Great Depression in the 1930s, after the 1931 hurricane had destroyed much of Belize City and killed upwards of a thousand citizens. The name of Antonio Soberanis is etched in the labor struggle of Belizeans against the exploitation by the merchant class.
The road to Independence was a long and rocky road, and our Belizean history books have chronicled the challenges faced along the way by National Hero, Philip Goldson, and Father of the Nation, Rt. Hon. George Price. The British colonial masters did not gain an empire “on which the sun never sets” by accident. They “wrote the book” on diplomacy, and were masters of the game of exploitation and control of subjugated peoples.
When Belize finally was given its Independence on September 21, 1981, a Constitution was handed to us by our former British colonial masters, that has proven over the years to have many traps for the Belizean people, through which our elected leaders could be coerced, induced, intimidated or otherwise manipulated into undermining the interests of the Belizean people. Far from a working democracy, what our Constitution has provided for voting citizens of Belize is a “one-day democracy.” And thus, the political class, whichever is elected, has been able to rule over our people by manipulating the Constitution into a form of dictatorship by Cabinet. And that has well served the business interests of a British billionaire, who can focus his attention on influencing our leaders.
Whether prompted by pressure or by influence from the British Lord, certain actions of P.M. Briceño’s government, in which “the buck stops” with him, seem to indicate that his government is committed to following the path of neoliberalism. If such is the case, he needs to tell the unsuspecting Belizean people what he is up to; because all his and his PUP’s campaign rhetoric had convinced his PUP followers and the many non-partisan Belizeans who voted blue in the November 2020 general elections, that this new PUP government would be one for all the people; not for the corporate oligarchs in the neoliberal way, but “everybody fi win.”