by Colin Hyde

The lady clearly isn’t compliant, a credential which Lisa Shoman, in her incarnation before she became a judge, said is essential for female membership in the UDP. But for years Sista B, who seems to answer to no one, has kept her party card. That has to be because of whom she is related to.

You have heard the PM express his agony over the fact that the lady does not grace the House with her presence. You have to feel the man’s pain. He is the captain of the country. But a sailor disrespectfully never reports for duty. Rumor has it that the lady prefers to hang around the market, chit-chatting, or is it gossiping, with her many friends.

Hn, I would advise all young men, not to marry a woman like her. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but when the cover is all you have, you have to roll with that. This kind of defiance is uncommon. She looks like the kind of lady who will do what she wants. And that kind will take a man for taffi.

It’s bad enough that Sista B’s noncompliance is excused in the UDP because of whom she is related to. Well, it’s worse that her gender figures so big that she has a pass in the House. Women, suffragettes, fought hard for equality with guys, but it seems that some of the breed want to eat their cake and eat their cake, no end. We are still to open doors for them. We are still to give up our seat on the bus.

You know why there’s no sweat on her brow about the next meeting coming up. There have been men who have absented themselves from the House, because they dared not show their face. They were in disgrace. Police were looking for them. Sista B’s insulation is brick wall impregnable, and that’s because of the feminine connection. Speaker Valerie drops the gavel hard on the humble males in the House, but there’s nary a glance from her at that vacant seat behind the sign, “Queen’s Square”. Ai, it’s obvious Belize is no longer a man’s country. We poor bohgaz are living under uhman rule.

Mr. Anthony Sylvester is the wrong man fu this

The story, that Mrs. Magali Marin-Young went crossways with the PUP government over the Definitive Agreement Erwin Contreras signed with Port Magical, could be true. The story that the lady left the government for family reasons, that she had committed to only two years as our Attorney General (AG), could be true. Magali congratulated Mr. Anthony Sylvester, the man selected to replace her. The defense attorneys poured in their congratulations after the appointment. You know who the big winners are, where you hear the music and the laughter.

Mrs. Magali has been under relentless attack from the leader of the criminal defense lawyers, over her judge selections. I bet the lady got tired of it.

The outgoing AG told Love FM that her successor is a friend and colleague, that she was confident he would continue the programs she had worked on over her term, and that he would do great things in the area of criminal justice reform. AG Magali said there was a lot her office wanted to do in this area, which they couldn’t get to do because there was so much on their plate. But her successor, yes: “My successor brings a wealth of experience in the criminal law background, and I believe that he will be impactful in terms of criminal justice reform.” PM Briceño praised A. Sylvester, called him a hardworking poor people’s champion, and a man who has expertise in criminal and constitutional law.

The PUP government took a big step backward when they appointed nice guy Anthony Sylvester as our AG. Anthony made his name for his attacks on the system for keeping people accused of murder on remand for extended periods. He did not make any attempts to address what caused the system to evolve to this. We could have had hopes in him if he had worked simultaneously on the causes, instead of just working to spring people.

In not so long ago days, in Britain and probably all of her colonies, definitely in Belize, many men got hung within a month of being charged with murder. The long remand started when almost all the murder cases ended in freedom for the accused. Why did that start to happen? It happened because the system is antiquated; it doesn’t serve the time.

The fact is that lawyers like Dean Barrow, Dickie Bradley, and Anthony Sylvester put the rights of the individual over the good of the state. In their scheme, “bad boys” become stars. Dean Barrow would introduce murder trial by judge, only after a lawyer was murdered, and another lawyer was shot.

You can’t allow people who wrong society to become heroes. You can rehabilitate, but you can never give back what is lost. No man can “turn back the time.” We know the inevitable end when we give priority to individual rights. Years ago, a man who I suspect is one who would put individual rights over the national good, couldn’t help the observation that when a man beats a murder rap he becomes a hero to a certain sector of young men. One report said that’s why President Bukele had to do what he did, what one media outlet described as herding men like animals.

Okay, everyone, when they are “that” individual in trouble, becomes self-centered, very me, me, me. And that’s natural, not surprising ataal. It’s the basic instinct for survival. On the way to the gallows, everything in a man’s mind will likely be about how to escape that noose.

I hate saying, I’ve said it before. But here goes, again: this system makes young men into murderers. Oh, it’s obvious why they love defense lawyers so much. It’s because they will free them after they commit the world’s ugliest crime. Young man, you wouldn’t have done that horrible thing if the defense lawyers weren’t able to exploit a system that stopped being effective decades ago.

I am reminded of the story of the man who, on his way to the electric chair, spurned his mother’s arms and instead berated her. The man pointed his finger in his mother’s face and told her that he wouldn’t be off to the chair if she had brought him up right, if instead of pampering him and making excuses for him whenever he had erred she had given him tough love. We will slide further down because the nation’s top lawyer will be nice, instead of doing tough things. He will be passing laws to save the sheep that has gone astray, instead of protecting the 99. Please, saving souls is for the church, not government.

Giving former Amandala columnist Janus his props, individual rights should never trump the good of the state. The rich first-world states can absorb a lot. Poor third world states, like Belize, can’t afford softness. The rich can do business in the state that is in chaos; indeed, they make money off it. Small businesses are doomed because they can’t afford security, and they can’t afford to make their neighborhood safe so that customers aren’t afraid to come by. In some areas of Belize you can’t even throw a house party.

Of course, police brutality and excess are serious issues, but what’s the point of a human rights AG when our primary goal is reducing murders and bringing people who commit that crime to justice? Under intelligent, decent, likeable Anthony Sylvester, the defense lawyers’ favorite, our justice system will likely become an even greater pushover.

Hey, allow me this last line on a different business. Ah, Brother Clinton Canul Luna, I’d like to have a word with you, Sir, about all the provocation in your column last Friday. As the Publisher said, wi wahn meet when wi meet.