by Colin Hyde
Because one should let sleeping dogs lie, athletes are advised to be very careful about what they say, especially just before game day. Come game day, an adult athlete shouldn’t need any “help” to put forth their best effort, but it is so that some people are more energized when bad things are said about them or to them. It’s a fact of life: some people do respond to negative stimuli. One in an individual sport can choose to throw caution to the winds. A boxer or runner or lawn tennis player can tell their opponent whatever they want, because they and they alone pay the price if their barb provokes a better performance from their adversary. But one in a team sport disrespects their teammates if they give fodder to the opponents. One in team sports who wants to insult the opponent should first get license from their teammates. Only the team can give that license.
Talking cynicism, I think if someone is branded as a thief, they might decide they might as well get in that business. It is good to ask questions, serious ones, but don’t put someone in a place where they have nothing to lose.
Jesus said that a lot of people have eyes that don’t see that well. If you have eyes that don’t see that well, I think you might want to sleep with someone else’s eyes. People who follow their leaders “blindly” believe their leaders see the world better than they do. People who are blind surely trust their dogs.
Whoa there, enough of my rambling.
Mr. Patt abstained, and snubbed a chance at redemption
In 2020 we learned that Mr. Hugo Patt was quite … let’s say, upstart. When he came downstairs after the historic UDP caucus where John was dumped after just a few days at the head of the party (man, that was some catastrophic meeting for John), the media was waiting, because it had been floated that he was the man likely to take the helm. Naturally, people wanted to question the man who might be the UDP leader when they faced the imminent general election.
But Hugo didn’t want to discuss that matter, and he was very rude to Ms. Marisol when she asked for an interview. He could have been following the lead of the country’s PM, Dean Barrow, who had shown who cared to look that he did not favor the straight-shooting, non-agenda truth seeker frahn bak a Zinc Fence. Patt would later tell media that the UDP was more comfortable with (everyone else) the notion that he didn’t think himself ready for such a big job. But he had no need to elaborate on his capacity at the time, after getting petty with the great Marisol.
Hugo didn’t look too good when he was questioned at a Commission of Inquiry set up by a new PUP government to look into the alleged fire sale of public assets by the UDP government. Hugo’s “participation” involved a Toyota and that vehicle’s possible connection to a land hog in San Pedro. A number of our ex leaders were questioned at that Inquiry about suspect dealings involving small assets that belonged to the people.
On matters related to that Inquiry, Godwin blew up like a powder keg over a Mahindra. Really, even if he had done some wiggling, no one, except for Bobby Lopez, would have called for his hanging over the ride. If I get it right, an allegation against Mike Peyrefitte was that when the UDPeez were ousted from office in 2020, he took home a sofa set custom ordered to suit his size. Look, a seat for Pehreh is for Pehreh and no one else. If he didn’t take it home, the new government would have thrown it out. Whoa there, I don’t recall if Godwin or Pehreh actually faced the inquisitors.
Hmm, this story is about Hugo, right? Allow me to explain something here. From time to time our Catholic church declares certain individuals to be saints. Only one in a thousand gets the halo. No, not everyone in the church is a saint. There are no saints in government. Let’s go back to the church. There are two types of sins. Now let’s go back to the politics. At their worst the Mahindra and the sofa set were misdemeanors.
Of course, misdemeanors can’t be ignored. New governments have a duty to investigate, and deliver punishments if there is crime—knuckle-rapping for small infractions, the ultimate for big ones. Incredibly, that Inquiry, which cost the public purse, amounted to naught, zero, because all its findings were quashed when lawyers went to court and successfully argued that the Inquiry hadn’t allowed for the accused persons to put forward a proper defense. Adding salt to our wound, the court, to soothe other wounded feelings, also ordered compensation for the parties that had been accused of mismanaging government properties.
Even if Hugo was completely innocent, he lost a number of friends because of the way the report from the Inquiry got quashed, and because his lawyer, Dean Barrow, won him a reported $200,000 in compensation from the people’s purse, sufficient to buy the latest model Toyota and hire a chauffeur.
Hmm, it is so that sometimes umpires call “strike” because they feel you deserve one. I say, after two strikes our brother from the north wasn’t looking as clean as he did when he entered the political arena. Then came strike number three. In government Mr. Patt was trusted, given the awesome job of managing all our public lands. The UDP had egged on a Special Senate Select Committee to inquire into the Port dealings of the present government and one of the late Bally Gegg’s sons, and when asked the simplest questions about certain land transactions related to the Port story, so the people could have a clearer understanding of the process, Mr. Patt, on the advice of his lawyer, D Barrow, chose to leave us in the dark.
He did explain a bit about government’s social policy which allows the rich and not so rich to buy public land at prices heavily subsidized by the people. But on the questions we wanted answered, “on the advice” of his lawyer, he ducked. A Love FM newscast said he declined to answer more than 12 questions, “on the basis that the questions purportedly had no relevance to the terms of reference of the Senate Inquiry.” Ouch! An innocent person wants every related closet, safety box, and document to be opened, so that there can be no questions when the not-guilty verdict comes in. Thanks to the lawyers, this Inquiry left us ignorant, in the world of ‘we don’t know’.
Because Dean Barrow helped him to a prize, and Barrow’s obvious agenda was to confine the Senate Committee to solely investigate the doings of the PUP, who could argue if it was said that Hugo abetted because he was beholden? All that the poor people who pay Hugo’s salary wanted was the truth, in entirety. Bah, lawyers care only about winning. After years of our being abused by this fraternity, it has sunk into all of our thick skulls that they are a different breed, that they are not for us. Hugo gained no points for aiding this fraternity to run rings around the people. He certainly earned his third strike.
Three strikes are enough to send the best batter to the showers, but in politics it seems that those bohgaz have more lives than a kyat. Recently, we found our Mr. Patt and all his strikes in a very sticky spot. The setting is that there is upheaval in the UDP, with two of the five UDP representatives wanting the former PM’s son to be removed from the post of Leader of the Opposition. The PM’s son has the support of his aunt, one of the five representatives; and Patt, who holds the tiebreaker vote, has thus far remained loyal to the Barrow camp.
Taiwan has been a benefactor of Belize these 35 years, and more important than that, we are allies because of a shared problem, our territories being claimed by a much larger neighbor—Taiwan by China, and Belize by Guatemala. In the House, the two reps who want the UDP leader removed stood up and loudly supported government’s celebration of 35 years of diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Disappointingly, the UDP leader kept his seat.
At a division, the UDP leader, with a later explanation that could never be sufficient, abstained when he was called on to vote. For 13 years Taiwan was generous to Belize while it was being run by UDP governments, governments that Patt was prominently a part of. It is Patt’s vote that gave the UDP leader his majority. Would he, because he is Barrow-beholden, abstain disappointingly like his leader did, or would his vote align with the respectful and grateful members of his party and the rest of the House? If you guess that he stuck with the leader, you are right. He abstained, and after the voting he quickly exited the House.