by Colin Hyde
With talks of our BTL expressing interest in acquiring the assets of competitors, primarily those of its main rival, Smart, an initiative which BTL says has been on the discussion table since 2018, the UDP’s Guardian (Bz) published a long list of employees from Smart who have landed plum jobs with the PUP government. Ignoring the number of individuals who have moved from Smart to government, fu now, it must be pointed out that it is the way of governments all over – monarchies, dictatorships, democracies – that whenever new leaders replace old ones, the new leaders bring in a number of their loyalists. It is the same in the purest endeavor on the planet, sports. Some of the people around a new manager will be their choice.
Public employees, people paid from the public purse, are not supposed to participate overtly in our electoral process; they are supposed to shut up, vote, and shut up again; and that’s understandable because of the kind of work they do and who pays them. That leaves people in the private sector to get up front in the process, but because that could be costly for most businesses, because getting up front could cause them to lose 50% of their market potential, many of them, out of pragmatism, tend to lie low. Guess who is up front in the process. Yes, the ones vying for a seat. But they can’t go it alone. Every viable candidate has a little support group, and for the risk they take, they all have hopes of a little or big reward if the ship they sail on comes in.
There is not a country in the world where the leaders are without their little support group. In this very subjective world, a leader/manager will choose the kind of talent they prefer. There is also the matter of loyalty to be considered. Political leaders need their confidantes. There are “trust” positions even in the most transparent endeavors. Like it or noh like it, some things are sensitive. When the government is at its wits’ end, unable to contain an outbreak of violence, the police don’t announce an SOE before implementing it, because if they do that, the people who their intelligence says should be caught in their net, head off to distant places. If Sedi had announced that he was off to sign the compromis, the anti-ICJ fans would have punctured the tires on his vehicle to prevent him from leaving the country.
Political parties are business entities that are expected to have noble intentions for our Belize. While they are about our business, they expect to get paid. Many members of a political party make great sacrifice to stay with their ship. We have to appreciate that those bohgaz are only there for a time. When the party loses, they are out the door. Ouch, you see how some UDPeez who were feeding for 13 years are complaining because they are not living as large as they did before.
People in public employ have to cut a little slack for the governing party’s chosen. Nobody owns a public job. If you are in public employ, you have to know that there might be people who are equally or better qualified than you, who are left out. Allow me to expand some on the real situation there. No one has the “right” to a job in a panaades shop. Everyone has some “right” to a public sector job, because that public sector job, we all pay for it.
There is some criteria and some you-know-who that goes with public jobs. There are some who would say there is zero you-know-who with their employ. It is so that some people choose to begin stories where it is convenient to them. It is right that stories start from the beginning. My dad got his foot in the door when his soon to be brother-in-law gave up his public service job to go and work on the canal in Panama. My paternal grandfather was a top-of-the-line mechanic and boat captain; he had to be, he ran the show on the open sea for Belize’s most powerful man, Bob Turton. When my grampa got a little older, he got enough of out there, and thank gudnis for him, he had a cousin who worked at Customs who helped get him a place on the government’s launches, and I believe a little pension.
But ih sure luk like the PUP ovah-du, like their Smart hog up tu much of the plums; and the salaries, wow! Da GuardianBz big list of Smart employees shows some of them in mighty big positions in government! Before I go on, it should be so that when the PUP is booted from office, these people vacate, hand in their gears immediately. I think common sense should tell someone if they are a political hire. Governments have to stop giving contracts beyond their mandates.
Getting back on track, Smart’s oversized contribution to our governance might have something to do with the large number of Smart candidates who won positions. The PM, Mahler, and K Bernard are all Smart affiliates, so we have three Smarts in government. Hmm, maybe when we tally the number of Smart people placed in big positions, we should divide the lot by 3. In the past, I’ve gone over what the UDP under Dean Barrow did to make us sell ourselves lock, stock, and barrel to Smart. That’s why we now have Smart all over the place.
In respect to the BTL ambition, more information is needed about BTL directors who are not known blue-to-the-bone and Smart operatives. Anyone who is in leadership in a public body, from a primary school team to the boy scouts to the political arena, must face public scrutiny. It goes with the territory. With our BTL, more than 50% of the directors should be men and women who we know will put our country first. Maybe it should be mandatory that all four social partner senators sit on the Board.
Boy, more of us really have to latch on to these political parties, for the fat salaries. Judging from our numbers, it’s a far better bet than the publicly owned Boledo. With the political parties, near 50% of the time your boat will be the one that controls the fishing spot. Wow, you can say “fun and games” at Gruppa Benk when it’s “our turn”!
Important bridge, iffy speech
I don’t know what Minister Julius was thinking when he spoke at the opening of the new, newly named bridge in PG, about people waiting until a man is gone before giving them their deserved recognition. It happens that the people of Toledo East sent Mike Espat to the House SIX times, and I don’t know how there can be greater recognition than that. These politicians surround themselves with too many sycophants. There must be someone in their neighborhood to keep them in check. What, they want the bridge to be named after them bifoa dehn retire?
According to Julius and Minister Oscar, Mike Espat didn’t du fool with the people’s funds the Cabinet gave him to do things for the people of Toledo East. The man won six times, and that is more proof than anyone can say. Whoa there, I am some kind of ingrate. The only two politicians’ shirts I got from the last campaign came from Oscar and Julius. Ho, I will wear them well; and by the time the next dry season comes, the cotton ones will be thin enough to serve as night shirts, pijaama tops.
About the renaming of the bridge, Julius said that the Cabinet was united behind the name, Joe Taylor Bridge, being changed to Mike Espat Bridge. Really, I think the people of PG should have had the say about that. I believe they would have said, ‘yay Mike’, having blessed him with their support for SIX sakin elections. When yu gud yu gud, or when yu lucky yu lucky. I say, naming things is the people’s right.