PUP Belize Rural Central area representative/national campaign manager/Home Affairs Minister/growth economics guru, Hon. Ralph Fonseca, appeared in the front row at the ordination of new Roman Catholic Bishop, Rt. Rev. Dorick Wright, on Sunday morning at the St. John’s College Gymnasium. Since it is almost six months now since the PUP Belize Rural Central standard bearer convention was supposed to have been held, and because no one is certain, perhaps not even El Ralpho himself, whether he will run, this prominent sighting was news in itself.
Mr. Ralph then went up to take Holy Communion when that part of the Mass was celebrated. As we understand it, when you step up to take Communion, it means that you consider yourself to be in “a state of grace,” which is to say, you are not in a state of sin. Well, if this were a matter on which the people of Belize were asked to give an opinion, the chances are that our opinion would be different from Ralph’s own opinion of himself. But, no matter. Ralph appeared, took Communion. News.
Cabinet met two days later, Tuesday, January 23, in Belmopan. The news there was that Tourism Minister, Hon. Godfrey Smith, who, incidentally, publicly recommended a month ago that Mr. Ralph not run, got himself muzzled by Cabinet. Mr. Smith had been on national television last week pooh-poohing and making light of the joint one-week ultimatum from the Belize City Council and the Opposition United Democratic Party, where $374,000 in arrears owed to the CitCo by Smith’s Belize Tourism Board was concerned, and where CitCo’s demand for a dollar out of the tourist head tax was concerned. Cabinet voted to yield to CitCo’s head tax demand, a complete reversal of the macho Smith position.
The Cabinet decision was interesting in that they have announced they will take .33 from the Protected Areas Conservation Trust (PACT), .33 from the Belize Tourism Board (BTB), and .33 from the Fort Street Tourism Village (FSTV). Cabinet controls PACT and BTB, but the Tourism Village’s money is the Tourism Village’s money. That part of the Cabinet statement/commitment had to give the UDP/CitCo pause, and so it did.
Belize City Mayor, Zenaida Moya, and some of her councillors and supporters, including UDP Belize Rural North standard bearer, Edmond Castro, were marching from City Hall to the Tourism Village in what appeared to be a head tax campaign sortie, when the news broke that Cabinet would get off the money. Zenaida was properly calm when the media microphones were stuck in her face. She said she wanted the agreement presented in a legislated form, and she needed for the UDP to study the proposal.
A groundswell of support for Zenaida had been building in the streets of the old capital since last week. In the absence of a poll, however, we must point out, for the record, that this is just our newspaper opinion. That groundswell of support had implications for both the ruling PUP and the Opposition UDP. The PUP reacted to the Zenaida tsunami by surrendering, at least on the face of it, to Zenaida’s head tax demand. From our perspective, this was a brilliant political decision on Cabinet’s part. Right now it is dangerous for anyone to mess with Zenaida, even GOB.
The implications for the UDP are more subtle. We have been told by Hon. Michael Finnegan that we are not supposed to comment on UDP matters, so we have tried to heed that warning. We would like you to note, however, that Mr. Finnegan has not been in the front lines in the head tax issue. We believe we know why, but let us “heed warning.”
A few weeks ago the PUP sought to remind the UDP of how they blew the 1979 general elections when everybody thought they would win. After that totally unexpected defeat, the UDP claimed that the PUP had stolen the general election with “chemical ballots.” Actually what had happened was that when Jim Jones had his hundreds of followers commit Kool-Aid suicide in Guyana, it had political repercussions in Belize. Things which had been beneath the surface in the UDP, began to surface. All the way down to the tape, the UDP were quarrelling about the spoils of an election they had not yet won. The “chemical,” thinking about it, must have been the Kool-Aid in Jonestown.
Whatever, let us try to remember to “heed warning.” Power to the people.