How I was retrenched remains a mystery to me to this day, since I was teaching at the Anglican Cathedral College, which is a church-state school. Why it happened was more clear – I had become a vocal critic of the UDP administration between 1993?95, shortly after they had won their second term to office while I was a student at the University College of Belize.

Like Dr. Hegar, I too was concerned about the economic crisis that was facing the country under the UDP. But I also felt that to recapture the reigns of government in 1998, the PUP needed to do a great deal of housecleaning and show that they were serious about their much trumpeted reform of ?accountability and transparency? with the electorate.

When the interview with Dr. Hegar was printed in the AMANDALA on August 18, 1996, I was verbally reprimanded by leaders of the PUP, and Mr. Ralph Fonseca on one particular occasion literally escorted me out of his office on North Front Street when I went to ask him for a monetary favor, considering that as a university graduate I was unemployed and writing weekly articles for the BELIZE TIMES gratis.

It was not until a few years later that Dr. Hegar was punished for his idea of a National Finance Committee, and he was subsequently maneuvered out of electoral politics and replaced by another PUP standard bearer in Cayo West. The result was a defeat for the PUP both in 1998 and 2003 in that division.

As for the Honorable Johnny Brice?o who, like Dr. Hegar, was serving his first term in the House of Representatives in 1996 (1993?98), he too was not happy about the interview with Dr. Hegar. Hon. Brice?o, I can recall, chided me, saying the entire article had cast aspersions on the integrity of Mr. Ralph Fonseca as Campaign Manager of the PUP and the party (the PUP) on a whole. He further went on to caution me to seek his advice in the near future.

Today, more than ever I hold Hon. Brice?o in deservedly high respect and esteem, not only because (he is my compadre (godfather of my daughter), but also because his political philosophy for the Belizean nation has taken a new course. While I continue to be a political columnist for the BELIZE TIMES (10 years now), there are still many issues that I disagree with Mr. Brice?o agreeably as my area representative.

This is the reason I sent an article to the editor of the BELIZE TIMES a week ago publicly acknowledging that certain leaders in our PUP administration had erred where the use of the people?s money at Social Security Board was concerned; and that Prime Minister Musa was to do nothing less than to take the bull by the horns and remedy the current financial crisis facing the nation.

The article was not printed. In sum, like Dr. Amin Hegar with whom I spoke cordially this week, I reiterate that the way to restore confidence in the government and the electorate is through competent, honest and viable politicians who will be financially answerable to the nation at all times, and who will ensure that the public trust is not pillaged by one or two leaders in the government to the detriment of the entire nation. Are we ready for a National Finance Committee?

Best regards,

(Signed)

Apolinar A. Tzul, M.Ed.