At the National Emergency Management Organization’s conference room on Tuesday afternoon, two-time Prime Minister Dean Barrow entered the room to a loud applause from party supporters and friends in the public service, shortly after the 2:30 p.m. time scheduled for the grand announcement of who his new Cabinet members would be.
Along with the known UDPs accompanying Barrow, entered the very prominent Godwin Hulse, who has served in Parliament since 2003 as senator for the private sector.
Also along with them was Lisel Alamilla of Toledo, known for her environmental activism in the south as the head of Ya’aché Conservation Trust.
There was also the well-known CEO, Charles Gibson, and a second prominent lady whom not so many people know – former Belize Ambassador to the EU, Audrey Joy Grant, who has also served as a climate change ambassador for Belize.
Barrow led the ruling United Democratic Party to victory in the March 7, 2012, general elections, but it was such a narrow victory that it has forced him to look outside the available elected area representatives for ministers of government.
As we explain in a more detailed article appearing on Page A of this issue of Amandala, the Constitution limits the amount of elected officials of the ruling party who can sit in Cabinet to two-thirds of their total number, in this case 11.
Barrow has, therefore, had to appoint four persons as UDP Senators in order to constitute a Cabinet of 15. It is those four senatorial appointees who are of keen interest to the public.
Senator Lisel Alamilla is the new Minister of Forestry, Fisheries, Sustainable Development and Indigenous Peoples.
Senator Audrey Joy Grant is the new Minister of Energy, Science and Technology, and Public Utilities.
Senator Godwin Hulse is the new Minister of Labour, Local Government, Rural Development and NEMO.
Senator Charles Gibson is the new Minister of Public Service and Elections and Boundaries.
Amandala has not been able to speak with Grant or Gibson, and we hope they will respond to our request for an interview.
We have, however, been able to speak with Alamilla and Hulse, who were both very honored to be offered the opportunity to serve as ministers of government, though they did not run on the UDP’s March 7 ticket.
Senator Godwin Hulse told our newspaper that Barrow first approached him Sunday morning with the offer.
“It was a shocking request. I wasn’t quite prepared for that,” said Hulse.
He also was not quite prepared for the declaration Barrow made at the Tuesday press conference that, “One thing that has been constant is the fact that Godwin is UDP,” and despite being what Barrow described as “an invigilator on behalf of the society,” Barrow said, that “does not mean he ever moved away from his UDP roots and support.”
“Historically and traditionally, that’s where my people have always been…” Hulse agreed.
He told us that he has a kind of social democratic leaning, and he thinks the UDP has gone in that direction.
Hulse said he did not immediately accept the ministerial offer, but consulted with family, close friends and advisors who said, “You gotta go, you can’t say no!”
The Senator has also been assigned to be Leader of Government Business in the Senate, which means that he is the lead spokesperson for the UDP in the Senate.
We asked him: “That independent, analytical Godwin Hulse, do we still see him operating in the Senate, as he used to operate, or is there a bit of a shift to the UDP party line?”
He replied that we will see him continuing to be independent.
“We expect that he will bring to the table in Cabinet the same fierce anti-corruption position. We embrace that,” said Barrow.
“I have always talked about good governance, good governance, good governance. This is an opportunity to bring that about as best as I can, and you know I will be striving for that,” he told Amandala.
Reports won’t be laid on the table of Parliament, but will go to committees for proper review, said Hulse.
Where NEMO is concerned, he said, one has to always be prepared; local government – you just have to make sure they run, said Hulse. As for labor, he said, Belize can make labor proactive rather than reactive.
Being a “rural person,” said Hulse, he loves the fact that he has this area of governance in his portfolio: “The concept of rural development, coupled with agriculture and light manufacturing is exciting… Rural development has tremendous potential, and I think that area I will give a lot of attention to…”
Alamilla told our newspaper that she was first approached on Friday morning, when Barrow asked her if she would consider a senatorial appointment to be made a minister, and she immediately said yes.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity. I really did not hesitate, because I don’t see another way to serve my country that is bigger than this,” she added.
She said that she had met with Barrow at 8:30 Tuesday morning and was informed that it was official. She was being given forestry, fisheries, sustainable development, climate change and indigenous peoples. Her portfolio will include the Department of the Environment, Forest Department, Fisheries Department, the Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute, and the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, she told us.
“I told the PM when we met again [Tuesday] afternoon that there are probably a hundred things on my list of priorities—a lot of things are ready and just need to be pushed through,” she said, adding that she had also spoken to her NGO colleagues asking for their support.
The Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA) and the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA) note with surprise and consternation that the new government has appointed a ministerial portfolio of “Indigenous Peoples”, within the new Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries, Sustainable Development and Indigenous Peoples.
The Alamilla appointment has proved to be controversial. We received a statement following her appointment saying, “The Maya Leaders Alliance (MLA) and the Toledo Alcaldes Association (TAA) note with surprise and consternation that the new government has appointed a ministerial portfolio of ‘Indigenous Peoples’, within the new Ministry of Forestry, Fisheries, Sustainable Development and Indigenous Peoples.
“To the best of our knowledge, this new Ministry was created without any consultation with any Indigenous Peoples. Neither the National Garifuna Council nor the Maya people of southern Belize through the Toledo Alcaldes Association, or the Maya Leaders Alliance, was advised or consulted. This is particularly disrespectful and disappointing, since the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – which Belize voted to adopt at the United Nations — requires governments to ‘consult and cooperate in good faith with the Indigenous Peoples concerned through their own representative institutions before adopting and implementing administrative measures that may affect them,’” the statement said.
There are others in the NGO community who say that Alamilla’s appointment was payback from Barrow for going against the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage, in the vote on holding the national oil referendum.
Responding to that charge, Alamilla said, “I think I will show and prove to people that I have integrity; that when I said what I said, it is because it needed to be said; and it’s because a lot of people were thinking like me, but not willing to stand up and say it.”
Not much was said of the distinguished Joy Grant, but Barrow did reminisce back to their days of the National Independence Party (NIP), when he, Finnegan and Grant were together.
As for Gibson, said Barrow, “Charles has been a professional public officer, but this is a small society; man, everybody knows Charles is a UDP; all Belmopan knows Charles is UDP.”
Barrow concedes that there will be those UDP’s who feel they ought to have been chosen and who “may feel a little hard done by.”
He explained, however, that he was “seeking to create this confluence of elected representatives who reflect the popular will and expertise,” as well as technical ability, “in order to produce a whole that could work most effectively for Belize.”
“I was and am convinced that I am doing the right thing,” Barrow asserted.
Those 6 elected reps who could not make the cut due to constitutional limitations were not left out. Barrow gave them posts of junior ministers, but with the new stipulation that they now have special responsibility for particular areas within the ministries to which they have been assigned. Barrow told us that there is no plan to offer a salary increase.
“We can make this work on a practical level where the minister will leave to the minister of state the running of the ministry with respect to the sections that the Minister of State has been asked to work on,” said Barrow, demonstrating how in his Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, he would leave the economic development aspect of the ministry to Santino “Santi” Castillo, who won for the UDP in Caribbean Shores.
The Prime Minister said that they would try to, as best as possible, to maintain the public trust; not abuse their public office; and be honest, accountable and open.
The social partners in the Senate are working on lining up their representative for the Senate.
At last Thursday’s post-victory press conference, when we asked Barrow about the erosion of the relationship between government and the social partners, he said, “I really hope we could turn a page… usher in a new chapter in the relationship.”
He said that while he is prepared to extend a hand of friendship, he will quickly pull it back if people start to talk again about burning tires in front of his house.
“The fault for what may have been perceived as a pretty sharp deterioration is on both sides. If the social partners will insist on being confrontational, defiance before dialogue – there is a point beyond which the government can’t go. I don’t want to be and will never be prepared to be weak. So please, man, respect us so that we can respect you. Let us try to move forward on that basis,” said Barrow.