February 23, 2021
Dear Editor,
I found the article written by Wilfredo Novelo titled, “Is Belize in for a Constitutional Crisis?” to be thought-provoking, because we all know that Belize has a constitutional crisis, without any question. Some of the problems include the payouts given to citizens to make them vote for a certain party or candidate; the abuse by elected representatives of their powers; interference in the judicial branch of government, which affects its ability to carry out its functions; the government’s failure to comply with judgments made against them by the courts, one example being the Maya Land Rights cases; the refusal to abide by constitutional mandates like redistricting of political constituencies based on population distribution after the required number of years; spending of public funds by both PUP and UDP governments without the approval of the National Assembly; the forceful removal of civil servants from office in violation of the Constitution; the sale and use of the lands of the Garifuna and Maya people without consulting them and getting their approval, and many other constitutional violations that have occurred since we gained our self-government from Great Britain in 1964.
When our Belizean citizens’ rights are being violated by the government, they have to get a lawyer to go to court to file a complaint against them. Most Belizean lawyers will not go to court without being paid, and most citizens cannot afford the cost of their fees, so the infractions committed by the government usually go unchallenged. Also, many of the lawyers in Belize support either the PUP or UDP, and if their party is in power, they will not bring any legal action against them.
The citizens of Belize must demand from their government, that a law be passed that if the government violates the constitutional rights of a citizen or citizens, the Belize Bar Association should provide the injured party with a paid attorney to bring his or her case to court for legal action to commence until the matter is resolved. This law will make the representatives of government think twice before they violate the Constitution. There have been some judges who have ruled in some cases against the government of Belize. When the government was dissatisfied with their rulings, it later punished these judges by not renewing their contracts. This is an issue that is being kept quiet, but sometimes it can affect citizens of the country financially, if the judge’s tenure is not served but he or she continues to be paid by our Belizean taxpayers.
Many Belizeans are aware of the constitutional violations, but they just let it slide because of the cost of bringing the constitutional infraction to court and fear of repercussions against them from members of government. Some have come to the conclusion that nothing can be done about it. A look at the US government and US Constitutional Law shows that the Separation of Powers and Check and Balances, are two of the fundamental principles that they consider sacred. The Legislative branch makes the laws; the Judiciary branch interprets those laws; and the Executive branch carries out government functions in accordance with the laws. These three branches have separate powers and functions.
The first US president that went too far in maximizing and abusing his Executive powers was Donald Trump. He went as far as trying to overturn the results of a legitimate election of the President of the United States. This act on his part even led to the disruption of the Senate counting of the Electoral College votes on January 6, 2021, to confirm Joseph Biden as our 46th President. This led to his second Impeachment and a request in the Senate for conviction by the Democrats.
The Republican Senators failed to provide the votes that were needed for his conviction, which required 67 votes, despite the evidence that was presented to them. This matter is far from over because of the damage to government property, injury to many citizens, the death of a police officer, and the abuse of presidential authority to the detriment of America’s democracy.
Belize has a centralized government which was given to it by Great Britain. Under this system there is no check and balance. Even though the separate powers of the three branches of government are spelled out in the Constitution, the governments in power do not abide by them. Currently in Belize, the government is putting pressure on the members of the Public Service Commission (PSU) to resign because they were appointed by the UDP party that just lost the election in November. They are refusing to resign and, if they are forced to do so, this matter could be taken to the Supreme Court for a final resolution. In fact, they need to bring the matter to the court to prevent this problem from getting worse. This is only one matter, because the Maya and Garifuna land rights issues will be coming up, as well as the Redistricting case and many other cases.
After the cases are brought to the courts, even if the court rules against the government of Belize, there is no guarantee that they will abide by the court rulings. Many judgments were handed down against the government of Belize in the past, and they failed to comply with them. How can a government tell their citizens to abide by the country’s laws, when they themselves are failing to comply with their own laws that they should be enforcing?