BELIZE CITY, Wed. Mar. 27, 2019– Belize politicians and elected area representatives are a strange bunch. Every year they gather in the chambers of the National Assembly under the premise that they will debate the government appropriation bill (the budget). But they never debate the figures presented in the budget by the Prime Minister.
After spending the better part of 12 hours tuned in to the “budget debate,” I signed off, not knowing much more than when I started the assignment to cover the budget debate. Now I need a copy of the budget book to help me make sense of it.
For the fiscal year 2019-20, the government will spend 1.2 billion dollars on its various capital projects, wages, programs and all the other accoutrements that make up the figures in its budget.
One would think that Cabinet ministers whose ministries are allocated certain large sums of monies outside of salaries, would take the time to explain to the Belizean people how their ministries will spend their tax dollars.
That has not been the case. The most that comes out of these honorable gentlemen from the ministries is this: “Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this budget.”
Once those magical support words are uttered, the drift begins, and that can take them anywhere, at times much to the annoyance of Madam Speaker, who from time to time is forced to remind the member speaking about the rules of the House and the Standing Orders which govern the House proceedings.
The Opposition People’s United Party has been out of power for about 11 years, but it is a staple of budget debates for members of the ruling party to indulge in long flashbacks, cataloguing the misdeeds of the Opposition which has been vanquished in three consecutive general elections.
The Opposition, too, is not without its shortcomings in this spectacle that is called a budget debate. In the past two days devoted to supposedly debating the budget, the threat of imprisoning members of the ruling party was heard a number of times.
What does putting your political opponent behind bars have to do with debating the manner in which the people’s money will be spent by the government?
It is safe to conclude that the behavior of our parliamentarians, on both sides of the fence, has taken on the status of accepted House culture.
If you are a keen observer, you cannot help but notice that some members of the government side go to the House of Representatives for the budget debate and they are totally unprepared. Their cue is usually taken from the Opposition member who spoke before.
After muttering that they are in support of the budget, they lash out at their opponent who spoke before. Many times, they remain on the singular mission of denigrating the Opposition, either individually or collectively—mudslinging cannot be resisted. It is now generally accepted that both sides have had their nice, long romance with corruption, to the detriment of Belize’s development, and that that romance obviously continues.
So it is not strange when both sides blame and call out each other for corruption.
The sad part about this corruption thing is that the ruling United Democratic Party was poised in 2008 to right the ship of state in regards to corruption. But they did not. They fell into the trap that exists due to the weak structures of governance and the lack of accountability that has resulted from such weakness.
After eleven years of being in opposition, the PUP has to pledge to return to its social justice roots, and to practice good governance and accountability when they are returned to power.