Headline

It took a police transfer for the Police Department to discover that big hustling, costing taxpayers almost $200,000, was taking place at the Queen Street Police Department, Eastern Division. A policeman is charged with selling 18, 965 gallons of fuel belonging to the Government of Belize, to private citizens with the collusion of attendants at a local gas station.

The Universal Health Services Motion may be off the table for now, but the storm of controversy that it spawned continues to fuel agitation at the highest levels of Government. A quick read of things indicates that Prime Minister Said Musa has realigned his Cabinet to weed out those who he felt have not been loyal to his agenda, while, conversely, seating more of his loyalists around the Cabinet table.

The frightening two-day ordeal of kidnap victim, former UDP Minister of Government/Freetown area representative, Derek Aikman, 47, fondly known to family, friends and supporters as “Mi D,” has come to a happy end.

Belize now has its first political kidnapping. In what certainly marks the beginning of a new, darker era for Belize, Derek Aikman, 47, a former UDP Minister of government and now a prominent social activist, was kidnapped late yesterday evening. At press time tonight, police do not know where he is or who the kidnappers are.

It appears that better sense has prevailed. This afternoon, less than 24 hours before confrontation in Belmopan, Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, has been forced to back down from proceeding with the Universal Health Services motion in the National Assembly. He announced at the eleventh hour on Thursday that after consulting widely with Belizeans, the ruling People’s United Party parliamentary caucus, which met in the capital city this afternoon, decided unanimously not to proceed with the debate and vote for the motion, scheduled for tomorrow morning, Friday, May 25.

Never in Belize's modern history has there been such intense public debate on a national issue as there has been on the Government's move to settle a $33 million debt for Universal Health Services with the Belize Bank. Over the past week momentum has been building as various community factions and the media have been campaigning in an effort to get Belizeans to give their symbolic "no" or "yes" votes on the issue. The clock is ticking towards a heated showdown in the capital city of Belmopan.

This Friday, May 18, 2007, the nation may finally get to know where their elected representatives in the National Assembly stand on the issue of the guarantee for Universal Health Services (UHS), and subsequent agreements by the Government to settle a $33 million debt for the private hospital, but the bottom line question is: Will taxpayers end up footing the multi-million-dollar bill?

Over the past two days the Prime Minister has been engaged in a staged public relations campaign to quell the debate over the Universal Health Services (UHS) guarantee and debt of $33 million. First, his office issued a release from Cabinet on Wednesday, May 9. Then, he issued a prepared statement via voice and print to the media, and third, he released a one-on-one interview with the head of the Government Press Office, with contents virtually identical to his prepared statement

The Office of the Prime Minister issued a statement on Friday, May 4, indicating that there will be no comment for the time being on the Universal Health Services (UHS) debt to the Belize Bank, which Government was called to pay last Wednesday. At press time this evening there has still been no comment on this burning issue from Prime Minister Said Musa – the man at the heart of the controversy. Mr. Musa returned to Belize on Sunday, May 6, after 12 days abroad – in Taiwan on state business and in Florida for his youngest son’s graduation.

The dispute over the Government’s guarantee for the Universal debt has taken a dramatic turn this week. That is because the Belize Bank has written Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, demanding immediate payment of the $33 million debt Government said it guaranteed for Universal Health Services in December of 2004.