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Corruption in politics

EditorialCorruption in politics


Let us go back to the actual campaigning. In Belize, political parties can accept financial and other donations from any individual or any organization, local or foreign. These moneys can be of any size whatsoever, and there is no law to require disclosure of source or amount. Thus, political campaigning in Belize is a wide open ball game, a free for all; and it is, at the end of the game ? winner take all.


Excesses in campaigning are normally rewarded with victory. Audacious, violent, even crazy behaviour is sometimes at a premium in campaign, and the individuals who become known for such behaviour on behalf of their party during the war that is political campaigning, rise to the top of their party?s totem pole in the eyes of the party?s leaders. When victory is achieved, there are people who cannot function successfully under non-campaign circumstance, who now have to be rewarded for their loyalty and their campaign deeds.


Remember now, that the people who have the most money to donate to political parties in Belize are the people who deal and traffic in narcotics, the most illegal of activities. Remember again, that the lawyers the major narcotic dealers and traffickers choose to defend them in court, are the highest ranking lawyers they can find in the Opposition party. When that Opposition party, whichever it is, comes to power, these same lawyers who accepted campaign donations from narco-traffickers and defended them in court for huge fees, now suddenly become self-righteous, pay heavy lip service to America?s war on drugs, and inveigh publicly against the evils of narcotics and chemical dependency. Meanwhile, the lawyer leaders of the party previously in power which becomes the Opposition, immediately become defence counsel for the said, same narco-traffickers. So.


The standard, the oldest, the most lucrative area of corruption in government administrations is the area of contracts for public works ? whether at the national or municipal level. This is how many of the big campaign donors are rewarded ? with the ?bloated? contracts Jorge Espat spoke about. The tender system existed, or exists, so that the public can get competent work for the lowest prices possible. But the ruling politicians find ways to get around the tender system, so that what Belize has been getting is flawed, defective, shoddy public works for excessive prices.


The extra moneys included inside the bloated contracts are shared among the relevant politicians, the ruling party, and the contractor. This is such an ancient method of beating the system, of ripping off the taxpayers to ?take care? of the party, that it is practically legal. It is how the political party in power ?taxes? the people, so that the party politburo can live high on the hog and put aside campaign funds to seek another term in office.


To achieve success, and to sustain success, the politician must be willing to countenance corruption. In Belize today, the political parties accept campaign donations from narco-traffickers, brothel operators, and the immigration gangsters. The parties do not ask where the money comes from, and neither do the voters and supporters who eat the free food, drink the free beer and dance to the free music. So the people, without knowing it, are a part of the whole process which involves dirty money and political corruption.


There are some people who insist that politics is a noble profession. Well, the most we can say is that it is a necessary profession. No democratic society can do without politicians, but we really don?t know about the nobility part. We know that some of our people have entered politics here with the best of intentions, but those who insist on remaining simon-pure, fall by the wayside, are trampled and humiliated. Those who survive and conquer, are the ones who ?get real?. And you can interpret ?get real? any way you wish.


Within the political parties themselves, there are some checks and balances, so to speak. The politicians who are in power know most of each other?s business, and they act as restraints upon each other, to an extent. But, as with any other system, there are times when equilibrium breaks down. A faction might become too powerful, too greedy, or too selfish.


The Opposition UDP has taken the moral high ground for some years now where the matter of political corruption is concerned. We can?t tell the UDP experts how to run their politics, but the people in the streets know that lawyers within the UDP leadership are routinely retained by narco-traffickers and other gangsters. Belizeans believe that these relationships often become more than professional ? they become friendly. Belize, remember, is a very small place.


Our point is that the Opposition should be careful not to fall in love with its own purity rhetoric. Everybody knows the PUP is corrupt. But we also know that the system of campaigning and the system of government are historically and invariably corrupt. The problem, as the scholars say, is a systemic one. In some way or the other, all of us are tainted, even those who go to church every day. Those with eyes to see, see.

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