Novelo?s had emerged as a virtual national monopoly years ago, and it was the Government of Belize that was encouraging Novelo?s to buy out smaller bus lines. Then Transport Minister, Hon. Maxwell Samuels, even gave the Novelo?s brothers a 15-year exclusive franchise, which they used to secure a $30 million loan from the Development Finance Corporation (DFC). In turn, the Novelo?s were bound, by that same franchise, to invest $30 million in the transportation industry. They were supposed to develop a more sophisticated transportation system, with better terminals. They had bought out the Pound Yard compound of the Belize City Council for a pittance, on the premise that a state-of-the-art terminal would be established on that block. Novelo?s claimed that patrons would have better buses.

Needless to say, none of these promises have materialized. Instead, the company plunged into receivership about a year later.

The Novelo?s story and the Intelco story have a great deal in common. Intelco had borrowed at least $100 million for investment into the company, including $40 million it had gotten through various Glenn Godfrey-related companies from the Social Security Board (SSB). Like Novelo?s, it did not take long for Intelco to go belly-up.

The justifications for using the SSB and the DFC to get financing for Novelo?s and Intelco were opposite. On the one hand, Novelo?s was supposed to establish a transportation monopoly; on the other hand, Intelco was supposed to break the BTL monopoly.

The Government of Belize was speaking with forked tongues. It told Belizeans that competition in telecommunications would bring down prices of telecommunications and improve the quality of services. At the same time, it was promoting the monopoly policy as the savior to bus commuters and travelers?a scenario that was supposed to bring stability to the industry, make commuters safer, and bring them better quality services.

At the same time, there had been riots by bus commuters: the Tower Hill Riot in July 2001, challenging the Novelo?s virtual monopoly, and the Benque riot in April 2002 over the rise in prices. These protests are akin to the massive street demonstrations in 2001/2002 over BTL?s ?rebalancing? of phone rates.

Since these outbursts by suffering consumers, there seems to have been a total reversal of Government?s position with regards to both telecommunications and transportation. We have returned to competition in the transportation sector, while we have gone back to a virtual monopoly in the telecommunications sector.

Where the Novelo family had a stronghold over transportation, Lord Michael Ashcroft now has a firm hold over telecommunications.

We think that the problems that have emerged over the years, where both telecommunications and transportation are involved, are simply because Government cannot make up its mind on what its policies are (its indecisiveness on how to govern), and furthermore, GOB has failed to recognize and to seek what is best for Belizean consumers.

We find that, instead, it is the interests of a few capitalists, who care about nothing more than their bottomlines, that GOB has pursued.

Meanwhile, the Government continues to pay the debts of both Intelco and Novelo?s, both included in the securitization pools. In effect, taxpayers are footing the bill and have still not seen the promised improvements in both sectors.

We cannot agree with declarations made by others that the Novelo?s had emerged as ?saviors? to commuters who were stranded on Tuesday evening, after the bus strike. After all, it is they who ruined Novelo?s Bus Line and sent it into receivership; it is they who were running buses for nearly two weeks without a permit; it is they who still owe us $30 million.

Do the Novelo?s not intend for the DFC to get back its $30 million and for Atlantic Bank to get back its $18 million? If they did, they would stay out of transportation and let the receivership earn what it can to pay back what they, the Novelo?s, have gotten from the cookie jar.

As for the Government of Belize, we cannot understand how it could turn a blind eye to the transgressions in the transportation sector. Someone broke the law in giving away a 15-year franchise without proper sanctioning from Cabinet. Someone broke the law by running buses without permits.

Likewise, someone broke the law by unilaterally changing phone rates in December 2001. Someone broke the law by trading $200 million on the parallel market for US dollars?

If these transgressions were perpetrated by the average man and woman in Belize, all hell would break loose. Like the heavy taxation on the poor and the tax holidays for the rich, the double standard is not healthy and will always lead to unrest and then chaos. This chaos, which has often manifested itself in demonstrations, protests and strikes, staggers the growth of our economy and we all pay the price in the end.

Government?s job is to use its best endeavor to avoid these chaotic situations. Tuesday evening?s chaos was avoidable, had authorities fairly applied the rule of law. It is GOB who made this bed, but sadly, it was commuters who were forced to lie in it.

It is time for Government to govern and stop the madness!