The personality cult thrust may have been the product of a kind of last stand mentality. Independence, for so long the main plank in PUP election manifestos, had been delayed for more than a decade, and in the late 1970?s it was beginning to appear that Mr. Price could end up like Moses of the Old Testament ? only seeing, but never touching, the Promised Land. The new, well-financed, high political technology UDP was the clear favourite to win the 1979 general elections.

Mr. Price, however, had a sensational upset victory campaign in 1979, then achieved his political independence in 1981. Three years later, the PUP was devastated, 21-7, by the UDP, and it then appeared that the legend of George Cadle Price was coming to an end.

Instead, the young blood of the party ? Ralph Fonseca and Glenn Godfrey, led a rebuilding effort which returned the PUP to office in 1989 with a narrow (15-13) upset win. Mr. Price became Prime Minister/Minister of Finance once more, but during the 1989 to 1993 term, evidence began to accumulate that George Cadle was no longer in full control of the party and the government, especially the finances.

After the close PUP general election loss in June 1993, followed by a terrible defeat in the Town Boards in March of 1994, an amount of ferment began in the PUP. Party insiders say that it was the two big financiers of the PUP who demanded that Mr. Price step down. I cannot say for sure. But Mr. Price did agree to step down as Party Leader, and Said Musa defeated Florencio Marin in a national convention in Belmopan to become the new PUP Leader in 1996.

Mr. Price ran in the 1998 general elections, and was re-elected as Pickstock area representative, whereupon he became Senior Minister in the 1998?2003 Cabinet appointed by new Prime Minister Musa.

There are some people high up in the PUP who swear that Mr. Price had no real say in the 1998?2003 administration. I do not agree with this opinion, but, whatever the case, the relevant point in this essay is that the legend of Mr. Price continued to grow within the PUP.

Mr. Price retired from electoral politics in 2003, but his reputation for personal financial honesty has been exploited by PUP spin doctors to distract party and public condemnation of various financial decisions made by PUP governments since 1998. As the evidence continues to mount that hocus pocus has been going on, perhaps Mr. Price should be careful how he blesses certain people and certain processes, but it appears that the former Prime Minister believes in party unity and party loyalty above all other considerations.

The contrast between the PUP and the UDP is clear, when we reflect on the fact that the memory of national hero Philip Goldson has been allowed to fade in the Opposition party. There is no historical continuity within the UDP.

Not only that, the UDP have allowed the PUP to get away with distortions of history in the PUP?s campaign to canonize Mr. Price. Mr. Price was not the founding leader of the PUP. He was one of a group of young British Hondurans who founded the People?s United Party in 1950. Mr. Price became PUP Leader in 1956 when he defeated the incumbent Leader, Leigh Richardson, who was supported by Philip Goldson, in a power struggle.

In their rewriting of history, the PUP propagandists essentially begin the party?s history in 1956. (They have also erased the General Workers Union from Belizean history.) The UDP should be able to go back to 1973, at least, for historical continuity, but there is material between 1971 and 1974 that they do not wish to rehash. It was between 1971 and 1974 that they conspired to replace Philip Goldson as Opposition Leader. Having been ousted in an extended palace coup, Goldson was UDP loyal from 1974 until 1991, when he broke away and formed the National Alliance for Belizean Rights (NABR). He never rejoined the UDP. That is why his memory is not glorified by the UDP.

In an ideal UDP world, they should be able to exploit the massive credibility and unparalleled heroism of Mr. Goldson, just as the PUP are now exploiting the personal honesty and famous triumphs of Mr. Price. Needless to say, however, it is not an ideal UDP world. Truth crushed to earth shall rise again. Thus saith Marcus Mosiah Garvey.