Two or three weeks ago we saw PUP Leader Emeritus, Right Hon. George Price, on television campaigning for PUP Cayo South candidate, Charles Galvez, in the Valley of Peace area. Then we saw him on the stage at a Ladyville political rally held by PUP Belize Rural Central candidate, Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca. One PUP source has told us that Mr. Price intends to return to the Valley of Peace to assist Galvez’s campaign again.
The first thing these appearances tell us is that Mr. Price is in very good health for a man in his late eighties. We know that the old man enjoys these political activities, so it may be that the involvement actually helps to keep him as strong as he is.
Another thing we learn is that Mr. Price is much in support of the present leadership of the ruling party as they seek a third consecutive five-year term of office. But the Musa/Fonseca tandem have become controversial, especially since the summer of 2004, and their neoliberal economic policies will be put to the political test in a few weeks time.
There is a danger here for Mr. Price, in the sense that he is risking his political legacy and national reputation by being so visibly involved with the 2008 version of the PUP, which is so different from the idealistic foundation laid in September 1950. I think he would have been better advised to keep a distance from the present PUP campaign. A PUP victory in next month’s general elections would not enhance Mr. Price’s reputation, but he would be tarnished by a huge PUP defeat. In other words, he has something to lose, and very little to gain. I take that back. Perhaps he has more to gain than we can see from here.
There was a time when George Price was considered a militant, roots leader by the Belizean people. He was fighting against British colonialism. Mr. Price was allied with the workers. He fought to acquire land to empower poor farmers throughout the length and breadth of Belize. When he became PUP Leader in 1956, Mr. Price essentially provided opportunities for groups which had been alienated under the British – working class Creoles, rural Latins, and the Garinagu. In his social and economic policies, Mr. Price was definitely a progressive.
If the UDP win a big victory, it is for sure that there will be a cry from their rank-and-file for financial investigations to be carried out which would be more serious than the Senate Committee inquiry into the Social Security Board and the Development Finance Corporation commission of inquiry.
The nature of Belize’s post-colonial society is such, however, that the colonial class/color structure remains in place to a great extent. What I am saying is that the ties among the political leaders of the PUP and the UDP, who essentially are there because they are considered “safe” by the nation’s financial elite, are such that there is no guarantee that the leadership of a ruling UDP would unleash retribution upon the SSB and DFC “principals.”
There are wealthy, powerful, conservative people in Belize who desire, above all, for the status quo to remain in place. Among these wealthy, powerful conservatives (wpc’s) are, prominently, a substantial amount of lawyers. The justice system in Belize is not confrontational. There are no revolutionary lawyers in Belize. Forty years ago, Shoman and Musa were supposed to be the first of such a species in the old British Honduras, and we all can see how they ended up. Young lawyers who show signs of being concerned about “the people,” are quickly pressured into submission, and the reason this is always easily done is because it is the lawyers who control the leadership of Belize’s two major political parties – the PUDP. Can you dig it.
What the two major parties are, from a certain perspective, they are respectable, legal gangs. On the ground, the PUP and the UDP are the two most intimidating organizations in Belize. The PUP leaders knew that it was important to involve and implicate known UDP figures in the “games” they were playing. Perhaps the most distasteful example of that was the conspiracy involving what we used to call the Registry. It was a legal conspiracy, but to the masses of the Belizean people it seemed very much like a rip-off. Two PUP Cabinet Ministers were involved, but so was the lawyer brother of UDP Leader, Hon. Dean Barrow. This BELIPO/Companies Registry business was one which required the strongest of condemnations, but it was difficult for me personally, because Denys Barrow is a relative and long time friend of mine. If yours truly, who is relatively unencumbered by PUDP considerations, has a problem going after Denys, how much more of a problem isn’t Dean Oliver going to have?
Perhaps the greatest strength of Mr. Price in his leadership days was the fact that he was considered absolutely impeccable where his handling of Belize’s public finances was concerned. But it is precisely in the area of public finances that the present PUP leadership is most suspect. Mr. Price put party loyalty above all other considerations when the SSB and DFC scandals began to be exposed in that fateful summer of 2004. Because he did what he did, he will not escape blame if there is a PUP crash.
There are skeptics who believe, however, that the Belizean boat will not be rocked, so to speak, by a change from blue to red. That would be a disappointment to the people of Belize, and it would reduce the period of post-election euphoria.
Mr. Price’s iconic status is a PUP asset which enhances their credibility, especially in rural areas of Belize. And the UDP, for their part, have to protect Mr. Barrow’s reputation at every turn. This means that there are people in both the major parties who will consider this column a hostile one. They will conveniently forget that for the majority of Belizean people, the number one issue is our tax dollars. The personalities are not the issue. It’s the cheese, Jack. The cheese.
Power to the people.