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Godfrey Smith gives his opinion on Ralph Fonseca

PoliticsGodfrey Smith gives his opinion on Ralph Fonseca

The Hon. Godfrey Smith, Minister of Tourism and PUP Deputy Leader, who last week began to pen a column called “Flashpoint” in his party’s newspaper organ, The Belize Times, in the newspaper’s issue of Sunday, December 10, 2006, argued that Hon, Ralph Fonseca, the architect of “Ralphonomics,” an economic plan for Belize that many believe has led this nation to bankruptcy and greater poverty, may well be a millstone around the collective necks of the PUP, who are desperately seeking re-election in the uncomfortably close 2008 elections, just over a year away.

Smith begins by saying that Deutsche bankers think that Fonseca is basically a wizard with numbers, and “very decisive.”

“Decisiveness is one of the most trusted instruments in Mr. Fonseca’s toolbox of operations,” said Godfrey.

 “So, should Ralph run in 2008?” asks Godfrey, who is known to be “in Ralph’s camp.”

Godfrey admits that the party “does not enjoy its hitherto monolithic party unity,” and wonders aloud: is Ralph more important than the party?

While Ralph is no longer the Minister of Finance, argues Godfrey, “he can, within the party, still raise the biggest army [politically] and certainly still is the biggest source of campaign financing.”

But the party, argues Godfrey, “has suffered a loss of popularity and credibility and therefore, to enhance the party’s chances of success in 2008, he should not run again.”

Godfrey, however, tries to present a balance by arguing, on the other hand, that if Ralph doesn’t run, “it will be perceived as a signal to campaign financiers from the single most powerful man in the party that he has given up and thus will exacerbate the ebb of funding to the party …and will create a huge power vacuum that will unleash an uncontrollable, internal power struggle, extending well beyond 2008…”

Mr. Fonseca, says Godfrey, “has, irreversibly it seems, become a flashpoint, within and without the party. His detractors will not change their minds about him.”

Campaign funding, all politicians and parties know, is absolutely necessary to success at the polls.

Ends Hon. Godfrey: “The pragmatic path, the path of least resistance, lies in Mr. Fonseca announcing that he will not run again …to do otherwise would, in my view, not be in the best interest of the party.”

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