British PM Margaret Thatcher and US president Ronald Reagan, who led their respective countries in the 1980s, believed small government produced greater efficiency, and for that reason Thatcher privatized a number of public sector assets. Both delivered tax cuts for the wealthy, the argument there being that the rich would invest their excess capital and create businesses, from which funds would trickle down to the masses. The 1984-89 UDP administration liked the privatization idea enough to tinker with it, and the PUP administrations of 1989-93 and 1998-2003 liked it so much they sold off everything.
The 1979-84 administration (PUP) maintained the “mixed economy” blueprint that had guided our development since self-government in 1964, even when the price of sugar crashed on the world market and our economy hit the rocks. Premier George Price could have privatized essential public assets to bolster his party’s chances at the polls in 1984, but that would have been a betrayal, unthinkable. The PUP was crushed at the polls, 21-7, in the 1984 general election.
The UDP administration, 1984-89, introduced privatization to Belize. In 1987 the UDP took existing telecommunications assets and formed Belize Telecommunications Ltd. (BTL), with the government controlling 51% of the shares. When the PUP returned to power in 1989 in a shock election victory, Price, the prime minister, was nominally in charge of the country’s finance department. Effectively, however, Belize’s economy was under the guidance of three men – Ralph Fonseca and Glenn Godfrey, who were disciples of Thatcher and Reagan; and Said Musa, whose vision for the economy was closer to Price’s. All three had seen how good the UDP of 1984-89 looked, with millions to spend from the privatization of telecommunications, sales of economic citizenship, and largesse from Reagan (USA), who was happy to see the direction in which the country was going.
The 1989-93 PUP administration borrowed at commercial rates, sold shares in the electricity utility to foreign interests, and gave a salary increase (by far the highest ever) to its employees. The funds that were borrowed, and that was received from privatization, were used to improve government infrastructure; and with the salary increase, the government aimed to make the public sector more competitive with the private sector. In later years, Belize would replace the public service-trained Permanent Secretaries as heads of the system with Chief Executive Officers (CEO), plucked mainly from the private sector.
To date, there’s no report of anyone or group carrying out a study to determine if our country got greater production from the public sector after the salaries and benefits of employees were increased, and if we are better off with the business minded CEOs who now sit in control of the spending of public funds and the execution of government policies. It is the opinion of some observers that since the Permanent Secretaries were replaced with the contract officers (CEOs), the public service has become more prone to corruption.
The 1993-98 UDP/NABR coalition government, a surprise victor at the polls, struggled to service loans that the 1989-93 PUP government had contracted, and to pay the salaries of its employees. Despite the economic pressures, that government resisted further sales of the country’s national assets, and borrowing. Instead, they retrenched hundreds of public employees. The UDP and NABR did not contest the 1998 general election as a coalition, and both were shellacked at the polls.
The 1998-2003 administration (PUP) went overboard with privatization, and it did not work out well. The foreign company that bought control of water and sewerage (BWSL) upped the rates on Belizeans and demanded more; the foreign company that bought control of BTL wasn’t eager to deliver internet access to schools, snubbed the government’s regulatory body (PUC) when it moved to control rates, and blocked VOIP; the owners of the electricity company (BEL) rejected the rates set by the PUC; the port in Belize City fell into receivership and decay.
All these assets have since been returned to public control—BWSL in 2005, BEL in 2011, BTL in 2015, and PBL (the port) in 2023.
For the right to be as cold as Musk
Far be it from anyone in Belize to tell the US how to run its economy, but because what they do over there impacts our economy, and influences how we manage ours, it is necessary to pay attention to how they are running their affairs. The US is a capitalist state that is left of center in a few areas when the Democrats control government, and far right of center when the Republican Party runs the show. With either party in power, the US insists that the free market system prevails in countries in our region. In the past, the US has orchestrated the overthrow of governments that strayed too far to the left, and for those socialist-leaning leaders who have maneuvered to stay in power, their people have been crushed by various arms of the US government.
The US, under Donald Trump, is the most right-wing government in recent memory. The US is heavily in debt, and on the external front the country has initiated tariff wars with both friendly and not so friendly countries. Internally, the Trump government has set Elon Musk, one of the primary financiers of Trump’s presidential campaign, in charge of a watchdog body called the Department of Government Efficiency, with a mission to root out waste from departments funded by the public purse. Musk has jumped to the task with fervor; seemingly, no government program or employee is safe from the axe.
Musk watchers say he is proud to be ruthless. CNN journalist, Zachary B. Wolf, in the story, “Elon Musk wants to save Western civilization from empathy”, said, “Musk said he believes in empathy and that ‘you should care about other people’”, but “he also thinks it’s destroying society.” Drawing from a biography of Musk by Walter Isaacson, Wolf said Musk was “described as quick to fire people”, and that the biographer told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in 2023, “He [Musk] likes this notion of helping humanity. In fact, he has more empathy for humanity in general than he often has for the 20 people around him.”
As noted, the Republicans are far right. Not everything that is good for the US is good for Belize. The evidence is there that in countries like ours, their “trickle down” system produces a small wealthy class, and a large class that is dirt poor.
The efficiency which the US seeks in their public sector would be disastrous in Belize. While it is critical that our public sector is superefficient in the delivery of the services it provides, its function as a safety net has to be embraced. For the good of the country, when jobs are scarce the sector’s ranks expand, and when jobs are plenty it contracts. Musk reportedly has described Social Security as a Ponzi scheme, and in a way it is. But unlike the criminal private Ponzi scheme, the public Social Security will exist and serve its essential purpose as long as we have a country.
Our private sector can be encouraged to be lean and mean; indeed, the private sector has to be cutting edge on matters that relate to its bottom line. For the right to operate in as cold a manner as Musk, the private sector in Belize must accept a “bloated” public sector at times, and a tax structure that ensures that everyone wins.
Aurelio Martinez enriched our lives
Aurelio Martinez was an electric entertainer, a giant star. He touched audiences around the globe, and as long as there are Garinagu and Belizeans in this world, his music will live on. The Amandala joins Aurelio’s family, friends, and fans in mourning his loss. Rest in Peace, Honduran, Belizean, Garifuna brother. Your sweet music and joyful heart and dancing enriched our lives.