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In the paddock

EditorialIn the paddock

Our problem at Kremandala is white supremacy.  In Belize, white supremacy is maintained through the power of the two major churches – Rome and Canterbury.  Rome and Canterbury control so many votes at election time that the two major political parties must pay them maximum respect.  So this is how the politics works.  God, as explained by Rome and Canterbury, is on the side of Europe.

General elections in Belize are 15 months away, at most.  The chances are that elections are only 12 months away, or perhaps they may even be called before then.  But let us say we will have general elections in 12 months, for argument’s sake.  The horses of the two major parties are already in the paddock.  Europe, in the person of Lord Michael Ashcroft, has put its saddle on both sets of horses, we think.

We have been looking at the framework of a third party, a concept which we support.  In electoral politics, though, 12 months is a short time if you’re talking of putting something original together, and we have not yet seen the required urgency and commitment within the third party camp.  We will continue to support the third party concept, nevertheless, because Europe has not yet sunk its claws into it, as it has already sunk its claws into the PUP and the UDP.

The SPEAR polls indicate that the UDP will win the next general elections in Belize.   The trend in Latin America over the past several years has been towards the left, which is to say, in the direction of the workers and the peasants.  Since the late 1980’s and the collapse of communism, our part of the world had gone right wing, which is to say, in the direction of the bankers and the oligarchs. 

The UDP is a right wing party, but it is difficult to say if a UDP victory will move Belize more to the right.  The reason is that the PUP, which has ruled Belize since 1998 and began life as a left wing party in 1950, has moved so far to the right since 1989 that there is really no difference today between the PUP and the UDP where political philosophy is concerned.

In 1984, the PUP appeared to be destroyed by a UDP landslide. In the post-1984 era, it was confirmed that the stronghold of the modern PUP was in the Corozal District.  In 1984 the PUP won only one of ten seats in Belize City, for example, but two out of four in Corozal. It was Glenn Godfrey and Ralph Fonseca who rebuilt the PUP around the Florencio Marin foundation in the villages of Corozal. Said Musa, who had been a leftist, became a right winger at some point during that rebuilding.

Today, as we enter the last month of 2006, Godfrey is disgraced, Fonseca is exposed, and Musa is confused. The PUP is staring an electoral devastation in the face, the likes of which they have experienced only once before – in December of 1984.  The difference today is that Florencio Marin, Sr., will not be running for his seat in 2007/2008. It is possible, far fetched as it may seem today, that the PUP will be damaged beyond repair next year. 

The real danger that a third party represents is not to the UDP, then, but to the PUP.  If the trade unions of Belize end up as an integral part of the third party, then the fat cat PUP leaders and cronies, who are now using what is left of Rt. Hon. George Price as their credibility with workers and peasants, will find themselves in political limbo after the next general elections.

On Tuesday we pushed a button, and a ranking UDP leader responded with political maturity.  But less than twenty-four hours later, the UDP attack dogs became rabid on WAVE Radio.  If you program your followers a certain way for more than thirty years, then there is no change to change, so to speak. You can’t really teach a fool, especially if that fool does not know that he/she is a fool.

The UDP say they have nothing to fear from a third party, but this is not how they behave in real time. The UDP are saying all kinds of unkind things about the third party concept. They just don’t understand that today’s post-television electorate is far more sophisticated than Belize’s electorate was in the 1970’s. In 2006 we now have thousands and thousands and thousands of junior college and university graduates in Belize.  The growth in tertiary level education has been geometric since the 1970’s. The SPEAR poll said that the UDP received 32 percent support, the third party received 22 percent support, and the PUP received 11 percent support.  The danger of the third party is more to the PUP than it is to the UDP.

But you know what is the situation?  There is an element in the UDP which has that 1993-98 mentality. The condition is chronic, and their leaders are either unable or unwilling to address the condition.

Our problem at Kremandala, to repeat, is white supremacy. That means part of our problem is Rome and Canterbury.  Insofar as the PUP and the UDP, in their separate identities, submit to Rome and Canterbury, then they also become our problem.

There’s one more thing. Black is as black does.  Melanin does not guarantee righteousness.  What is your record?  Where do you stand on the important issues?  The undercover FBI agents in America wear longer dreads than the real Rastaman. Bring no bogus logic to I man, attack dog. Rabies is a killer.

Power to the people.

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