Juliet Thimbriel, the general manager of WAVE Radio and co-host of the radio station’s morning talk show, is a major on-air talent and an absolute loyalist of UDP Leader/Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s. But she made a big mistake on Wednesday morning when Belize City Mayor, Zenaida Moya, called the WAVE morning show immediately after the city administrator, Englebert Perera, had given his side of a story on the UDP radio station. In fact, Juliet made more than one mistake.
Her first mistake was to engage with Zenaida as if they were on par, or even as if she, Juliet, were of such a status as to scold the Mayor. Inside the UDP, it is a known fact that Juliet is pushing hard to replace the Mayor with Anthony Michael at the mayoral convention in October. But on the party radio station, Juliet should have listened to the Mayor with respect, even if she had to feign such respect. Instead, she engaged with the Mayor, and treated Zenaida on air as if Zenaida was an adversary. Not good.
Juliet then made a second mistake. After the Mayor’s phone call, Thimbriel blurted out, apparently not aware that her microphone was live, “But da weh she di call in ya fa?”
Well, later in the day, according to most reports, Party Leader Barrow called Juliet to complain about her indiscretions, so to speak. Juliet reacted by resigning from the Senate posting to which she had been assigned by the UDP, which is to say, Mr. Barrow. This was probably a third mistake on her part.
Those who work in the media, even those who own the media, should always be mindful of the fact that they are not elected officials. While the free media are a powerful and important part of democratic states, elected officials have been chosen by the people for their assignments. Zenaida was elected. Juliet is not. Juliet should never have voiced her displeasure with Zenaida’s mayoral performance on the party’s radio station. Never.
The incident brings up the larger question of political party radio stations. During the last general election campaign, this newspaper had editorialized that perhaps the UDP should consider replacing Thimbriel’s colleague on the aforementioned WAVE morning talk show, Joe Bradley, Sr. We gave all the reasons we had arrived at such an opinion, but we were, no doubt predictably, ignored by the UDP. We made no such recommendation with respect to Miss Thimbriel, for our own reasons. We considered her less irresponsible than Mr. Bradley, to begin with.
But Juliet was always under more pressure than Bradley was, because she was and is the manager of the station. This is a position she takes seriously, perhaps too seriously. Under Juliet, WAVE aspired to compete with the independent radio stations. And in some respects, while the UDP were in the Opposition role, WAVE was kicking up some dust. But there was an emotional price Juliet was paying for pushing WAVE to compete.
Not only that, nobody sat Juliet down and explained to her, after February 7, 2008, that the ball game then changed drastically. Nobody was really interested in WAVE any more. The station, established by the Hon. Dean Barrow, had done its job – help him and the UDP get into office. Juliet should, perhaps, have moved on from WAVE.
As it is, yesterday morning Juliet sounded as if she took seriously her personal credibility and role. No, no, no. You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose, as it is said. This is fundamental. Poets have to step aside when the business of governing begins.
It is for sure that Zenaida Moya has been hurt politically by the orchestrated attacks against her in the last few weeks. Juliet should never have exposed her hand in that. Zenaida has a good idea what she is doing politically. Remember, it wasn’t the UDP which “made” Zenaida. Zenaida “made her bones” with the trade unions during the challenges to the PUP Musa administration of late 2004 and early 2005. There will be a backlash in her favor. For now, though, Zenaida is under serious duress.
More importantly, the image of the UDP, the ruling party, has been tarnished, and the overall image of the UDP is more important than Miss Moya’s political fortunes. The mayoral competition in Belize City has become messy. Zenaida’s challenger, Deputy Mayor Anthony Michael, has, to an extent, been aloof from the turmoil. His campaign is being well managed. But the onslaught on Mayor Moya has national implications for the UDP. The ruling party appears divided: personal greed and ambition seem to be the order of the day.
We have said previously that the PUP have no chance, if one is to judge by Belize’s political history, in next March’s national municipal elections. But if things continue like they have been going inside the UDP, then the UDP itself will be responsible for giving the PUP a chance to make history next March, at least in one or two municipalities. We shall see.