Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 4:48 AM

I honestly believe that to survive as a politician you can’t be milquetoast; you have to be merciless in your pursuit of power. George Price, for all his piety and his gentle demeanor, was a killer when it came to politics. So were Musa and Shoman and Hyde, although Hyde (Evan X) wasn’t a politician; but the three are inextricably linked in changing the political and social landscape of the late 1960’s Belize. Dean Lindo was a killer; Goldson was a dreamer. Joe Andrews was a killer; Ken Tillett was a dreamer. Lindy Rogers, Sylvester, Hunter (both brothers), Esquivel, Barrow, Finnegan, Silva, Vega, Cattouse, Briceño (father and son), all had, or have, that killer instinct.

In politics, as in business, only the strong survive. Fortitude in itself is not enough; it has to be steely, unbending, and ruthless. Shyne did not inherit his father’s talents as a politician, and Tracy is not a killer. Like the Democratic Party in America, the UDP needs someone to lead them out of the wilderness. No one comes to mind for me, and hopefully Faber and Saldivar have gone into the land of the forgotten and will disappear into oblivion. I have always admired Peyrefitte, but I’m not sure he has the support to sustain a fight for leadership. Maybe Hugo Patt, but who knows?

The PUP have the same problem. I saw an interview on Channel 7, where Jules was asking Minister Bernard if he was vying for leadership when the PM steps down. Seriously? A diminutive man, maybe 5 feet tall? Unless he’s Napoleon, I don’t see how any height-impaired man, or woman, can command and corral respect from the voters of this country. We are too visual a society, and we want to look up to our leaders, not look down at them. No, the psychological aspects won’t allow for such dramatic changes. Plus, he’s way down in the pecking order. Of course, it’s only my opinion, which I’m allowed to express.

These two parties will have to decide, very soon, I believe, on who will guide them and the country into a different world. Belize, like the rest of countries around the world, is rapidly changing and adjusting. Trying to find a place where our borders are secure, where we don’t allow other countries to take advantage of our fragile growth; and where we can attain and sustain a better and more optimistic economy, a better place. To be envied and respected for our democracy, our freedoms, our welcoming attitude, and our desire to be equal among our peers in Central America and in the Caribbean.

I know that Belize held general elections earlier this month, but there has to be an urgency in terms of securing the leadership position in both political parties. We are not prepared for third party governance, although it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have that threat hanging over the PUDPs. We need youngbloods or new blood to fight for our right to exist, and prosper, as a free and democratic society! We need to get rid of the parasites that are just sucking the blood, like vampires, out of this budding Jewel called Belize. Candidates not only with killer’s instincts, but also empathetic and nationalistic, and whose only motives are to serve the people. The sooner we settle the leadership question, di betta. We need a giant like Mia Motley, who doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man that is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who, at the best, knows in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who never knew victory nor defeat.” — Teddy Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, 1910.

Glen