by Colin Hyde
A number of people have contributed greatly to the education of Belize, and two men who were largely philosophically at odds are the two giants in the field. The father of the nation, George Price, and the Amandala publisher, EX Hyde, two very different men, share the title. If you want to know how different these men are, you just have to listen to Krem and Love FM.
There are others, quién sabe, maybe many, who know this story better than I do. Well, after I’ve done botching it, they can talk. Price had (has) the greater audience, through being the Prime Minister, and his Belize Times and Radio Belize (now Love FM), while the Amandala publisher has audience through his newspaper, and his Krem radio and television.
Aha, it came to pass that George Price and his crowd promised Amandala a radio license, if the PUP won the 1989 election. Price’s primary ambition in the deal, political hound that he was, extoller of the maxim ‘political parties exist to win elections’ that he was, was to defeat the UDP, which had crushed his party at the polls in 1984—their very first shellacking. Krem came on air in 1989, after the PUP got over in the election, and almost immediately after that Price and the PUP began moving toward privatizing the giant Radio Belize, an effort which culminated with the introduction of Love FM in 1993. Price was desperate to get back into power, hence the deal with Krem. But Price was not about easing up on exerting himself and his philosophies on the minds of Belizeans.
When the private Love FM emerged from the ashes of the public Radio Belize, Rene Villanueva was at the helm. Rene had always done George Price’s bidding. I’ve heard Rene suggest that he had to stand up like a macho man to get Love FM. I’ve heard he also wrote something like that in his memoir, which I’m yet to read. I say, it is obvious that if Rene actually had to stand up to get Radio Belize, then he was battling sycophant(s) of the Price brand, and he won because Price and his crowd decided he was the best one to protect and carry on the philosophy. You don’t need to do any thinking to figure out that.
Insiders of course know already, but outsiders like me would be very interested in knowing which other favored entity or entities was/were vying for the highly prized, protected assets of Radio Belize. Faysi fellow that I am, I could bat some likely names, mainly suspects from the crowd I saw in the Price entourage as he made his rounds to push his political agenda. What’s the point in taking information to your grave? And there we’ll find out anyway.
I think what favored Rene is that he is no intellectual giant. He was grateful, he was 100% status quo, and thus he was very safe. Rene would be guilty of tremendous conceit if he was offended by that comment. Of course, maybe it is that Rene just preferred to play safe and catch the money. For sure, that would explain why he never questioned the establishment. My, what a brilliant hand he plays, parroting the Rotary 4-Way Test all the way to glory.
Bah, about that claim to macho, he should put that away. If he was, he wouldn’t have gotten the riches. I don’t “judge” that brother for towing the line throughout his career to get what he wanted. I’m far more lenient with people who don’t have the paper hanging on their wall. How much of his macho the Amandala publisher would trade for Rene’s riches, I don’t know. I will say it was far easier for him to “play big”, because he has the Phi Beta Kappa hanging like a large red, black and green handkerchief out of his back pocket. Ah, for his agenda Price made a good choice. In 2023, Radio Belize and Price are alive and well and kicking on Love FM.
Hmm, on a number of occasions the Amandala publisher has expressed his disappointment with the PUP for introducing private competition so quickly—the Love FM move. And I’m always surprised when he does. The fact is that Price wanted to win elections, yes, but he was not about giving up control of what poisons or palliatives were fed into the minds of Belizeans.
There has been no dearth of challengers to the two giants, Price and the Amandala publisher, in the battle for Belizean minds. Ah, while the Amandala publisher has expressed disappointment with the PUP for not giving the fledgling Krem a little run, so it could build up some financial oomph, to my mind the true betrayal is from the UDP, in 1984. The UDP, adversaries of Price, need to explain their refusal to give Amandala a radio license back in 1984. Really, what did Esquivel, Barrow, and the muscular Hubert Elrington have in this?
If Hubert mi naym Wilfred, you could see the possibilities there. Wilfred aka Sedi has been the author of numerous papers, and in government he was up front with his ideas, some very controversial, to forward the young Belize. I say, Exhibit A of Brother Hubert’s intellectual brilliance is the catch line, all glitter and no substance. A recent attempt by him to catch relevance, some story about the UDP landlubber captain running our ship onto the rocks, didn’t create a ripple.
Bah, in the battle to educate Belize, those UDPz of 1984 were nonentities. It could be that they were just petty. But the party should explain itself. If they had, there wouldn’t have been a vacuum for an outsider like me to slip in and talk about things I don’t know.
Aha, Assad Shoman and Said Musa, both under the blue Price umbrella, also had big inputs in educating the minds of Belize. Assad would get involved with SPEAR after he lost the 1984 election, and he would write numerous books, including a history of Belize that was favored by the PUP. Said Musa would become Minister of Education (and PM) and start BELCAST. Another contender was the three-party Dr. Ted Aranda, but his vision was limited to Dangriga.
Three educators with strong roots from the 1970-to-2000 period are still big on the scene. I will say to Don Hector, thanks, but no thanks for singing that they were all saints in the PUP. I have said before that since the Federation breakup, and right up to today, in 2023, there’s only been one with a halo in that party, and that he tolerated no other, so, if you are planning to run for the PUP, expect the first question from the ODS to be, ‘what all sins you have to prove that you belong in our gang?’.
No guessing game here; we all know that a formidable educator I haven’t mentioned is Ms. Sandra Coye. Sandra’s a lifelong educator and sometimes political activist; her biggest move was getting to head the Extra-Mural Department, but that opportunity didn’t last. She has spoken often about her relationship with Derek Aikman, as a kind of mentor. A lot of old people whose pots Price knew, baal when Derek defeated him in Freetown. Hmm, you know that Derek, the education minister for the UDP in 1984, left a question for Sandra to answer. When the UDP won in 1984, they dismantled Said’s BELCAST and made the Ferris State-affiliated UCB, a school focused on business.
We’ve had many educators who snuck in to sneak in their visions for Belize, but we’ll end this piece with a mention of another old blood who is still up front in the battle for our minds: the versatile brother, Richard Bradley. As you know, he needs an entire page, all for himself, so for now I must say, day-deh, over and out.