“This connection between an ideological standpoint and the writing of history is a perennial one. A check on the work of the great historians, including Herodotus and Thucydides, quickly exposes their passionate concern with ideology. Their irresistible moral, political and sociological comments are particular manifestations of more general ideological standpoints.” Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonisation, Kwame Nkrumah

What does governance mean to us, Belizean people, both those born pre-1981 and those thereafter? For me, governance means access to those who are elected to serve me. It also means that I can critique them without fear or favour because they have convinced me that we have the same goals and that we have an agreeable path through which those goals are to be achieved. Belize’s top priority as we speak is its economic stability. With a debt-to-GDP ratio at 134% and revenue loss estimated to be around 350 million dollars, Belize has very little wiggle room to bypass steadfast fiscal responsibility reform. Essentially, Belize has been spending, and indeed continues to spend, more than it makes. Our hat is higher than we can reach.

The sore in our governance has always been the political will to do what is required to ensure the long-term stability of the nation-state. The priority has consistently been political expediency. I will go as far as to say partisan loyalty, which I have said time and again is a rung just under treason. What we have done in Belize and indeed across the Caribbean region is reduce democracy to a matter of performative public relations and marketing ploys, boxed and sold as diplomacy and nationalism. This is the puss in the bag that we have purchased at the Pound Yard Bridge. While I rightfully congratulate the present People’s United Party for winning its bid to administrate the Government of Belize and more recently maintaining its seat in Corozal Bay after the unfortunate passing of Hon. David Vega and pulverizing the United Democratic Party in the municipal elections by virtue of our electoral model, we must be honest in saying that the PUP did not win the heart of the Belizean electorate.

In fact, from a national perspective, they managed to win just 48% of the votes, while the UDP teetered behind with 31%. 18% of the electorate did not go to the polls at all on November 11th 2020, while 3% were willing to allow alternative parties and independent candidates an opportunity to serve. So while the “blue-tiful” wave of PUP support was plastered across our social and traditional media, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. 52% of the electorate did not vote for the PUP at all. As my elder and astute sociologist, Myrtle Palacio’s research on political participation in Belize, Electoral Politics: The Naked Truth, put forth, this seems to have been the case of the electorate voting one administration out, rather than the other in. A problematic and lethargic practice. We can all speculate that the UDP’s fall from grace in retrospect seemed written in the stars — from its most grandiose leadership convention at their trophy building, the Belize City Civic Center, on February 9, 2020, to its quainter and humble convention on July 12, 2020. A false start triggered by the alleged involvement of former Minister of National Security and area representative for Belmopan in less than savoury relationships with an international convicted conman. More than Mr. Saldivar’s blunder, could the UDP have lost the elections because of dwindling finances? It’s troubling to me that campaign financing regulations have been put on the back burner.

Against this backdrop the Government of Belize has put forward its cost-saving measures as it relates to the wage bill, preliminarily proposing to the public service a cut in salaries and increment freezes that will cut government expenditure by 80 million dollars per year over the next three years. It is one that is being met with pushback, and understandably so. The public service has remained the stalwart and most stable labour sector for working-class persons in Belize and in COVID times, when the employment opportunities are being gutted, it is even more fiercely guarded by the unions. My comrades, labour must remain rational and resolute in its mandate to the working class. Unfortunately, I do not have an answer about how exactly Belize is to rebound, but from my limited experience with economics, I know that it is paramount that we are disciplined in our approach, keeping in mind our climate vulnerabilities. The sacrifice must be as equitably shared as possible, assets must be recovered and people must be the priority as Fiscal Responsibility Law and corresponding rules emerge. The latter is the course of action for countries in economic peril. Our approach to managing assets —finances, human and otherwise— cannot be a syndicate pyramid scheme built on “mi spirit tek yo” contractual terms. Belize and all who inhabit it cannot afford cognitive dissonance and the construction of pseudo-realities. While Spanish philosopher, George Santayana, posits that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” I go further to say that those who cannot acknowledge their past have no tools to protect themselves from repeating it.

Stay Curious.