BELMOPAN, Thurs. Mar. 5, 2020– One of the highlights of today’s House of Representatives meeting was a Motion of No Confidence in the United Democratic Party Government of Prime Minister Dean Barrow. The motion was sponsored by Opposition Leader, Hon. John Briceño (Orange Walk Central) and Hon. Julius Espat, (Cayo South).
Before the No Confidence Motion was debated, however, the government introduced and passed its Contract Validation Bill 2020, through all of its stages at today’s sitting.
The Opposition wasted no time and immediately tore into the Bill, which Hon. Kareem Musa (Caribbean Shores) said was an admission of guilt on the part of the Prime Minister.
The Bill retroactively fixes contracts for more than 5 million dollars that were supposed to have been tabled in the House of Representatives in conformity with the Finance and Audit Reform Act.
Hon. Julius Espat was impassioned in his presentation and characterized the Bill as a criminal act on the part of the Prime Minister.
PM Barrow, however, declared that that is what parliamentary democracy is all about, because parliament has the power to fix anything, he said.
The motion presented the opportunity for both sides to go after each other brutally, unsparingly in their criticism.
Hon. Briceño was the first to speak on the No Confidence Motion, shortly before 4:00 p.m., after the Prime Minister had presented his budget and the House had debated the Contract Validation Bill.
PUP National Deputy Leader, Hon. Cordel Hyde (Lake Independence), in speaking on the No Confidence Motion, said that the people voted out the PUP in 2008 because they had gotten tired of them. The government has to man-up and woman-up to reality, Hon. Hyde said, because they were supposed to bring new hope and energy for everybody in this country.
The government’s policies only work for a few people who have everything, while that is not the reality for the vast majority of people in the country, he said.
Hyde said that we own the national university, but the cost of education is high, we own the water company, but poor people get their water cut out everyday. We own the KHMH but poor people have to pay $25 which is a whole day pay for people working for minimum wage.
Hon. Hyde spoke about the gun violence that has been claiming the lives of young black men.
Talk about the lives of the stevedores, the jobs of 150 stevedores is on the live. Hon. Hyde said that those stevedores are on their own because the government did nothing.
Hon. Hyde told PM Barrow and his government “that if you really care, then do something for the stevedores. If you don’t do something then a new government will have to do something. A new government will have to take back the port for the people of Belize,” Hon. Hyde said.
Twelve years of too many people going to bed hungry, twelve years of too many people can’t send their children to school, twelve long years of people having to hide from their landlords because they can’t pay their rents, Hon Hyde said.
All we have is scandal after scandal, Penner, Marin, Saldivar, Lands, Immigration, scandal after scandal and nothing has changed, Hon. Hyde pointed out.
You know why the member for Pickstock can come here and say that the motion will fail? Because no one over there has a conscience for the last 12 years, nobody, not even the great Godwin Hulse, not even the great Carla Barnett , not even the member for Pickstock, everybody just look the other way, like they are dumb, deaf and blind, Hon. Hyde said.
“Unno should a do di right thing, da time fu unno go,” Hon. Hyde said, before yielding to the next speaker.
Feature photo: Opposition Leader, Hon. John Briceño
(To be continued in our next issue)