Spokesmen and propagandists for the Opposition People’s United Party would like for this newspaper to begin attacking the ruling United Democratic Party, but that would be a silly thing for us to do. If the Briceño/Musa PUP can so casually create a special national executive post for Luke Espat, tell us, what wouldn’t they do for Ralph Montevideo?
We cannot countenance the return to power of Ralph Montevideo because of his behavior following the PUP’s winning of a second consecutive term of office in March of 2003. The PUP margin of victory in 2003 was what fooled Mr. Ralph. Having won 26-3 in 1998, the PUP won 22-7 in 2003.
Ralph interpreted the large margin of 2003 victory as an endorsement of his neoliberal “growth economics” and his personal rule. You have to understand that Ralph Fonseca absolutely ran Belize’s public finances between 1998 and 2003. He who pays the piper, calls the tune, and Ralph was paying all of the PUP’s pipers, and some of the UDP’s. Serious.
In 2003, there were still a lot of Belizeans, including ourselves, who were not aware of the real extent of the PUP’s financial excesses between 1998 and 2003. The Prime Minister, Said Musa, had a socialist background during his first fifteen years in Belize’s public life. Many of us assumed that he would keep an eye on things. The Opposition UDP did not do a good job of exposing and condemning what was going on with public funds. One of the reasons for that was that there were people in the UDP who were on Ralph’s personal payroll.
Another reason for the UDP’s bungling was their misinterpretation of the “haul-and-pulling” between Musa/Fonseca and Lord Ashcroft with respect to Belize Telecommunications Limited (BTL), a dispute which heated up in 2002. The UDP Leader, Dean Barrow, was reluctant to criticize Lord Ashcroft, because the Lord’s bank had been his law firm’s most important client from 1989. In fact, the people of Belize were very, very hostile to Ashcroft because of his cruel telephone rates.
We can’t say for sure what it is that Barrow should have done, because attacking Ashcroft would have constituted support for Glenn Godfrey and Intelco, who were being encouraged by Musa/Fonseca. But the figures don’t lie. The UDP lost badly in 2003 when they should have made a race of it.
Following the PUP’s March 2003 victory, Ralph decided the party didn’t need the Kremandala alliance any more. In short order, he attacked the Lake Independence constituency, the University of Belize (where the Amandala publisher was board chairman), and then he organized street elements to destabilize Kremandala itself. All this took place between March and September of 2003. The rest is history.
Facilitating a Ralph Fonseca return to power would be suicidal for Kremandala.