by Colin Hyde

I won’t complain if the PUP decides to call the big election early. They have been in office a little over 4 years, and over that period we have garnered enough information to give them a passing or failing grade. In the US, they have a 4-year term for presidents, but invariably it plays out as an 8-year term. Since 1968, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, George Bush II, and Obama have won consecutive terms. If we go back to 1960, we see Kennedy of the Democratic Party winning, and Johnson of the same party taking over the seat of president and winning after Kennedy was killed in office.

We can say that there’s a mid-term election after a US president has been in office for four years. It took many conspiracies to deny Jimmy Carter his second term. George Bush the elder took over as president right after Reagan’s two terms, so what we would have had there was 4 consecutive terms with Republicans in office if he had won a second term. It could be argued that Covid interrupted Trump at his mid-term in 2020, and this 2024 victory is really what he deserved.

Our mid-term comes after 5 years, so in actuality what we have is a 10-year term. Ten years is a very long time. I’d like to see the 4-year fixed term in cement.

The PUP has given the UDP enough time to get its act together. Over these past four years the only opposition we’ve had is a series of badmouth infomercials. Empty talk won’t develop this country. If you talk, you must say what you would do instead, and why. The UDP absolutely can’t run off their mouths about corruption. They came with a machete in 2008, and the third force had to take to the streets in 2020 because it was so dull.

The PUP 2020-2025 hasn’t delivered on its promise to put a good file to that machete. Maybe they didn’t really want to, or maybe they got derailed. They were piling up points until they got turned back on the 11th amendment by the Social Partners and decided on an exercise to improve/reform the Constitution. Everyone who cares to look recognizes that democracy has flaws. And no surprise there; it is a manmade thing, and there’s nothing under the sun that approaches perfection if it carries the label, made by man.

That Constitution exercise has its merits, but our leaders were told they could not deliver on it within their present term. Certain parts of the report won’t need the fine-toothed comb, but some, such as our type of system and our GG, are not overnight discussions. The resistance to George and Philip on the money is surprising, until you ponder that what Belizeans are saying is that we are not on any roll with breaking away from the “monarchy”, and we are not with throwing out the parliamentary system. That’s what I gather from that, an a deh wid dehn. We have 12 currency denominations, from the semi-plastic centavo to the 100-dollar blue paper note. I think if our people look at it that way, they’ll not have any problem with our giving George and Philip their run on a couple notes.

Getting on with the election business, via an fb post from John Saldivar I first heard that this leadership issue in the UDP won’t be decided on, until March 31 if it is to be resolved by the court. I have to give my thanks to John for the information, but I didn’t give him a “like”, because his piece was political.

Hmm, there is talk out there that the court is acting with no urgency on a matter that can’t afford delay. Many think the court is hoping for common sense at BelChina to save it from having to pronounce on this matter. You know this bone in the UDP isn’t even for the GG or the Senate. Bah, it suited one faction to go to court. The PUP has the right to call it, even if no one knows who the leader of the opposition is. Anyone remember UDP 1979?

If we pick up this quarrel late, in a leadership convention between Tracy and Shyne we could see Dean Barrow throw all his chips behind his son, maybe after recognizing that his boy stands to make a credible documentary with Disney if he can snatch the leadership for a lee while. If you ever need an example of what being “selfish” is, there’s one for you. We know Tracy wasn’t wholeheartedly in that race, and that the two leaders, John and Patrick, who had fought for the UDP title in 2020, didn’t have both their feet in her camp. Still, Tracy came within an eyelash, and maybe a recount of becoming leader of the UDP.

You know how things can fester. What was so difficult about a recount? Later, John and Patrick threw in lock, stock, and barrel behind Tracy when Shyne, on the claim that he was the machete man his dad claimed to be, started chopping out their core support in the party. When the UDP got shellacked in the Toledo East by-election, Shyne in a low move said the candidate who ran for the UDP wasn’t his choice. All these infractions coalesced into a massive convention at the Civic, where it was resoundingly declared that Tracy was their gyal. 

Vox populi hell—a single individual, Pehreh, all by himself, the same Pehreh who it is said rejected the recount at Bird’s Isle, refused to bow to the will expressed by the people. Since the turn of the century, Belize’s Pehreh has been a dominant force on the political landscape, but since flying in the face of the red clan, he is mostly under the radar.

The PUP might worry that they will look chaansi if they don’t wait for the dust in the UDP to settle, which probably won’t happen until after Shyne inks another contract with Disney. I don’t know what the people think; I can only speak for me and the one vote I have to give.

That noh right, Braa

My, poor Belizeans, we so want to think highly of Neri Briceno. His is the kind of story to promote. Humble boy from PG works his way through school, is dissatisfied with the opportunities in the public service and so is off to the famed land of milk and honey to further his education. Boy, so many Belizeans have made good over there, and Neri hit the Jackpot: placement in the black gold industry! No one can gripe about the brain drain, because when he went abroad there was no oil industry here to utilize his talents.

You only want to say good things about a brother like him. It is in your best interest to say good things for a number of reasons, and here’s one for yu. Whoa, if someone’s name comes up in a negative way too often in your discourse, you could be accused of picking on them. I for sure don’t care to be so accused, but what can one do if people insist on saying things that you think are—criminal?

Bah, we all have our lot in life. It is my duty to tell you that Neri is way out of line when he wrote in his pre-Krismos piece in the Reporter, “A characteristic of most oppressive regimes is the violent suppression of any form of dissent”, and then proceeded to list Fidel alongside Hitler and Stalin. You know how enemies of we, ehm, “Anglophiles” said we were more British than the British. Well, some suspect things noh gud fu mek laaf. Only a Cuban in Miami would be so sinister as to lump Fidel with Hitler and Stalin. That criminal, Braa!