“A political convention is just not a place from which you can come with any trace of faith in human nature”
– Murray Kempton, “All in Favor Say Aye,” America Comes of Middle Age (1963).
“Since the politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him.”
– Charles de Gaulle, Newsweek, October 1, 1962.
Sunday’s national convention of the ruling People’s United Party, designed to set the stage for general elections later this year or early next year, was fundamentally a party statement that nothing was broken, hence no need to fix anything.
Essentially, the intra-party power of PUP national campaign manager Ralph Fonseca, again personally endorsed by the iconic PUP Leader Emeritus, Rt. Hon. George Price, remains intact. From our perspective, this was the most important aspect of the convention.
In August of 2004, which was almost three years ago, there was a Cabinet challenge to Mr. Fonseca’s absolute power over the public finances of Belize. This seven-Minister challenge had come on the heels of a scandal involving Social Security Board funds which had been exposed by the Belizean media the previous month – July.
The spreading SSB scandal sparked a gigantic demonstration in Belize City in late August. That demonstration was organized by the Opposition United Democratic Party, the same UDP which appeared relatively feeble just six months earlier when they had demonstrated against the PUP government. It is logical to conclude that it was the SSB scandal which galvanized support for the UDP-organized demonstration of August 28, 2004.
Responding to pressure from within and without his government, Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Said Musa, took personal control of Belize’s public finances. The record of Ralph Fonseca’s speeches and interviews since then, indicates that he was insulted and enraged by the G-7 challenge to his rule over public finances. He took it personal, so to speak. Mr. Fonseca’s power in government (Cabinet) was reduced as a result of July and August of 2004, but his power within the party itself has held. This suggests that the party platform for the upcoming general elections will be pretty much the same as it was in 2003.
But things have changed drastically inside the country of Belize since 2003. It seems to us that the PUP have decided not to respond to these changes. In fact, several convention speakers harked back, in a kind of nostalgia, to the halcyon days of the “peaceful, constructive Belizean revolution.” Listening to the PUP broadcast of their national convention in Corozal Town, we could not help but wonder if the PUP has not lost touch with real time.
The form of Sunday’s convention where the “passing” of resolutions was concerned, confirmed what political observers have been saying for many years now. Power inside the PUP has moved from the base of the pyramid, where it existed in 1950, to the very tip of the pyramid, where Ralph resides and rules. Roots democracy, such as that which propelled Mr. Price to PUP leadership in 1956, just “don’t live here any more,” to borrow the words of Rose Royce.
The chances are that roots democracy had disappeared from the PUP before 2003, but the blue won a huge victory in those general elections. So there is none among us who can say that intra-party democracy is now necessary for general election victory in Belize.
What is indispensable, it appears, is money, and lots of it. So the political party which began with the people in 1950, is now ruled by the money in 2007. Party politics in Belize has become an unregulated business which features secret campaign financing, hidden party accounts, and accounting to no one. Anything goes. Just bring the money. In this kingdom, Ralph rules. The blue and the red will now fight for the dollars from Market Square’s savings accounts.
As Smokey Joe has tried hard to teach us, the Belizean people’s own money has undermined the Belizean people’s power. It’s real.