In a constituency convention Sunday to choose a PUP standard bearer for Belize Rural Central, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, an attorney who served as Port Loyola area representative from 1998 to 2003 before being defeated in the 2003 general elections by the UDP’s Anthony Martinez, emerged as the victor over three other candidates.
There was a story going around before the convention that Ralph Fonseca, who had represented Belize Rural Central for three consecutive terms from 1993 to 2008, before being shocked by the UDP’s Michael Hutchinson in the 2008 generals, had asked each of Sunday’s four candidates if, in the likelihood he wished to return at some point in the future, they would be willing to step aside for him. As the story goes, three said yes, and one said no. Our sources say Dolores was one of those who said yes, but that is not now, to our mind, a likely scenario.
In the political world of Ralph Fonseca, he had solved all problems with money. He conquered Belize Rural Central with personal and party money in 1993, and when he achieved absolute Cabinet power in 1998 over the public finances of Belize, he took care of Belize Rural Central.
As national campaign manager of the PUP, Ralph raised money from the “big boys” as it had never been raised before. Wealthy individuals and corporations knew, during Ralph’s era, that if they donated to Ralph and/or the PUP, they were assured of bountiful returns on their investments. Inside Belize Rural Central and inside the PUP, money flowed as it never had before. During his rule, from 1998 to 2004, whenever the nation’s public finances began to stagger, Ralph floated Wall Street bonds at commercial rates to keep the party going, maintaining the fiction of a robust economy.
The reality of the Ralph era was that we Belizeans were living far above our means. It became clear to sober people inside the PUP Cabinet that there had to be a day of reckoning down the road. The occasion of the discovery of a serious Social Security Board scandal in July of 2004, led to a challenge to Ralph’s financial hegemony by 7 Cabinet Ministers. This was the G-7 episode, which began on August 12, 2004.
During and after G-7, focus shifted to the philosophy and position of Prime Minister Said Musa, whose closest political ally until 1984 had been a man accused of being a communist – Assad Shoman, but whose guru, and Pythias to his Damon, had become Ralph Fonseca. Musa was unabashed in his loyalty to Fonseca. The Prime Minister protected Ralph from G-7, and punished G-7 member, Tourism Minister Mark Espat, as an example by throwing him out of Cabinet in December 2004.
Taken up with all his national financial power and all his “balls up in the air,” Ralph Fonseca had delegated his only son, Ralphie, to run Belize Rural Central from day to day. After a while, his constituents almost never saw their area representative. When Ralphie was killed in a freak traffic accident late in 2007, it was a personal blow to his father from which he had trouble recovering. In addition, Ralph’s Rural Central administration immediately began to unravel. The PUP was expected to lose office in the generals of February 2008, but Ralph Fonseca, who had always won his seat easily, was not expected to lose to a humble political unknown – Michael Hutchinson. But Hutchinson won, and won big. It was perhaps the most unbelievable election result in Belize’s history.
The political mood in Belize, as indeed the world, has clearly shifted from neoliberalism to nationalism. As the UDP Prime Minister this week prepares to take over Belize Electricity Limited (BEL) even as he took over Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL), these moves, which would have been considered heretical and radical in the Ralph Fonseca era, appear to be popular with the people of Belize. BTL’s Michael Ashcroft and BEL’s Stanley Marshall are considered predators by the masses of the Belizean people. For Ralph, however, such as Ashcroft and Marshall et al were the keys to his political power, which, to repeat, depended on buying out people.
The PUP’s John Briceño leadership had made it clear to Ralph that he was a political liability on the national stage, and that they would not allow him to be a candidate in the 2013 general elections. The PUP leadership will, of course, deny this, but everybody knew Ralph could have easily bought his way into another Rural Central run and term. And since Ralph would have needed the seat in order to throw his ample weight around in any future PUP government, it is very difficult to believe that Mr. Fonseca, all on his own and without pressure from above, chose to travel gently into the night. Ralph is simply not that sort of guy.
On the Saturday night just before this Sunday’s Rural Central convention, Ralph Fonseca’s alter ego and former PUP Leader, Rt. Hon. Said Musa, hosted a joint endorsement convention at St. Mary’s Hall for five Belize City standard bearers, which included his 2004 Cabinet victim, Albert’s Mark Espat. On Saturday night, both Espat and his brother-in-law, Lake I’s Cordel Hyde, spoke about the poor and the masses of the people, which are the PUP’s 1950 roots.
Still, the PUP has been taking up the causes of BTL and BEL in their media organs and in their press releases. PUP Leader Briceño is a business partner of Lord Ashcroft’s, and Stan Marshall has been prominently supporting the PUP newspaper and radio station with advertizing revenues. In real time, the PUP continues to behave as if it is neoliberal instead of nationalist. In a sense, the party is yet to free itself of Ralph’s influence. The Ralphistas are still powerful in the PUP, even though their idol has been replaced. Eighteen months away from general elections, the grand old party is experiencing an identity crisis where its political philosophy is concerned. Ralph is no longer on the stage, but his neoliberal ghost is haunting the PUP. We shall see, then, what we shall see.