The first public reaction to the latest Cabinet shuffle came this afternoon from the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA), expressing ?deep concern and disappointment? in the decision of Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, to remove Tourism Minister, Hon. Mark Espat, from Cabinet.

Espat was re-elected to office in March 2003, when he won by the largest margin recorded in the general elections for any contester, including those who ran on the ruling party?s ticket. He got 82.8% of the votes in the Albert Division, and despite his removal from Cabinet, he remains a member of the House of Representatives for the remainder of the Musa administration?s political term, due to expire in 2008.

Espat had earned the respect of those in the local tourism industry, and he has been responsible for tourism?a leading economic sector?since 1998. Today, he no longer holds that portfolio, after he was ousted from Cabinet on Tuesday afternoon, December 28, 2004, in the Prime Minister?s latest ?restructuring? of his Cabinet.

Arguably, the biggest winner in the shuffle is Espat?s successor as Tourism Minister, who is Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon. Godfrey Smith. Smith?s portfolio has expanded to include Foreign Trade, Information, and Tourism.

Ironically, both Smith and Espat had simultaneously resigned from Cabinet along with five other ministers in August, but they were all reinstated. Effective today, Wednesday, December 29, 2004, three of the seven are out of Cabinet, the Government?s chief policy-making body.

Apart from former Tourism Minister, Espat, three other ministers, namely Espat?s brother-in-law, Hon. Cordel Hyde, Minister of Housing and Transport; Hon. Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Trade; and Hon. Ainslie Leslie, Minister of Energy and Communications, were removed from Cabinet (Hyde and Courtenay had also resigned in August, but were also later reinstated.)

The Office of the Prime Minister, in announcing the decision late Tuesday evening, claimed that the decision is ?in keeping with Government?s commitment to good governance and the streamlining of Government?s operations to ensure more efficiency, transparency, and accountability.?

However, not many people are buying that explanation. Most believe the ouster of the ministers was largely due to dissent in the ranks of Cabinet which had boiled over on August 16, 2004, when the seven had resigned.

Asked why he had been removed from Cabinet, Mark Espat replied, ?I can only conclude it must have something to do with the events of August. I believe I have served my constituency in a way that has distinguished me? and [that?s how I have served] my ministry.?

He acknowledged that the Prime Minister has the right to appoint members to his Cabinet, as well as to revoke their appointment. The P.M. exercises his power and judgment; the voters will decide whether he does so in a way that is beneficial to the country, he added.

We asked him, if the Prime Minister were to invite him back into his Cabinet, would he accept? ?Depends on the terms,? he replied.

Cordel Hyde told us that a return to Cabinet is unlikely. He said that the G-7 knew since August that the Prime Minister wanted to ?deal? with them for the stance they had taken; but they decided to return to Cabinet because they felt that serious changes needed to be made in the management of public finances, he added.

It was on that premise, he said, that the G-7 returned to Cabinet, and ?admittedly, some good things have happened since,? Hyde added.

Tuesday?s news of the shuffle also came as no surprise for many in the nation. Rumors had intensified last week of a looming Cabinet shake-up, and a news report carried by Channel 7 late in the week that Eamon Courtenay had been stripped of his Foreign Trade portfolio, kept all eyes focused on Belmopan until official word came Tuesday evening. (We have been unable to reach Courtenay for comment.)

Late Tuesday evening, the Office of the Prime Minister announced that a final decision had been made, and the Cabinet would be downsized from 16 to 12. What this really meant, though, was that two elected officials, Hyde of Lake Independence and Espat, no longer had any lead role to play in the governance of the nation. (Hyde is another popular politician who, despite UDP Opposition reports of a ?scholarship scam? inside his ministry just before the 2003 elections, had still garnered 61.3% of the votes in his division.)

Eamon Courtenay, who had been an un-elected Minister, was able to serve in that capacity due to his appointment to the Senate. However, according to our reports, he was the first to get the news, last Thursday, that he would be removed from Cabinet, but, according to the reports, he was offered a number of other posts in the Government service.

Courtenay reportedly had been given the Christmas weekend to think about it, but refused the offers, we were further told.

Tuesday, he made his position known to the Prime Minister, and was offered a Cabinet post again, but declined, the reports also claimed.

That day, a number of other Ministers also talked with the Prime Minister, including Mark Espat, who was told that Tourism would be taken away from him. As far as we are aware, no explanation was offered to him.

Cordel Hyde said that since the G-7 had a pact that if any of them would be removed from Cabinet, that all seven would leave, he stood on principle and declined the Prime Minister?s offer to him ? the Housing, Transport and Labor portfolios.

Our sources say that it was Orange Walk?s Servulo Baeza, former Minister of Agriculture, who would have been the fourth Minister to be removed from Cabinet, and not Hyde.

?I told him [the Prime Minister] that I appreciated the offer, but could not accept it on principle,? Hyde said.

Hyde said that he would have made the decision regardless of who from the G-7 had been removed, because of their pact. Espat expressed the same sentiment when he spoke with us.

?If there was ever a time we needed to stick together, it was now,? Hyde remarked.

Even after the G-7 had met about 8:30 Tuesday morning, December 28, four of them?Ministers Jose Coye, Godfrey Smith, Servulo Baeza, and Johnny Brice?o?decided to accept their assignments in Cabinet.

When we asked him if there still is a G-7, Hyde said, ?No!? Reportedly, the seven have not met since the public announcement Tuesday evening; by all accounts, the G-7 is now defunct.

Though he was demoted, reportedly without protest, Hon. Ainslie Leslie?not a member of the G-7?still has a shoe inside Cabinet. He may attend Cabinet meetings on invitation of the Prime Minister, since he is a Minister of State. Leslie had only risen to ministerial rank four months ago and held the ?Energy and Communications? portfolio until today. (The changes in Cabinet are fully outlined on page 28 of this issue.)

The last changes in Cabinet were announced on August 18, 2004, when the Prime Minister read an address to the nation after the G-7 resignations. Then, the Prime Minister reassigned the entire G-7 to Cabinet, with some shuffling of portfolios, and shared the oversight of his Ministry of Finance with two members of the G-7, Coye and Brice?o.

It was widely reported on Tuesday evening that Coye and Brice?o were no longer Ministers of State in the Ministry of Finance. However, Cabinet Secretary, Robert Leslie, told Amandala early Wednesday that Coye and Brice?o remain in those posts; the P.M.?s office claims ?human error? for not saying so in Tuesday?s press release.

Cabinet Secretary Leslie also told us that while Courtenay is no longer in Cabinet, his appointment to the Senate remains in force.

In August, Cabinet had swelled from 13 to 16, with the inclusion of Michael Espat, Ainslie Leslie, and Senator Assad Shoman, Musa?s longtime ally.

Another formidable ally of the Prime Minister to remain in Cabinet is former Finance Minister, Hon. Ralph Fonseca, whom the G-7 reportedly wanted to be removed from Cabinet, even though they never went on record as saying so. However, the Prime Minister had publicly expressed his continuing ?confidence? in Fonseca, and has not stripped him of his powers as a minister of Government.

Now, all eyes turn to the ruling party?s upcoming national convention in February 2005, to see what maneuvering will take place on that political chessboard.

Notably, with Cordel Hyde and Mark Espat gone from Cabinet, no elected Belize City Southside representative wields any real power in Government, since Cabinet is the body that really formulates policy to execute the ruling party?s agenda.

Meanwhile, there are still 10 elected PUP officials who hold no portfolios?the backbenchers. Apart from Leslie, other Ministers of State are Dave Burgos of Orange Walk East, Ismael Cal of Orange Walk South, and Rodwell Ferguson of Stann Creek West, who have been assigned to Agriculture, Home Affairs, and Tourism, respectively.

Our readers will recall that in September, after the dust of the G-7 controversy settled, Brice?o was ousted as the leader of the ruling PUP?s Northern Caucus, and Burgos was installed in his place. Incidentally, the Northern Caucus had publicly decried the actions of the G-7 in an August 15 statement; and Brice?o?s ouster as their leader seemed to have been consequential.

At the upcoming February 20, 2005, PUP leadership convention, it is expected that there will be some changes at the level of the PUP?s deputy leadership. Currently, Brice?o and Max Samuels are deputies.

Beyond party politics, though, is the issue of what the latest Cabinet shuffle means for the oversight and management of public finances. It was after the G-7?s August resignation and reinstatement that the Cabinet had set up a Public Finances Committee to address ?fiscal affairs, debt management and public enterprises.? Both Mark Espat and Eamon Courtenay sat as ministers on that committee until today.

With the financial quagmire in which the country finds itself, the leadership of Said Musa has been under sharp scrutiny, particularly over the course of 2004, because of his management of the country?s finances since 1998. There are issues such as the high public debt, the insolvency of the Development Finance Corporation, the alleged mismanagement of Social Security Funds, and the ever-mounting tax bill.

However, as these economic challenges confront us, a pledge of a $100 million cruise torusim terminal development on the Southside is being touted as a project that could boost the country?s revenues and ability to borrow foreign funds. The Carnival investment could be the biggest that the Musa administration is able to attract in this term. The administration?s successful and unmatched expansion of cruise tourism since 1998 has been commended by many in the industry, but tourism?s growth had mostly been credited to Mark Espat and his team in both the Belize Tourism Board, and their colleagues in the private sector.

Espat has remained very popular among people in the industry, as he is with his constituents.

?BTIA has enjoyed an open, transparent and dynamic relationship with the Belize Tourism Board under Minister of Tourism, Mark Espat,? said the BTIA?s release today. ?His knowledge of and his dedication to the industry have been a great asset to all sectors of Belize tourism.?

It is notable that after the G-7 threat to the Prime Minister that they would have resigned if their 9-point plan had not been addressed, the flood of written statements from the various PUP caucuses/offices, which the G-7 said had precipitated their resignation on Monday, August 16, were countered primarily by those from bodies such as the Belize Hotel Association, BTIA, and the Belize Eco-Tourism Association.

Claiming control over 25% of the workforce and the representation of hundreds of tourism investors, the BTIA then appealed to the Prime Minister to embrace the reforms for which the G-7 had called.

While the Belize Cruise Ship Industry Association/Federation of Cruise Tourism Associations in Belize did not go out on a limb for Espat, they did write the Prime Minister after the shuffle. Tom Greenwood, who is the president of the association and the federation, told Amandala that their concern is that the change is for the ?positive.? He said that the purpose of the letter was to ?establish a bond? and to ensure that the new man, meaning Tourism Minister Godfrey Smith, is aware of their presence.

BTIA president, Lucy Fleming, told Amandala Wednesday morning that the association had met to formulate its position last night, after receiving the news of Espat?s removal. She particularly commended his ?very innovative and dynamic style? of managing the industry. She noted that it was under his watch that Belize?s tourism product became internationally famous.

If, like the BTIA has said, the tourism industry is on the right track, it begs the question: why did the Prime Minister take away Espat?s portfolio?

The most recent division between the two was over a contract that the Prime Minister had signed with Carnival in April. Espat was not present for the signing, but was later appointed by his colleagues in Cabinet to work with the parties to ?clarify? a number of clauses in the contract that many felt did not clearly secure appropriate benefits for Belizeans.

Did Espat?s difference with the Prime Minister over Carnival factor into his decision? When we raised this question to him, Espat said that he is not certain to what extent that has led the P.M. to decide to remove him from Cabinet.

Apart from that, there are continuing rumors that Mark Espat has aspirations to become the leader of the People?s United Party. He told our newspaper this evening, however, that he has no such ambition. He said that that rumor has been spread by those who want to detract from the pressing issues: the fiscal deficit, the availability of foreign exchange, the DFC debacle, the SSB funds now at risk, and the transparent and democratic management of public finances.

Both he and Hyde said that they intend to use their seats in the House of Representatives to continue to address issues of national concerns.

Hyde told our newspaper that he was elected on a PUP platform, and still believes in the People?s United Party philosophy, and thus will continue to serve his constituents as a PUP representative.

Both Hyde and Espat maintained that they had done the right thing to declare their concerns about public finances in August.