UDP Pledge #11 – Bring back the Conscious Youth Development Program to eliminate gang violence and provide jobs, counseling, sporting opportunities and social integration for youth at risk.
The United Democratic Party appears well on the way to winning next month’s general elections, though probably not by as big a margin as they are projecting. Ralph Fonseca will pay his way to victory in Belize Rural Central, but his People’s United Party will be forced to make some hard decisions after Thursday, February 7. The surprise of February 7 will be the strong performance of the third party candidates.
After the votes are counted, then the third parties will realize that they absolutely should have formed a 31-candidate coalition, whatever the compromises each of them would have had to make. The third parties will realize that they are not that far from victory, if they unite nationally and get serious about campaign financing.
Amongst the third parties, the psychological problem has always been the National Reform Party (NRP), which made a big show last year of launching a double digit slate of candidates. We told the other third parties to ignore the NRP, pretend they didn’t exist, but Dueck’s fifty million dollar talk was intimidating. The NRP exposed their sinister and secret agenda when Dueck came out right off the bat with support for Israel. Damn, Israel supports Guatemala, a state which claims half of Belizean territory. Dueck and his set should have been picketed immediately. But you know how it is in Belize. We’re laid back, as they say.
It was the NRP, in the beginning, which prevented a united third party from emerging. But the united third party will emerge after February 7. The skeletal framework is already in place – in Toledo, in Belmopan/Cayo, and in Corozal. The post-election third party will reflect in its leadership the growing and unstoppable power of the so-called districts.
The UDP government will be the same as the previous UDP governments – fiscally conservative and sociologically arrogant. The tip off in the sociological arrogance came on Tuesday morning when UDP Leader, Hon. Dean Barrow, presented his slate of 31 candidates to the nation in a nationally broadcast and televised press conference at the Radisson Fort George. Mr. Barrow made 21 “pledges” to Belize, and the one we choose to examine is his promise to resurrect the Conscious Youth Development Program (CYDP) which, he said, would “eliminate gang violence.”
What the CYDP was, was a UDP government-sponsored “band-aid” program which organized public and private sector capital to keep the neighbourhood street leaders “liquid” and finance high profile but unsustainable “construction” projects. Over the years, Mr. Barrow and his spokespeople have claimed a lot of credit for CYDP which the facts on the ground do not support. The CYDP filled a vacuum, it was better than nothing, but for Mr. Barrow to project a reborn CYDP as eliminating gang violence in Belize City is really too much for us to swallow.
Jump high, jump low, the facts are that the UDP dedicated themselves, as soon as they were elected in 1993, to undermining semi-professional sports in Belize by open attacks on Kremandala. When the UDP won the general elections in June of 1993, Kremandala at the time was out on a limb financing and managing two semi-pro franchises – the Kremandala Raiders in basketball and the Kremandala Warriors in football.
Two weeks after the 1993 UDP victory, the Kremandala Raiders won the championship in their second year of existence. But ten weeks after that, there was a mysterious attack upon the Kremandala Warriors following a game against Juventus at the People’s Stadium. The game was a draw, so the post-game behaviour of the so-called “fans,” who stormed the pitch to assault the Kremandala players with machetes, sticks, stones, and pint bottles was extraordinary. There were absolutely no policemen at the stadium. As a result of that frightening episode, Kremandala had to withdraw from semi-pro football.
UDP government attacks in their newspaper throughout 1994 and 1995, pressured the Raiders to withdraw from semi-pro basketball after winning three straight titles. But the 1996 season then had trouble getting off the ground, so Kremandala felt we had to re-organize the Raiders. At a meeting of franchises held to plan the 1996 season at the then Ramada Hotel, however, the Kremandala Raiders’ organization was openly insulted by John Saldivar, UDP Prime Minister Esquivel’s representative. If you do not believe, ask Hugh Staine or Matthew Smiling.
When the UDP return to power next month, Kremandala will not be exposed, as we were in 1993, because of community upliftment commitments. No, we will be in a bunker awaiting the UDP version of the same neoliberalism which Ralph Fonseca has inflicted upon us since 1998. Same script, different cast.
Power to the people.