You have to admit, the Prime Minister, Mr. Said Musa, is really behaving like Pontius Pilate. He has publicly “condemned” Dr. Bertie Chimilio, president of the Football Federation of Belize (FFB), for making a decision to play our home game against St. Kitts and Nevis in the World Cup qualifier elimination tournament, in Guatemala, a country that has claimed the whole of Belize, and is now claiming at least half the country, along with almost all our natural resources.
Despite all attempts by many different people and organizations to have Chimilio “see reason,” the good doctor continues to behave as if he is crazy, insisting that the game must be played in Guatemala.
When US President Jimmy Carter announced a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest of the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan, he did what he thought was right. He believed that he was acting in the national interest, and to hell with what Olympic officials thought, or any fines involved. Incidentally, he managed to get some 64 countries to follow along, causing a disruption, but not a cessation, of the Games.
Well, that’s just what PM Musa ought to do. The precedent has been set. President Carter acted in “the national interest,” and the Olympic officials had to accept that.
So why can’t Mr. Musa do likewise? There is really no difference between FIFA, the world governing body, and the Olympic body – none of them should be thought of as having the right to tell a sovereign country how to act “in its best interests.”
I’ll tell you why Mr. Musa can’t do likewise. Because he isn’t sincere. Really, he and Chimilio are old friends – he rescued Chimilio a few years ago when the National Sports Council had him pinned to the wall like a fly, remember?
What Mr. Musa is doing is playing politics – strong talking, but nothing behind it. If he really believes that we should not send our national team to Guatemala to play our home game there, then he should order them not to go, instead of blowing hot air about how disgusted he is, and about what a bad man Chimilio is.
People are not stupid, you know. Even those in his own party know that that is what Mr. Musa should do, if he really cared.
Said Musa. Pontius Pilate. Birds of a feather. Spineless.