The G-7 coalition which forced Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, to make serious changes in the way public finances were being handled in his administration, broke asunder on Tuesday afternoon when the Prime Minister removed Tourism Minister Mark Espat from his Cabinet; Espat?s Southside colleague, Housing Minister Cordel Hyde, resigned in protest; and Minister of Foreign Trade, Eamon Courtenay (unelected), also declined to serve Tuesday afternoon after being threatened with removal last week Thursday morning.

The other four members of the erstwhile G-7 ? Deputy Prime Minister John Brice?o; Works Minister Jose Coye; Foreign Affairs Minister Godfrey Smith; and Agriculture Minister Servulo Baeza agreed to remain in the Musa Cabinet, with Brice?o, Coye and Smith receiving increased portfolio assignments.

To an extent, this is an internal party matter for the ruling People?s United Party, and the moves underline the tremendous power which accrues to the Prime Minister in Belize?s version of the Westminster parliamentary democracy.

None of the three demoted Ministers hold any responsibility for the financial crisis in which the Government of Belize finds itself. So the question will be ? what did Mark Espat do which was so wrong that he had to be targeted? The charge, as we understand it, is disloyalty to the Prime Minister, a charge we had heard voiced against Eamon Courtenay shortly after the G-7 confronted the Prime Minister on August 12.

Wednesday?s decisions were how the Prime Minister chose, in the middle of the holiday season, to prove to his party and the nation that he is fully in charge of things.

Wednesday?s decisions constitute two slaps in the face for Belize City?s Southside, which must now ask itself what are the specific and capital ways in which the Southside has benefited after six years of PUP rule. Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde were the only two Ministers with Southside constituencies, and now they are gone.

Inside the Albert and Lake Independence constituencies, which Espat and Hyde represent, there will be a test of the people?s loyalty to Mark and Cordel, even while Tuesday?s decisions by the Prime Minister will test the loyalty of Espat and Hyde themselves to the P.M. himself.

Overall, the power of Home Affairs Minister, Ralph Fonseca, has been re-asserted, and a message has been sent to Kremandala as follows ? you and nothing are the same thing. Wednesday?s decisions mean an end to the informal working relationship between the PUP and Partridge Street. But an end to such a relationship, established after the general election in 1993, has no immediate significance for the ruling party. General elections are not due for more than three years, so what we think or say back here is just that ? thinking and talking. The ruling of Belize is, and will be, the exclusive province of Queen Street. Story done.

This is a difficult essay to write, because we have, as you know, a personal interest in the matter. Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde have family ties to Kremandala, so we are probably not in a position to analyze in a politically scientific manner. There has been no comment made by the Opposition UDP, and the radio talk shows are in low gear because of the holiday season. We are operating, therefore, in a relative vacuum. (On Wednesday morning, the expected cries of alarm and anger arose on KREM Radio from the Albert and Lake Independence areas.)

It will be of great interest to see how all this works out for the four Ministers who chose to desert their G-7 colleagues. Politics is not a sentimental game, and these four made pragmatic political decisions which were also good business decisions.

As we write, Espat, Courtenay and Hyde look like the fools and losers in today?s drama. They are all young men, however, and will probably be heard from again. If and when they are heard from again, their credibility will be greater than that of their four pragmatic colleagues.

At the end of the process, the most important thing to be said is this ? that this is how the Prime Minister wanted it. He wanted to re-establish a position of personal impregnability within the ruling PUP, and he has done so. The irony is that while Mr. Musa is the strongest within his party that he has been for some time, he is at his absolute weakest, where credibility is concerned, in the larger society of Belize since he first became Prime Minister on August 27, 1998.

We are proud of Cordel Hyde for having resigned from Cabinet on a matter of principle. (In August of 2001, Jorge Espat resigned from his Cabinet post of Minister of National Security and then remained a backbencher until the March 5, 2003 general elections. Jorge has been out of the party and in private life since those elections.)

We do know that the PUP has historically dealt harshly with those who offended because of principle, like Jesus Ken in Corozal South in 1964, or disloyalty, like Santiago Ricalde in Corozal North in 1974. It remains to be seen, therefore, whether down the road we will view this day, Tuesday, December 28, 2004, as not only the end of the so-called G-7 coalition, but also the beginning of the end of the PUP careers of Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde.

Amandala. Power to the people.