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The people – the “real PUP”

EditorialThe people – the “real PUP”
We always knew that there would come a time when the People’s United Party would begin to believe its own propaganda. For sure that time is now.
 
Yasser Musa, the eldest son of PUP Leader, Hon. Said Musa, is the Public Relations Officer of the PUP, which means he is in charge of the party’s propaganda budget, and has design and placement authority where political advertisements are concerned. Yasser is a member of the party executive – the body which administrates the oldest, wealthiest, and most successful political party in Belize.
 
Nobody in the PUP taught Yasser about the first twenty years of the PUP, apparently, and he must not have taken the time to learn. In a letter to Amandala dated Monday, February 18, 2008, Yasser declares that only three times (1956, 1996 and now 2008) has the PUP “moved toward electing a new leader.” In the same letter, young Mr. Musa categorically stated that the next PUP leader “will be chosen because he has demonstrated to be 100% loyal to the PUP …”
 
Loyal readers will have noted over the 39 years of this newspaper, that we have taken more time than any other newspaper in the nation, and indeed in the history of the nation, to detail and discuss, as accurately as we can, the histories of the political parties in Belize, especially the histories of the two major political parties – the ruling UDP and the Opposition PUP.
 
Let us begin with Yasser’s second proposition – “100% loyal to the PUP …” The issue which Yasser (and Darrell Carter, Vaughan Gill and Albert Vaughan) are heaping scorn upon, is an initiative, from outside the Francis Fonseca faction of the PUP, to make the proposed, upcoming PUP leadership convention a more democratic one. Those who are proposing to challenge PUP chairman Francis for leadership, say that the convention should feature delegates representing every 25 PUP voters, as opposed to the status quo, wherein delegates represent only every 100 voters.
 
The Francis Fonseca faction is fighting tooth and nail to retain the less democratic status quo. Why is this so? Because, if there are fewer delegates, it will then be easier, read less expensive, for Francis Fonseca, who is the Said Musa/Ralph Fonseca candidate, to win. Fewer delegates, less democracy. Fewer delegates, less power to the people. 
 
The Ralphista former PUP City Councillor, Darrell Carter, has been harping on the theme of the “real PUP,” and has been insolently calling, on the PUP’s Positive Vibes radio station this week, for those who are not “real PUP” to “butt out.” Yasser Musa’s grandfather, Hamid, was a senior official and national election candidate of the National Party in the 1950’s. The National Party was a pro-British organization which was the strongest opposition to the PUP at that time. Yasser’s father, Said, was a member of UBAD and a founder/official of PAC in 1969. What makes Yasser, for example, a “real PUP”?
 
When George Price first became PUP Leader in August of 1956, it was, to the best of our knowledge, the result of a violent putsch at Riverside Hall in Belize City. The incumbent Leader, Leigh Richardson, had to flee for his life.
 
The first Leader of the PUP, which was founded in September of 1950, was Johnny Smith. He was replaced by Leigh Richardson. Richardson was replaced by George Price in 1956. According to the present PUP’s historians, that is when “real PUP” history began – 1956. If that was so, then when did that “real PUP” history end? The nepotist and oligarchical PUP we are watching today, is definitely not the PUP of 1956, much less the PUP of 1950.
 
The “history” of the PUP has been distorted to accommodate those whose agenda is greed and self-aggrandizement. The PUP was actually built on the foundation of the General Workers Union, led by Clifford Betson and Henry Middleton in the 1940’s. If these were not the “real PUP,” then they were certainly the foundation PUP. The original PUP was a militant, urban, black, workers’ organization. 
 
The PUP changed with time, as all things do. In the face of a present rank-and-file call for change in the party, a change which was rejected in August of 2004 and refused after March of 2006, but a change which was mandated by the overwhelming decision of the people of Belize on February 7, 2008, the defeated Said Musa/Ralph Fonseca leadership wishes to continue ruling the PUP by installing Ralph’s first cousin, Francis. Remember this, Carter, the PUP does not exist in a vacuum. Ultimately, it is the people of Belize who make the call. They made a call on February 7. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear.
 
In the ongoing Democratic presidential primaries in the United States of America, Democratic voters have begun to reject what they see as an attempt by two-term U.S. president, Bill Clinton, to establish a third and illegal term by having his wife become president. Democratic voters have turned to what would have been unthinkable forty years ago: they have turned to an American whose blood is half African – Barack Obama.
 
There are militantly anti-fascist Americans who are suggesting that there is a conspiracy to have Obama take down Hillary Clinton, so that the “neo-fascist” governor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, who has a personal fortune of 11 billion U.S. dollars, can become the Democratic Party nominee for president. This is really big time politics, dangerous politics.
 
In little Belize, the future of the People’s United Party is of relevance and concern to all of us rational, mature Belizeans. In the modern era of Belizean politics, since the birth of the UDP in 1973, there have only been three landslides – 1984, 1998 and 2008. In 1998, a landslide defeat cost Manuel Esquivel leadership of the UDP, and in 2008, a landslide defeat appears to have cost Said Musa leadership of the PUP. If the truth be told, 1984 did cost Mr. Price leadership of the PUP, but no one knew it at the time. The PUP which returned to power in 1989 was really led by Ralph Fonseca. He manipulated Mr. Price. Ralph Fonseca did the same thing with Mr. Musa, from 1998 to 2008.  
 
Decision time is now past. That was Thursday, February 7, 2008. Ralph Fonseca was rejected by the people of Belize – wholesale. Ralph was never the “real PUP.” Where Ralph Fonseca’s thinking is concerned, he has more in common with Michael Ashcroft than he does in common with Hilda Beckles. Check it.
 
Let the people be the judge. All power to the people.

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