When you see a senior PUP attorney try to scale a fence at midnight in the service of his billionaire client, and then have to be run off by a police dog, you know this BTL business is serious business indeed.
And when you see the bombastic older brother of the UDP attorney who defeated the aforementioned senior PUP attorney in the February 2008 general elections, appear on the aforementioned billionaire’s television station this week to argue on behalf of the fence-climbing senior PUP attorney, you know this business is big. Remember now, as soon as the younger brother UDP attorney had defeated the billionaire’s senior PUP attorney in Pickstock in 2008, that younger brother UDP attorney turned around and, amazingly, accepted a $200,000 gift from the said billionaire.
It is possible that the Hon. Dean Barrow learned something in 2003. His UDP was badly beaten in general elections held in March of that year, and he must have then realized that the said billionaire, on whose sweet payroll he and his law partner had happily been from 1989, was an albatross of sorts.
The money the billionaire has been bringing to the Belizean political table for the last 25 years, is money which Belizean politicians have, to a man and to a woman, found impossible to refuse. One of the reasons for this is that the money is as large as you want it to be, and another reason is that the billionaire has been enjoying the playing of games with Belizeans for his own amusement, and yes, enrichment.
The Mexican Carlos Slim is considered the world’s richest individual, and most of his money has been made through his telecommunications dominance in Mexico. Telecommunications in the modern era, especially in unregulated economies, is a crazy cash cow. Our billionaire, who professes great love for Belize, has made a lot of money off BTL, and now Smart/SpeedNet: money is his business and money is his love. We think, however, that he also has a special perspective on Belize where he enjoys watching prominent Belizeans jump when he says jump.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow has always been a man who uses his brains, James Brown-style, to stay on the good foot. Good-looking and looking good were his mantra. He was above it all. Today, however, he is in a situation which requires that he behave like a national hero. National heroes sometimes become sacrifices. It is, it appears, the will of the Belizean people with which Mr. Barrow acted in accord when he took over BTL in the nation’s name in August of 2009. The will of the Belizean people is supreme within the territorial boundaries of the nation-state. The law can sometimes be, in the words of The Beadle in Oliver Twist, “an ass,” but the will of the people can never be asinine. The will of the people is, for all daily intents and purposes, the will of God. If Johnny Briceño does not understand this, then he will likely learn in 2013 what Dean Barrow likely learned in 2003.
There are moments which are defining in the lives of nation-states. Because we Belizeans were British subjects, we know of many such defining moments in the history of Great Britain – 1215, 1485, 1588, 1649, 1805, 1814, 1940, and so on and so forth. Moments which are defining are those moments which generations afterwards can look back to and say: our ancestors made a statement back then, and it was a statement of honor, not a statement of convenience or a mammon-induced statement.
We don’t know if these present moments will be considered defining in the history of Belize. Certainly, the present time is a critical time. For us now at this newspaper, we have to be careful how we speak, because we would not want to mislead the Belizean people in any kind of way at this time of crisis.
There is a saying, that when some people say it’s not about the money, it’s almost always about the money. There are media voices which are in the business of defending and advocating, with respect to the billionaire and the billionaire’s business, and remember, these voices have sometimes been UDP in the past, and now they are often PUP. The billionaire gives money to prominent people in both our political parties. Then, those voices which are arguing and fighting for him at specific moments, always say, “Oh, I am not fighting for him …” and, “Oh, I am not taking up for him …” Bull shit. They are being paid, and paid well.
Power to the people. Power in the struggle.