And part of the launch of the strategy includes volume 1 of a "Brief Summary of The Belize Constitution," written by attorney Richard "Dickie" Bradley. And today, Bradley was one of the presenters, focusing on the role of the media in the public education and consultation process.
He's a passionate advocate for constitutional reform and he started out by chastising the media for not putting on more of an effort to educate the public, saying that it's basically like a media blackout in regards to the PCC. He then added that the main message to get across isn't what changes the constitution needs, but how to make the country better.
Richard "Dickie" Bradley, Attorney/Presenter
"There's almost a media black out of the most important commission ever found since around 1650 or thereabouts when Roman Catholic missionaries pass through and saw that a handful of Baymen had a handful of slaves, nothing like this ever happened. That the government, I don't know who talked them into doing it, but the point is we are actually in the challenge of a lifetime, this will never happen again, politicians, governments, will never call upon the people to be so involved in a process so I wanted to mention to my brothers and sisters in the media that it was a terrible thing that they have done that six months plus November and December, that is 8 months out of 18 months has gone and the people in the villages and the highways and byways and the communities and the towns and the cities don't have the slightest idea what is going on. Not the slightest idea what is going on. And then the sad part about that is that the media itself will benefit from this major exercise."
"We would have to ask the media, pay the media, pay them properly, to find a way to sell this idea that what we really are doing, what we really are asking people out there is how we can make Belize a better place. That is really the task we're doing, it's not about law, how we can make it a better place, well, we will have to put those ideas and those things inside the constitution because the constitution is the only place we can put it."
The PCC will tomorrow launch its public outreach education and consultation process and that event will be live streamed on our Facebook page.
