It's final, the opposition will not support the constitutional amendment to de-link from the Privy Council and put the Caribbean Court of Justice in its place.
The Prime Minister opened his press briefing this morning saying that he got the what he called disappointing news via telephone from the Leader of the Opposition last night after the UDP's central party council made its decision.
Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
"The United Democratic Party had agreed to support the establishment of the court to replace the Privy Council and indeed during their term in office they had tabled a bill in the house to abolish the Privy Council. But as the time approached for the passage of the bills, the UDP as a last minute maneuver sought to make their support conditional and government agreed to certain issues which really had nothing to do with the merits of the Caribbean Court of Justice. Some of these demands of the UDP clearly smacked of political extortion. I met on Monday morning with the Leader of Opposition to discuss their proposals. At this meeting held at the office of the Prime Minster in Belize City we reached a consensus on the points raised. In a spirit of compromise and in an order to reach consensus on the matter that I considered of considerable significance to Belize and the region, the People's United Party Government gave its approval and was prepared to support the proposed changes as agreed between the Leader of the Opposition and myself. On Wednesday night, last night, I was however informed by the Leader of the Opposition by telephone that he was unable to get the support of his party's executive. The government intends to move ahead on Friday with the passage of this bill to establish the Caribbean Court of Justice. Sooner or later the opposition will hopefully come to its senses and begin to act responsibly instead of waging what I would characterize as a reckless campaign of political extortion, slander, libel, and malicious false propaganda."
"If there was genuine belief on their side that these matters were of equal or greater importance than the CCJ then they would have supported their leader in agreeing to move ahead with the CCJ as an appellate court. For instance on the matter of the debt ceiling I can tell you that the leader of the opposition readily conceded that you do not put an issue like that in your constitution. Every government in the world has targets that they want to meet in terms of a debt ceiling and we had proposed to deal with it in the Finance and Audit Act where it really belongs in. And the matter of targets are normally set in a budget presentation."
Jules Vasquez,
So from your perspective there was equivocation on the part of the UDP in terms of the John Saldivar/Wilfred Elrington group had one perspective and the Leader of the Opposition had another?
Hon. Said Musa,
"Well it seems very clear to everyone that they were deeply divided among themselves on this issue."
"After my discussion with the Leader of the Opposition on Monday, I really thought that he would have been able to persuade his colleagues, he being the Leader of the Opposition, that this was the way to move forward. In that sense I was surprised that he was not able to garnet support, as I was able to with my Cabinet and my member of the house that we met with in caucus on Tuesday. But I think it's symptomatic of divisiveness in the opposition...some might say we shouldn't be surprised about that...yeah."
Hon. Dean Barrow, Opposition Leader
"Well that shouldn't be surprising coming from the Prime Minister who finds himself in the position of a child having had his marbles taken away. Clearly the vote of the UDP is a source of deep disappointment to the Prime Minister and he needs to work through that. The kind of scurrilous remarks that he made in his press conference this morning are most unbecoming of a national leader and I certainly wouldn't descend to those depths. My response is very short: deal with it Musa...deal with it."
Jules Vasquez,
He has said that you agreed in your meeting with him that in fact it is ridiculous to propose a constitutional cap or debt sealing outside of the targets in budgets. He said you had agreed and for you now to change your position or to allow your party to stick to what you know to be a wrong- minded interpretation of saying that 'yes we have to impose a debt ceiling' is in fact indicative of poor leadership and disingenuousness on your part.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"Well what the Prime Minister has said is indicative of poor understanding on his part. How can he say that he and I agreed on anything? He must know that my position which was made public before and certainly after the meeting was clear that in the United Democratic Party we operate a democracy. And from day one with respect to this process it was always public knowledge that party would decide all the issues before it."
Jules Vasquez,
In the Prime Minister's statement he said that sooner or later the Opposition will hopefully come to its senses and begin to act responsibly instead of waging a reckless campaign of political extortion, slander, libel, and malicious false propaganda."
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"Well this is why I said at the start he is behaving like a spoiled pickney. We in good faith met with him and tried to work the democratic and constitutional process. The end result is not to his satisfaction but it is no cause to behave in that juvenile fashion and to use that kind of emotive language.
"The Prime Minister must tell us why it is he is so determined to pursue the CCJ. And he must not act as if the CCJ is universally recognized as some kind of advance for the Caribbean. All over the Caribbean opinions are deeply divided on the CCJ. He is being all together disingenuous in terms of the spin he is trying to put on events and I am sorry for him because it doesn't matter what kind of spin he tries. He will be confronted tomorrow with an opposition that is absolutely united and that will vote his constitutional amendment down."
Barrow remains convinced that the Caribbean Court of Justice matter is still very much alive and he maintains that government will have to come back to the opposition to re-open negotiations. For its part, government says it will go ahead with the CCJ as a distinct court with jurisdiction over CARICOM related matters.