This weekend, Belize's grand old party, the PUP holds its National Convention where it plans to show a unified, vibrant, renewed, and of course, repentant face after the troubles of the past month. For the party higher-ups, the convention is seen as a significant opportunity to boost its image of credibility and viability. But there are mitigating factors: first 6 people are vying for only two deputies posts, and four will necessarily leave disappointed and disgruntled. Second, those bad boy backbenchers Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde yesterday sent out a release criticizing the Party's convention process as being basically a fraud on democracy and on its supporters. But, the man who moves up from Party Treasurer to Party Chairman this weekend, Francis Fonseca says there is space under that big blue tent for everyone, because the PUP is all about reform.
Francis Fonseca, PUP Chairman Designate
"I believe certainly the convention has to be shaped by the events that have taken place over the last few months and weeks in particular. Obviously, we are certainly not insensitive to that, we have to learn from that experience and grow from that experience. I think that's very important for us as a party and that is the frame of mind we are in, entering this convention reform minded. We're very focused on the future, we recognize what our party has faced, as you pointed out, tremendous challenge, and our government has faced tremendous challenge over the last few months and week."
Jules Vasquez,
But in yesterday's release from Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde, the backbenchers, and they are saying that in fact the convention and the National Executive Meeting from earlier on Saturday is in fact undermining the spirit of reform and it is in fact disenfranchising, excluding, and marginalizing, 51,000 persons who voted for the PUP by letting basically 161 people decide who will be the leaders of 51,000 people. How do you respond to that criticism?
Francis Fonseca,
"Well first of all what we are doing over the next two days is what is mandated by the constitution of the People's United Party, so we're governed by a constitution and we're following that constitution. But certainly, we are a party committed to change and reform so there's merit in some of the criticisms that have been leveled at us on those issues. I believe that that is one of the things, certainly, as the incoming Chairman of the party I want to look at closely, and I certainly am prepared to sit down with people like Cordel Hyde and Mark Espat for us to examine ways of how we can make the democracy in our party more meaningful. I agree with them that we have to evolve by encouraging greater involvement among our people in the election of our leaders at the party level."
Jules Vasquez,
They voted against in the House the most important for the administration of the country, for the governance of the country. They then went and held a press conference where they said that the budget was not reflective of the social justice values on which the party's ground and now they've issued this release. With those three offenses in public, if you had to vote, should Cordel Hyde and Mark Espat be expelled from the PUP?
Francis Fonseca,
"No. I certainly don't share their views and I don't agree with the position they've taken on the budget. I believe that Cordel Hyde and Mark Espat should and can remain members of the People's United Party. I believe we have to strengthen the lines of communication that exist between us, they are very strained now and certainly I hope that with a new executive and certainly with my role as Chairman of the Party I hope to reach out to them and engage them in a very positive discussion about the future of the Party because I still very strongly believe that they can and should be a part of the future of the People's United Party."
Jules Vasquez,
The decisions at the top level of the Party are decided basically by oligarchs outside the Party that the Party has become an instrument of the wealthy and it is manipulated and instrumentalized by those politicians within the Party who are beholden on to those wealthy people that it is no longer a people's party and the fact that everything will be decided not at the convention but at the national executive a day before is proof of this. How do you respond to that?
Francis Fonseca,
"I think there is some merit in the criticism that politics has changed in Belize and I believe the People's United Party has not been immune from that change and certainly the politics of old, the politics of Mr. Price and the good old days, were obviously a very grassroots oriented politics. But politics has changed and politics involves a lot of deals, in terms of working with the business community, and working with these so-called oligarchs as you call them. That is a part of life, particularly when you are a party in government, when you are trying to move your country forward and develop your country, sometimes people don't make a distinction between the party and the government. I think part of the whole reform agenda we have coming out of this convention is really to take a critical look at that very issue because perception is very important and where our own people are saying to us you have to make a concerted effort to get back to the base of our party, so to speak, to rebuild that confidence and trust that the masses of the people had in the People's United Party and we believe we can do that."
