The PUP's party organ, the Belize Times today confirmed what 7NEWS first reported on Tuesday: Minister of National Development Assad Shoman is resigning from the Cabinet. Shoman will become the fifth minister since 1998 to resign or walk away from the Musa Cabinet. He is joined by Henry Canton, Jorge Espat, Dan Silva, and Cordel Hyde; add that to those who have been fired, Eamon Courtenay and Mark Espat, and you've got a pretty good roster of political talent.
According to the Belize Times, which quotes a statement from the Prime Minister's office, Shoman will take up the post as Chief Negotiator in the Belize/Guatemala negotiation and he will do it for free. We should note that while the government tries to spin it as a transition, the truth is Shoman was already the Chief Foreign Affairs representative meaning chief negotiator so he just keeps that job. In fact to go from the Chief Foreign Affairs representative to Chief Negotiator is actually a downgrade.
But more than just a new limited scope assignment, in fact it is a huge loss for the Musa administration. As Minister of National Development, Shoman was the credible face that presented the administration for a number of development based lending agencies. He is currently the governor for the IDB, and the representative for the Commonwealth Debt Initiative which is Britain's Debt Relief Program; he deals with the CDB, the IMF and the European Union.
