The American journalist Hunter S. Thompson once said, there's a thin line between martyrdom and stupidity...and we'll guess that's where Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde found themselves last month at that proverbial crossroads between the bridge to burn and the bridge to cross.
Today as the ministers sat in their first post-comeback Cabinet meeting, they may look back and think of it all as just so much silliness, generating so much heat and casting so little light. But for us in the media grandstands, it was theatre, true political drama and real conflict, livening up an often staid and predictable political landscape. So now, as these Ministers prepare for Friday's House sitting, dusting out those long shelved party-issue guayaberas for Friday's House meeting, we expect them to go back and be moderately well behaved.
And while they do their jobs and we do ours, up in the grandstands we will certainly miss this days of dropping bombs from the backbench - and in remembrance of those heady days past, we look back at Mark and Cordel's greatest hits...and misses.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
The former ministers made their first post Cabinet appearance on December 29th, the day after their Cabinet departure. They seemed collected if slightly ill at ease after the inevitable comedown, and they spoke in guarded terms, careful not to embarrass their leader, but clever enough to put him on notice. It was then 17 days from the presentation of the new budget, and Espat made it clear they had concerns.
Hon. Mark Espat,
{December 29th 2004] "What are we going to do to rebuild confidence in the government."
And 17 days later when the budget was presented, these new backbenchers are the ones that had no confidence. And while they could not make their budget response in the House Debate on January 21ST. Due to swarming unrest outside, three days later they held a press conference to vent their disapproval with their leader's budget proposals.
Hon. Cordel Hyde,
[January 24, 2005] "Madam Speaker how can I support a budget that does not support my people. We on this side of the House have to burn with the gospel of the poor and use that flame to light up their lives. What is good for the poor is good for Belize, what is bad for the poor is bad for Belize. They want to raid the barn but they don't want to plant the corn."
Hon. Mark Espat,
[January 24th, 2005] "I am a member of the PUP but I cannot support this budget. Madam Speaker we cannot continue to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. We cannot continue to line up the bullet payments indefinitely: a bullet in 2012, a bullet in 2014, a bullet in 2015? our plan to make balloon payments. One of these days one of these bullets will find its mark through the heart of our economy." It is not I that have abandoned my party but that my party with this budget seems to have left the people. We have not left our party, our party has left us."
The party may have left them but these bad boy backbenchers wouldn't leave it alone. They made their next bold public declaration at a House sitting on June 17th. When government announced basically that Michael Ashcroft would again be boss at BTL, that 's Lord Ashcroft to you and the Prime Minister but "Mr. Carlisle" to Mark Espat:
Hon. Mark Espat,
[June 17th, 2005] "Mr. Carlisle wins again. The relationship between Carlisle and the government has appeared to be one of master and puppet. Throughout this conspiracy to control and suck dry BTL and its Belizean consumers, it would appear that this government has been an all too willing accomplice. This is nothing short of a national travesty, a crying shame, a downright disgrace and a betrayal of the national interest. The voice that the people of the Albert Constituency entrusted to me on March 5, 2003 cannot be used to defend Carlisle, it must be used to defend Belize against these modern day pirates and profiteers whose only loyalty is to the bottom lines."
And while Fonseca brushed his chin like a sage suffering petty insults, he could not brush off these criticisms coming for the first time form the government side of the House. In fact so harsh were the criticisms that the usually circumspect Prime Minister fired back, angrily:
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
[June 17th, 2005] "That, Madam Speaker is unforgivable. And the Belizean people will not be fooled by pontification and self-righteous indignation; talking about master and puppet. The only master I have Madam Speaker is the Good Lord."
In fact Espat's presentation left the pm so worked up that he was goaded into making what will may emerge as one of his most regretted public statements:
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
[June 17th, 2005] "The truth of the matter is that we have to go this route, or we're proposing to go this route, because they have the money."
In the end though, the pm was circumspect about the whole thing, even if he did send a stiff one across to Espat/Hyde.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
[June 17th, 2005] "The Opposition's work is being done for it [Laughter in the House] by others. Democracy is in full bloom in this House today. But you know if you can't stand the heat you must get out of the kitchen."
But in the end, after all those historically harsh words exchanged in public, after almost exactly 10 months of being out in the cold, the representatives returned re-seated and reloaded as ministers...this time, not only calm, but cool, not only collected, but composed, even sharp. So what was it all for?
Hon. Cordel Hyde,
[January 24th, 2005] "After a while instead of just knocking on the door quietly and hoping that they open the door, after doing that enough times you realize you have to break down the door to get in and you have to scream for them to listen to you."
[November 3rd, 2005] "We made our point that we are prepared to stand up against the things that are wrong for us and we are prepared to stand up for the things that are right for us."
Lessons learned and points made, we expect that the new ministers will be brought from political Siberia at the far end of the backbench but there's no telling if they will be re-admitted to the front bench.
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