Briceno's announcement of oil in commercial quantities eclipsed the business of today's House sitting which was the budget debate. Compared to last year when the debate had to be stopped early for the first time in history because of unrest outside the National Assembly, this year's event went smoothly. As per tradition, the Opposition leader led off with his response to the Prime Minister's budget. That's where we pick up the story.
Hon. Dean Barrow, UDP Leader
"GDP growth fell from 4.6% in 2004 to
3.1% in 2005 and for 2006 it is projected to drop still further to 2.5%. The last time GDP growth fell below 3% was in the '79 to '84 term of the PUP when in fact it contracted to only 2%. We all know how that story ended.
And then Madam Speaker we must comment on this practice the government has developed of taking the debt servicing figures out of the budget equation. Madam Speaker we reject the mumbo-jumbo about doing it in order to confirm to new accounting standards. It is done rather, evidence shows, so that government can engage in their abomination of making this blatantly false claim that it has reduced the overall deficit to $89 million or only 3.9% of GDP. To say that the overall deficit is only $89 million, when in addition we have to find money to make debt repayments of $306.7 million and another $29.8 million for the purchase of equity is dishonest in the extreme.
If the UDP had resorted to this same below the line ledger amount, we would have shown huge overall surpluses, every single year of both our terms. Let us then, again Madam Speaker, set the record straight. In terms of the overall financing shortfall, the government's deficit for the year now ending is not 3.9% but excess of 25% of GDP.
It is corruption issue that most cost this government to come undone. While the PM ever refuses to publicly acknowledge this, his speech contained more than a hint that he is only too aware of the truth. It is those endless schemes for the enrichment of the group bound up what he himself now calls those grand projects of the last eight years that have so shattered public confidence. It is they that have drained this government of every last vesture of legitimacy, every last iota of credibility, every last ounce of support. Look around Mr. Prime Minister, there is no way you can turn, no one you can trust. Even in your own ranks, things have fallen apart; there is no center which can hold. Ministers are at each other and at you and that unmistakable smell of carrion flesh that hangs o heavily in the air, guess from whose rotting political carcass it comes.
It is over. Go to the government offices here in Belmopan, speak to members of the business community, interview the residents of the villages, of the cities, and the towns. The public sector has no confidence in the government, the private sector has no confidence in the government, the people have no confidence in the government and everyone wants a fresh start.
So that this country can begin to find its way back, so that good governance can be installed, so that new energies may be released, so that the dispiriting cloud can be lifted, so that the long nightfall may be ended and so that we may begin finally ensure that better future, that the Prime Minister says that he wishes for as ardently as I do, please Mr. Prime Minister, do the decent thing, call the general elections now."
Hon. Johnny Briceno, Deputy Prime Minister (PUP)
"When the Honorable Leader of the Opposition is continuing to try to create this feeling of instability, of uncertainty, of loss of confidence within our government, of loss of confidence of our Prime Minister, Madam Speaker it is wishful thinking. I think that over a time the Opposition starts to believe
its own rhetoric, a rhetoric that is going nowhere, a rhetoric that will not help this country, and a rhetoric that at the end of the day we are going to be proven that it is all wrong.
What is happening to the Opposition Madam Speaker is that March 1st has gone up to their heads. Once again the Opposition has been showing what they are really all about and I am confident Madam Speaker that in the work that we are going to be doing in the next two years that whenever the PM calls elections, this government, this Party, will once again work very hard to win back the confidence of the Belizean people."
Hon. Jose Coye, Caribbean Shores Area Rep. (PUP)
"The budget is clearly a development budget. It speaks to the needs of the poor classes of people in the urban and rural areas of this country. And as the PM said in his speech, it is not just about revenues and expenditure, its is about hard choices, it is about defining priorities, and most importantly Madam Speaker, it is about charting a new forward.
Its not whether its 2.7% or 5%, it is what is sustainable and what is it that brings the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people. Growth in itself is not development. While it is a precondition for our development, the development has to do with the distribution and the quality of the growth.
To simply say to this country that the growth has declined form 4% to 2.7% without explaining the composition of the growth and where the sustainability
is in that growth and how it will benefit our people and how it will provide jobs and opportunities and to reduce poverty, that is what it should be about, that simply taking 2.7 and compare it to the 4.1.
The budget was prepared not by the members of Cabinet, the Cabinet set the policy and the principles that were to underpin the preparation of this budget, the financial data were prepared by men and women of integrity and professionalism. This is not a figment of the imagination of the members of the Cabinet or the Public Finance Committee."
Hon. Michael Finnegan, Mesopotamia Area Rep. (UDP)
"Madam Speaker when I was a boy, and you were a young lady, a young girl, you remember a song that we used to play that we used to call, 'brown girl in a ring.' Remember we used to draw a ring and we put a brown girl in the ring, and for those who are too young to know about it, and those who are old to remember it, we used to draw a circle, put a brown girl in the middle of the ring, and we used to sing the song like this, 'there's a brown girl in a ring, tra-la-la-la, there's a brown girl in the ring, tra-la-la-la, for she likes sugar and I like spice.' You remember song?
Forgive me for my lousy voice, because I can't sing but I am only using it Madam Speaker to describe the sweet days when the PUP were a massive wealthy government and how sour times now that they find themselves in sour times and the people are now feeling the pinch for these sour times. You see Madam Speaker, now that the sugar and the plum are done, and that the brown girl who once was
in the center of the ring is there no more, that brown girl has no more sugar, no more plum Madam Speaker as you seh.
You see Madam Speaker, when they were skipping across the ocean, you remember the song also says Madam Speaker, 'I skip and skip and cross the ocean,' you remember the song. Well the PUPs were skipping across the ocean Madam Speaker; money was flowing, reckless behavior was going on in terms of spending and so and we were warning this government, 'be careful.
The brown girl is no more in the ring with spice and sugar and plum. Unu waste the brown to water, unu suck it until unu suck brown girl dry and brown girl has nothing now left on her to hand out sugar and spice and sugar to the ordinary Belizean people of this country. Madam Speaker I could go on and on but as I've said just now, I will be very fair to House, to my colleagues, there nothing to talk about really; the people, the voters, they have said it all on March 1st."
The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 this evening and will restart tomorrow morning at 10:00 when the final five members, all PUP, will make their presentations, with the Prime Minister being the last as he winds up the debate.
