Today was day two of the budget debate at the National Assembly Building and the PUP representatives had it all to themselves. All 8 UDP representatives spoke yesterday leaving 6 PUP members to soak up the media spotlight today. That gave Cordel Hyde and Mark Espat an opportunity to redeem themselves, this time from the front bench.
Last year, as backbenchers they made parliamentary history when they voted against their own party's budget and then publicly criticized it. This year, though, they spoke from the front bench, and while the song had very different lyrics you could hear feint strains of the same tune: reform or be doomed.
Hon. Cordel Hyde, Lake I. Rep. (PUP)
"Madam Speaker on March 1st the people of Belize sent a loud and clear message to the PUP. The people said that they resented the policies of this government, they said they had have enough. Madam Speaker we heard the cries of the people. Even if we were deaf, we would have had to hear these cries. But it is not enough to just hear, we have to act. The eyes of the people are upon us, they want to see us do better.
Madam Speaker I believe that the budget is a step in the right direction. It is not a budget of plenty but it is not a budget of pain. There are no new taxes, there is no wage freeze, there is no retrenchment on the horizon, and public officers and teachers are not being denied their salary increases in this budget.
They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. This budget is the start of that journey. This budget puts the PUP back on the move. The other side predicted that this would be a budget of gloom and doom. They said that this budget would have brought hire taxes and a lot more pain on those who can least afford it but those on the other side have been caught in a time warp because this is not the yearn 2005 and this is not last year's budget. This is a brand new year, brand new attitude and a brand new budget. Don't get me wrong, there is still a lot to do. There is still a huge chasm between the scale of problem and the scale of the response but I believe that we are moving in the right direction, that we are finally beginning to march to the beat of the many people who elected us.
On this side of the House we cannot afford to see the people of southside in colors. In August of 1998, these people were all PUPs and on March 1st 2006, they voted all UDP. Who knows who they'll vote for when the big dance comes around in 2008.
If we do what we are supposed to do, if we do what the people want us to do and if we do what we know we should do, then nobody, absolutely nobody, can beat us. Let us pledge to always be on the side of the people, always on the side of the majority. We have a little under two years to turn things around, to right the ship. It can be done but time is short so we have to be long on righteous deeds."
Hon. Mark Espat, Albert Rep. (PUP)
"The message of the voters is clear and it is thunderous, unlike the proverbial ostrich, we cannot and we should not bury our heads in the sand and sit tight and wait until the political pendulum swings back in our favor. Yes Madam Speaker the member from Collet pointed out yesterday that last year the member from Lake Independence and I voted against the budget. But we voted against that budget because we believed that the wrong people were being asked to pay
for the adjustment, not because the adjustment. Be sure member from Collet that not only do we recall the vote and our stand on taxing the special interest but with the support of our constituents we stand by that principle with the same conviction today. This budget though Madam, Speaker for 2006/2007 is a different budget; it tax free budget, it is a responsible budget.
Madam Speaker my friend from Mesopotamia and your friend sang 'brown girl in the ring' for us yesterday. To make the point in his usual very colorful and entertaining way that there is no sugar and spice, and you corrected him, no sugar and plum in this budget. He sang relatively well, obviously he is a karaoke veteran. But Madam Speaker he misled us. He did not level with the Belizean people and so I have to correct him. There is much sugar and much plum in this budget, not enough but there'll never be enough sugar and enough plum. Madam Speaker I dare say that there are far more sugar and plums in this PUP development budget than in the most expansionist budget of the two UDP governments. The PUP in austerity Madam Speaker, it seems, is more generous than the UDP on a spending spree."
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"The Honorable Member for Queen Square, the Leader of the Opposition, raised the issue of the overall deficit of $69.3 million as set out in the proposed budget. The Member would have us include repayments of principal to the overall
deficit and suggests that to do otherwise is an attempt to hide the real deficit. Madam Speaker, in fact he accused the government of, he used the word dishonesty, 'dishonest in the way the deficit is being projected.' I would simply say to the Member who is not here today that really he should go back to analyze what his government did. It is well established, a well-established international system in terms of classification and we either maintain that international system of classification or we don't. In keeping with international standards, repayment of principal on the public debt, otherwise known as the amortization, is not included in the calculation of the overall deficit; it never is. In as much as we do not include money that we borrow above the line as revenue, we do not include loan payments above the line in the calculation of overall deficit or in calculation of the deficit to GDP ratio. That is an elementary straightforward system that has been in place.
The Honorable Member for Queen's Square also attempted to lay out an argument that the highest rates of economic growth were achieved under the UDP and that he finds it shocking that we are moving towards a growth of 2.7% in the coming the fiscal year. He called that doom and gloom, dismal. Madam Speaker I can only say to be charitable, that the Hon. Leader of the Opposition continues to be misinformed. The information provided by the Central Statistics Office show that in real terms GDP grew by 6.2% in 1993 when the UDP took over. After that the growth slowed down to 0.3% in 1994, 0.3% in 1995, 1.7% in 1996, and 3.6% in 1997. This averages out to 2.3% real GDP growth during the five years under the UDP administration. So Madam Speaker we had average real rate of growth I GDP of 2.3% under the UDP and 7.8% under the PUP. These are the facts.
So Madam Speaker as this debate on the proposed budget draws to a close, I am mindful of the great work that lies ahead. In as much as this draft budget marks the significant improvements this government has been making in the budget process, it notes the great work that still lies ahead."
And while the Prime Minister wound up the debate, that wasn't the end of the excitement at today's House sitting. The meeting ended in chaos again as the speaker and the UDP member for Collet, Patrick Faber, had a fierce row. We'll tell you all about that later on...but first, we have court news...
