Last week Wednesday PUP politicos Luke Espat and Winston Smiling did an extraordinary thing: they came out swinging against a Minister of their own government, Mark Espat. As we've discussed, the surface issue was control of the Corozal Free Zone, but the deeper issue was who controls and defines the PUP: who serves and who eats at the dinner table of the grand old party. Those two, devotees of past leader Price, counsel to minister Ralph Fonseca and friend to the Prime Minister stated plainly they're declaring war on Minister Espat.
Since then the Minister of National Development has been mostly quiet. But not today. We caught up with him at the opening of a Caribbean conference on public finance management, and he let it be known that Luke Espat, Winston Smiling and the man he believes they answer to, are cancers to the PUP.
Hon. Mark Espat, Minister of National Development
"The only comment I will make as it relates the election in the Corozal Free Zone for private sector representatives to the board is to say that the election was held according to law. The election was supervised by the CEO of the Corozal Free Zone, as prescribed by law, and the CEO of the Ministry of National Development. All six candidates that offered themselves for seats on the board knew the rules up front. 63% of the registered businesses voted in the election. All the candidates were there campaigning. Many people witnessed the counting. The elections were free and fair and results will stand."
Jules Vasquez,
If the elections are all that you say they were, still you are facing what appears to be a determined challenge from Mr. Luke Espat and Mr. Winston Smiling. Luke Espat is not just a man on the street, he is the vice-chairman of the National Free Zone Authority, and these people maintain that, despite what you say, that in fact the elections were illegal and they will do all they can to force a new election and it appears they will do what they can to do to destabilize the current board that is there. How will you advance from there?
Hon. Mark Espat,
"This issue is really not about the Corozal Free Zone elections. What this issue is about Jules is about cronyism. The two gentlemen, Lucas Espat, no relative, and Winston 'Nephew' Smiling, what they are about is barking at the command of their handler. Their handler, let's call him Mr. Chief Crony, has along with a small coterie of cronies, hijacked, in effect, many of the initiatives of the People's United Party.
In the last several years they have been exposed as serving only the special interests. And so what has happened, as Minister responsible for the Free Zone I have said no. I am not prepared to conspire and to rig an election to the ensure that any crony, even if that crony boasts of his proximity to Mr. Chief Crony, to ensure that they get on the Board of the Free Zone. We must respect the law. We must respect the will of the investors. This is a country based not on cronyism but on the rule of law.
And I will go further, I will say that indeed there is an old PUP and I would hope sometime soon, a new PUP. What the 'old PUP' stands for is what the people rejected resoundingly, 64 to 3 seats, on March the 1st. and when these political dinosaurs, as I believe they are, or as the streets would call them, political skettels, when they recognize that it is because of the misguided policies that they have pursued, when they come to grips with the fact that so many of the hits against this People's United Party is as a result of the policies that they, and their small group, their minority - obnoxious as they may be, rude and arrogant as they may be - when they come to grips with the fact that it is their policy that has brought the PUP to its lowest level in its 55 years history, only then will there be an opportunity for renewal. Only then will the electoral viability of the PUP as a whole be restored.
And so no, I am not a member of the 'old PUP.' I believe, I am ashamed of that old PUP and there are tens of thousands of Belizeans who wish to support the PUP but who do not support Mr. Chief Crony, his cabal of cronies, and the havoc that they have wreaked in the Belizean economy and society over the last several years."
Jules Vasquez,
Who is Mr. Chief Crony that you refer to so pointedly?
Hon. Mark Espat,
"Well I think everyone knows who is the handler of the two gentlemen that appeared on television last week. And let us just say that Mr. Chief Crony is the same person who was Mr. Chief Crony almost exactly two years ago in August of 2004. Mr. Chief Crony maintains offices all over the world."
Jules Vasquez,
Where does the Prime Minister stand in the new PUP versus the Old PUP?
Hon. Mark Espat,
"Well certainly as it relates to the Corozal Free Zone elections, let me clarify that the Prime Minister was made aware by me of the framework for the elections and I was pleased that he was entirely supportive of the need to have a free and a fair election, firstly.
As it relates to what Mr. Smiling calls the 'Old PUP,' I believe that the Party Leader must be compelled to look at the creed of the party, to look at the aims and the objectives, and to see that our first calling is to serve our people, all of our people, especially those who need our support. And certainly Mr. Chief Crony and the other cronies are not about serving the people. That is clear and so I believe that the Party Leader must be on the side of the party's aims and objectives and the creed of the party."
Jules Vasquez,
Are you picking a fight when your party can least afford it, when it is most vulnerable?
Hon. Mark Espat,
"I am responding to the questions that you have asked and I am responding to the last people who should seek refuge in law and principle. They are well known for their tactics and their tactics are not in the national interest of Belize."
And for the avoidance of doubt, the man Espat refers to as chief crony can only be Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca. That, we imagine, is just the beginning of renewed hostilities in an intra-Cabinet war first waged publicly, as Espat alluded to, in August of 2004 when the G-7 ministers resigned in protest of Fonseca's management of the country's finances.
