The public portion of the DFC hearings are over - and the co-chairs are now sequestered in conference rooms hammering out a report, or what some predict may be two reports.
But without the report's findings even having been aired, what is the damage done to the PUP? Well in today's Belize Times, PUP Deputy Leader Godfrey Smith writes that the public hearings have seriously hurt the PUP politically. He writes, "each broadcast of the hearings was like a free negative advertisement for the opposition...the inquiry has served to reinforce the negative stereotypes harbored against the pup in the collective mind of Belize City."
Smith concludes that the hearings have also confused and paralyzed the PUP's supporters and has led to what he calls, "political cannibalism."
In light of the deputy's criticisms we should note that it is widely believe that it is the Prime Minister operating from a position of accommodationism and reform who agreed to the commission.
