Last night 7NEWS broke the story of the May second letter from the Belize Bank demanding payment from the Government of Belize. Information suggests that the payment is for the Universal debt and is based on the strength of a loan note and settlement deed signed, reportedly by the Prime Minister, on March 23rd. Well today that news that there is a settlement deed and a loan note payment which is past due, spurred the UDP to demand the Prime Minister's resignation, or else. Or else what? Here's what the Opposition Leader had to say.
Hon. Dean Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"He has lied both by the omission and commission to Cabinet, to the Public Finance Committee, to the citizens of this nation."
According to the Leader of the Opposition, this letter offers proof that the Prime Minister acted illegally and deceitfully.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"There are two extremely grave offenses that the Prime Minister has committed has committed against the constitution and the polity of this country. One is doing the guarantee and now, even worse, the loan agreement in an unlawful manner, a patently illegal manner and the second is in lying to everybody in an effort to conceal those illegal actions that had in fact engaged in.
There can be no question of any ignorance on the part of the Prime Minister. Deliberately, with malice a forethought, this man secretly converts the already illegal guarantee into a loan that expressly violates the terms and provisions of the Finance and Reform Act."
And according to Barrow, not only was the Prime Minister's act illegal, he deceived his own Cabinet at a Public Finance meeting on April 23rd.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"It now turns out, ladies and gentlemen, this on the demand letter from the Belize Bank, that on that very day when the Prime Minister was leading his Ministers down the primrose path and feeding this mumbo jumbo about re-negotiating the UHS debt, he had unbeknownst to them from as early as the 23rd of March, converted the debt into a loan with fixed terms and conditions under which on that very day, that he was telling them that they should band themselves into a smaller committee to go and renegotiate the debt, on that very day the first interest payment under the new loan that he had crystallized in secret was falling due."
And referring to the disclaimer given by PUP Secretary General Henry Usher, Barrow says it proves that the Prime Minister went further than lying to his ministerial colleagues.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"He flatly denied that there was any settlement deed much less loan agreement that the Prime Minister had entered into. So the man lies to his own son, hangs him out to dry, sacrifices him publicly on this altar of fraud and conspiracy. Well that may be a private family matter, I refer to it only because his son is the Secretary General officially of the PUP and this was said on nationwide TV. It thus illustrates the lengths to which Said Wilbert Musa is prepared to go."
And because of all this, Barrow says the Prime Minister must go.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"This is entirely on the Prime Minister. He did all of this on his own. Everything that I know about constitutional law and everything that you know about democracy tells us both that this man is obliged as a matter not of honor but of duty and of law to resign."
But if he does not resign, the UDP leader says he will try to force a meeting of the National Assembly.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"I will write to the Speaker of the House requiring her to summon a meeting of the House for Friday, is it the 17th, because according to the rules the House meetings are to take place on a Friday. For Friday the 18th of May, the first Friday after the expiry of the recess. When it goes to parliament, if those Ministers who have now, and there are how many of them, they spoke to you Jules, five, spoken out against the guarantee are confronted with this additional and even more problematic, to put it mildly, development of the loan note. If they would go back on their word and vote for the guarantee and vote for the loan note, it seems to me they would have allowed the Prime Minister to turn the tables on them because they will have to resign. If they vote against it, even more they will have to resign because it will mean that members of Cabinet are disagreeing with government policy."
But if the Opposition is unable to force meetings of the House and Senate.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"If the Speaker of the House does not need the request for a meeting of the House, if the President of the Senate does not heed the request for a meeting of the Senate, the UDP will take to the streets. It is a constitutional matter, we want to solve it in a constitutional fashion but if we are denied the opportunity to go to the national assembly, we will go to the streets."
And Barrow says there are only two things the Prime Minister can do to avoid this happening.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
"The Prime Minister has no option but to resign as soon as he comes back or there is another way out, fix immediately the date for the general elections. If he comes back and he says elections in three months time, there is no point in obliging him to resign before then because he is going to face the people and we all know what is going to happen. But there is no way in my view they can properly get out of this without somebody resigning."
The Prime Minister is scheduled to return from Taiwan on Sunday.
But late this evening, his office sent out a statement referring to Barrow's allegations, and saying, "(the Universal Health Services debt) has become the subject of legal action and...we are restrained in our ability to fully respond." It continues, "(When the Prime Minister returns) the Cabinet and Public Finance Committee will be convened to...develop a structured solution to this important national issue."
And while Cabinet deliberates, on Monday, Barrow will send two motions to the National Assembly asking members to reject the loan arrangements as unlawful, and to state that any payments would be illegal. Barrow wrote to the Speaker of the House today requesting the May 18th meeting. If no answer is forthcoming by next week Friday, the 11th the UDP will initiate its plan to, "take it to the streets."
