Just mention the proposed sale of land on Northern Ambergris Caye to a group of South Koreans and conservationists get thrown into a tizzy. But government today promised that the land it is selling is not any part of Bacalar Chico. It’s a motion for the sale of 3,000 acres on Northern Ambergris Caye, land that is known as the Pinkerton Estate. It’s part of the 22,000 acres that government owns on North Ambergris. Those thousands of acres were acquired in 1990 for $9 million. Now this 3,000 acre swathe is being sold for $12 million. The company is Caribbean Developers and it will spearhead a major tourism project. But the Leader of the Opposition didn’t buy it. He said he wanted to see a map to ensure that it is not part of Bacalar Chico.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“If that is meant to be some kind of an assurance, the Prime Minister needs to understand and accept that his word values nothing. The people of this country have seen how over and over he does not tell the truth. He continues to lie to the people of this country so when he offers that kind of assurance...”
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
“Madam Speaker, I object, this is un-parliamentary language being used by the Member.”
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“He continues to speak untruth after untruth after untruth. He continues to prevaricate, he continues to show that he is an utter nad complete stranger to the truth.”
Hon. Ralph Fonseca, Belize Rural Central
“Madam Speaker at 38 (1) it is very clear, ‘ subject to the provisions of these standing orders, debate upon any motion, bill, or amendment shall be relevant to such motion, bill, or amendment and a member shall confine his observations to the subjects under discussions.’ Bacalar Chico is not under discussion. You did not know what the Cabinet decision was. You have to stick to talking about these three thousand
acres.”
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“Shut up and sit down, you are not the Speaker. Madam Speaker.”
Hon. Ralph Fonseca,
“You sit down.”
Speaker Elizabeth Zabaneh,
“I will not condone that. That is acting to me in a very juvenile way. Don’t act like that and a standing order has been quoted so I will really like if you will maintain your debate to the standing order.”
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I am doing precisely that. He raised Bacalar Chico. He raised Bacalar Chico. I don’t know if the member from Belize Rural Central, as is customary, couldn’t understand what he heard but the Prime Minister raised Bacalar Chico.
There is this climate of utter suspicion with respect to the lands at North Ambergris Caye. The Prime Minister does not in presenting this motion offer us the courtesy of attaching some kind of a map. It is, I repeat, an insult to ask us to approve this without knowing where the lands are. How dare the Prime Minister come to the House like that? Especially, I am saying again, in this climate of suspicion where he and his Minister of Natural Resources, have been presiding over the wholesale giveaway of national lands to cronies including reserved national lands.
How in that climate, two or three months before an election, when in any event serious questions have to be asked about the legitimacy of they wanting to sell 3,000 acres of land in the first place, I don’t know if these people don’t realize it, you are a lame duck administration. You are on your way out. Things that you could do at the start of your term, in the middle of your term, morally, you might still be legally able to do them, but burly you’re not entitled to do. 3,000 acres of national patrimony, that’s a lot of land Madam Speaker. So in the first place, you better wheel and come back again.”
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
“Government made a very clear and absolute statement that no part of the Bacalar Chico Reserve is being sold or is being de-reserved and that is an absolute fact. Yes there is a map showing exactly where the 3,000 acres is. I did not consider it a necessary condition under the Finance and Audit Act to make that map available but for any interested members, they can go to the Ministry of Natural Resources and they can see exactly where this 3,000 acres is.
The point Madam Speaker is this, that we are talking here about less than one seventh of the land that was acquired by the government. Now we are hearing that it is premium location when in the past when Social Security was buying this land, I think it was three thousand acres or there about, they on the very same issue, very same land, because its all one big parcel of land, were saying it is all swamp. They went on the television calling it swamp land and the fact of the matter is we all know that it is mangrove land. There is no beach frontage involved in this sale. I think the Honorable Member knows that.
In fact the Leader of the Opposition knows that but I believe the reason why they are behaving so hypocritical today is because they realize that the government is effecting this sale, there will be more development in Belize, there will be more jobs created, that there will be more money available for community development projects in our country.”
We understand that government is also in negotiation to sell another roughly equivalent portion of the Pinkerton Estate.
