Speaking with me at some length after the swearing in, Barrow discussed a number of topics, most importantly how he’s going to live up to the promise that the Belizean electorate has entrusted him with.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
Mr. Barrow on Thursday night Belizeans placed their confidence in you to be our next prime minister how do you plan to live up to their expectation?
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
“By resolving and in fact delivering on that resolve. Always to operate openly and honestly by resolving never to run from issues never to run from the press, never to blame the press but to man up if in fact there are things that go wrong. I think that is the most critical consideration for me.
Of course I am so very much aware of the huge burden of expectation that there is now in terms of the mandate being big and in terms of people clamoring for their just desserts, clamoring for the new administration to move things forward. To begin to deliver on things like trying to reduce the costs of living and all the related pledges. But for me what will remain foremost, what will remain paramount is what I consider to be the absolute requirement to do things openly and honestly.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Speaking about moving this new administration forward, in the ten years that you have been in the opposition, no doubt you have managed to gather an army of supporters and loyalists. No doubt, now that you have been elected, are expected to be rewarded incorporating them in some sort of government position. How do you plan to go about doing this without falling victim to nepotism which you know spawns corruption?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“You are right, it is a delicate balancing act that will have to be performed. I think the society understands that there is a need to try and assist people who have been foot soldiers, people who have been part of the struggle especially when the struggle has been as long as ours has been. But there must be a way to that and accommodate that sort of requirement without coming loose from one’s morals, without corrupting the fact that in our type of democracy professional posts must be professionally filled. I think there is lot of leeway or considerably leeway in terms of open vote positions, in terms of what are seem to be contract posts, but I certainly will always bear well in mind that at the professional level, we must appoint professional people on the basis of merit and not with regard to their political qualifications.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
The UDP has now been elected to become the next government of Belize how do you plan to go about enforcing its standard of transparency? It is interesting to note, that the outgoing Prime Minister still continues to blame the media for his demise and not bad governance.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“That I do not understand, I will leave that alone and say merely that whenever you begin to hear me say that it is the fault of the media then you know that I have gone wrong, I have become a cropper. I am determined not to do that but with respect to enforcing transparency, there are two things. Of course we want to put in place a series of institutional measures. We have talked about passing the unjust enrichment law, empowering the senate and giving control of the senate and now we have the majority that will enable us to do that giving control of the senate to the social partners in combination with the opposition, outlawing secrecy in government contracts, things like that so there is this series of measures that I believe that we can prepare very quickly in terms of legislation.
But clearly Jackie ultimately we can design on the face of it what has to be the best system in the world. If we are not prepared to work that system properly, we are going to fall down and so I think it will be my job in this regard to lead by precept and example and to make it clear to my colleagues that this is the one area that’s non negotiable so I hope in this way I hope to deliver on the promise of transparency.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Some public servants fear a witch-hunt. What assurances you have for workers out there who may have this concern?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“Well I don’t see how public officers need to fear because they are permanent civil servants, they have security of tenure and you cannot interfere even if you wanted to and I am sure that I do not want to, you cannot interfere with them except that you go through the Public Services Commission and accept there is cause. I myself have taken a number of cases to court on behalf of public officers, so I know only too well what happens if you violate their security of tenure without proper cause. I do not think that is an issue so far as at the very top of the ladder the CEO positions are concerned well that’s not an issue because the CEOs, under the new dispensation that the government introduced goes with the administration so there is no question there, their contracts are going to expire and we have wrote the book in what to write so we will clearly our CEOs. I believe there are one or two of the outgoing CEOs who we thought were professionals who are not appointed politically that we would want to keep. But those that were clearly appointed politically have no expectation of staying and we have no expectation of keeping them.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
The outgoing Prime Minister says he has no concern about any leaks that may be brought forward. Will your administration go after any past subject or secret deals and if necessary prosecute those who are discovered to have been involved in corrupt acts?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“Well certainly secret deals. I believe that there are a number of contracts that the outgoing government signed that they never revealed to the public and those contracts must see the light of day immediately, even if it turns out that legally our hands are tied and we can’t do anything about them. The people must know and that is going to be one of the first orders of this. They have been these two inquiries, one by the Senate select committee and one by the DFC Commission of Inquiry. We’ve not been able to publicly see Merlene Bailey-Martinez’s report but it is certainly important to the government. I will expect that report will be analyzed by our legal officers and to the extent, as I heard it does, if it points to the direction of evidence enough to sustain a prosecution, we will ask the DPP and the legal authorities to do their duties.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
But do you plan to publish her report?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I would like to but remember there is an injunction. Now while that injunction was given on an ex-parte basis, the period for the government to apply to lift the injunction is already pass and I don’t know that if we do so, and I certainly want to explore the possibility of doing so, going back to court and asking the Chief Justice to lift the injunction, otherwise we won’t be caught by the argument that we waited too long. And it is not going to be for us to say that it wasn’t this government, it was the previous government; a government is a government is a government. But we will look at that and if there is any way we can in fact get the injunction lifted we will publish it but even absent that, surely the report is enough to provide a basis for as I said legal officials to do their own inquiries as it were and to pursue their own investigation for purposes of determining whether there is enough evidence to launch prosecutions.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Do you plan to bring in senators to be ministers?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“No. I think with the size of the majority, as it is I think I am going to have difficulties because everybody who wins cannot be a minister and I know those that won’t get to be ministers will be disappointed and upset and dissatisfied. I wouldn’t want to compound that by bringing in a senators and making them ministers because that means there are even less ministerial posts then to go around for those that actually fought and won the election.”
