The UDP was swept into office exactly 98 days ago. That means the 100 day so-called honeymoon period ends on Sunday. The honeymoon is usually extended as a kind of public courtesy – a settling in time for the new government to get its hands on the wily behemoth called public governance. But while 100 days may suffice in polite company, in the streets – no such courtesy pertains – for many, the Barrow government is already past due on some of its promises – not least of them, bringing down the cost of living.
Since being elected, costs been going consistently up – and – though it’s part of a worldwide trend –it has become a local crucible for this young administration. We discussed this and many other issues with Prime Minister Dean Barrow yesterday when Jules Vasquez asked him to look back at his first 100 days.
A Hard Start
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
“I think it has gone very well. Clearly there were some problems we did not anticipate and I am talking specifically of the explosion in food and fuel prices. While to some extent there is a bit of a continuum, nobody expected the sorts of jumps that have overtaken us and that is a continuing difficulty.”
Oil Money
Jules Vasquez.
Rising costs, creating a sort of dis-ease in the citizenry and government having to make concessions left and right in order to keep costs down.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“The second bit of bounty that we possess, that will make it alright in the end, is oil. I can tell you that we’ve just been informed by BNE today that the production at Spanish Lookout has been stepped up. In fact the yield is more than it has been and within the next two or three weeks production at Spanish Lookout will be 4,400 barrels per day. That means that for the first time, Belize will actually be a net exporter of oil. A nice sounding phrase, a sounding formula but that means of course, the increased production, it means more revenue for the company, more revenue for Belize.”
Rising Expectations
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“But there is going to be that significant source of additional revenue for the country. It still doesn’t change the fundamentals of your equation but those fundamentals will be there in any case. There will always be un-containable expectations, there will always be expectations that continue to explode and a good government, and hopefully a good Prime Minister, will simply have to know how to manage those expectations, how to tell truth to the people of this country, even as we deliver the basic goods and services and even as we are able to do more than just deliver the basic goods and services. But to the extent that people would wish far more than we or any government in the world can deliver, to that extent it is our job to deal with the consequences of that kind of a phenomenon.
In so far as delivery of things like jobs, services – so far as that delivery is concerned – of course they’re not getting the delivery to the extent that they want and to the extent that they expected, and that is the continuing conundrum. I, the government, will never be able to satisfy all the desires. I will never be able to satisfy all the needs of the people of this country. But I can promise you that we will be successful in satisfying the greatest part almost of the basic needs of the people of this country.
Where the delivery of services, where the question of projects and where the question of disposal income and where the question of ameliorating the cost of living – where those sorts of things are concerned, I know that I will do the best and I know that my best will not be anything to scoff at, anything that can be dismissed, anything that can be sneered at. There is no way in the world that I will be able to please everybody. It may turn out that I am not able to please even the majority of the electorate. If that’s how it turns out, so it is. I have absolutely no difficulty in doing my level honest best for five years and leave. So I really am not going to concern myself at all about prospect for the next elections. It doesn’t mean I am not going to concern myself about the judgement of the electorate, satisfaction of the electorate in so far as I have this duty to try and meet as many of their needs as possible. But just from that point of view, not from the point of view of telling myself you need to make absolutely sure that you win the next election."
A One Term Wonder?
Jules Vasquez,
This is two times in one day I have heard you say that you may only be around for one term. One gets the sense that having been in this for 100 days you’re not long for it.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“No, no. This was a position that I had before the elections. It is not a position that you say before an election. Now I am able to say it.”
Jules Vasquez,
But what really are you saying? Are you saying that you will not seek re-election?
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I am not saying that at all because I am just about to tell you that there is a Prime Minister in the Bahamas who right from the start of his term said, ‘I am not seeking re-election,’ and I think it created a great deal of uncertainty and frustration. All I am saying is that I don’t find re-election a compelling thing. In other words I am not going to make any deals and make any fundamental concessions to what is not straight and true in order for example to win re-election.
If at the end of the five years the people of this country say, ‘well you have not been perfect,’ – you can never be perfect, ‘your record has not been a perfect one,’ – it could never have been a perfect one, but, ‘by and large you have done well for this country, you have been honest, you have been strong, and you have been true and we want to re-elect you.’ – I would welcome that. But I am saying if they say the opposite, I am prepared to accept that very phlegmatically, very stoically and move along.”
Works To Do
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I think that our proudest accomplishments have to be the legislations we’ve taken to the House but on the ground as well, the Ministry of Works is off to a extremely fast start. Apart from the quick trigger that I feel we can point to, there is the more intangible thing of their being now a sense of freedom, a sense of change, a sense of relief. All based on what we’ve done with respect to legislative agenda but also based on a negative – that there has been no scandal in this first 100 days, nothing even remotely approaching a scandal and I think that people are convinced that this is the way it will be by and large throughout the tenure of this administration.”
Lands Ministry Grounded
Jules Vasquez,
Sir while you said the Ministry of Works for example has performed well, one has to hang his head at the performance of the Ministry of Natural Resources. We understand there were all these supposedly irregular land transactions, that the situation has to be normalized. But the office or transactions have pretty much been closed off for the 100 days of office and it is causing paralysis in the economy.
Hon. Dean Barrow,
“I certainly accept that the review process that’s taking place in the Lands Department has caused a great deal of frustration. Now I will tell you that a Cabinet Sub-committee was formed on Tuesday. Recording services for the work of that subcommittee will done by the CEO in the Ministry of Housing who used to be at one time in the Ministry of Natural Resources and whom we feel can really assist the Ministers in their deliberations. The idea is for them to give Cabinet a plan for how we will quickly work our way through the bottleneck that has been there even before the change of government.
I apologize for the difficulties that the public has been experiencing. I do feel that it was and still is absolutely necessary for the audit to have taken place, for the audit now to be concluded. I accept though that overall this has meant that I cannot express the same type of satisfaction about what has been happening in the Ministry of Natural Resources as I can with respect to, for example, the Ministry of Works.”
Accompanied by Boots Martinez, Barrow departed for Taiwan this afternoon.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
