The budget debate started today at the House of Representatives in Belmopan. For the UDP whose debate team stars like Michael Finnegan and Dean Barrow had gotten so good at roasting and ridiculing the then Musa government, the shoe is now on the other foot. But instead of the rough boot that the UDP used on the their political opponents, today we saw a kinder, gentler opposition stepping lightly on the UDP but kinda mashing up their former leader. The tone was set by new leader John Briceno.
Hon. Johnny Briceno, PUP Leader
“Let me assure everyone that all responses will be to celebrate the good aspects of this budget and offer constructive criticism where we see shortfalls.”
And that’s the approach of the new PUP, whose leaders sought to sever all symbolic connections to the old one – even as the past leader sat in their midst.
Hon. Johnny Briceno,
“Indeed we must make our own act of contrition to the Belizean people and we are doing so. Yes Mr. Speaker we must do so even in the face of the punishment inflicted upon us at the polls. Yes Mr. Speaker the punishment befitted the transgressions. We must now work hard, not only to win back the confidence of the people, we must also convince them that this will never happen again.”
Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education (Collet)
“When you do penance a part of the act of penance is that you must
confess. You must admit and we have listened now Mr. Speaker to two representatives from the Opposition side and we have not heard them Mr. Speaker confess. We have not heard them talk about the ills that a Member from this House who is sitting in here today committed against this nation. We have not heard them condemn him like the Belizean people have been doing for the last few weeks
on the radio stations every single morning asking when will he vacate his seat in this Honorable House.”
Hon. John Saldivar, Minister of Public Service (Belmopan)
“I don’t know if they expect that five years is going to be enough penance. I would want to tell you gentlemen that ten years, fifteen years is more what you can look on after the ten years of corruption.”
Hon. Cordel Hyde, Lake Independence (PUP)
“On February 7th 2008 it was a time for defeat for those of us in the People’s United Party. A defeat we brought upon ourselves, a defeat we could have avoided but a defeat we have to accept. There were some from our very own party who will blame some of us for the defeat. They will say that we opened up a can of worms with G7, they will say a couple of us even voted against our own party’s budget in 2005, ‘memba that will give me a unique opportunity to criticize your budget since I criticized my own party’s budget in 2005 right. They will even say that we left the Cabinet over matters like UHS not once but twice. They will say we should have stayed the course and kept it in the house.
To them I will say there is only so much a man can do, only so much a man can take. There comes a time when a man has got to stand up for what he believes in, has got to stand up on the side of those he represents and has got to have the courage to speak truth to power. See the truth be told, and I can’t get away from it, as a party we messed up.”
Confessions of past wrongs, but the opposition didn’t refrain from lecturing the UDP.
Hon. Johnny Briceno,
“It appears that almost the entire CAP II and CAP III of the Prime Minister’s first budget is comprised of work that was started or initiated
by the PUP. The $6.5 million for the Placencia Road, dah PUP set that up. The $4 million for the completion of the Southern Highway, dah PUP set that up. The $5.3 million for the Belize south side improvement project, dah PUP mek that happen. The $4.8 million for the rehabilitation of the sugar roads, dah PUP start that. The $8 million in support for banana and sugar industries under ther European Union program, dah PUP negotiate that. The $6.5 million for the health reform project, dah PUP find the money fi that.”
Hon. John Saldivar,
“And now they try to say now that oh the UDP is just implementing their projects. Mr. Speaker nobody mi wah lend to this corrupt bunch before the election. Even if there were projects which they were thinking about, when they went to these institutions to try to get money they were told no, no, no. This is a damn good start as far as I am concerned. As I listen to the member for Orange Walk Central, if I didn’t know better I would never think that
he and his party had just been the government of Belize five short years ago and for ten years before that.”
But the rising cost of living is what dominated the Opposition’s attack.
Hon. Johnny Briceno,
“I wonder what he would say if he were on this side of the aisle to the project 4.7% spike in the cost of living for this financial year and the additional $10 million he will squeeze from, and I quote his words, from the already empty pockets of hard working Belizeans. And that is only a part of his close to $100 million increase in revenue for this financial year. Indeed Mr. Speaker, judging from the numbers, life noh just haad out yah, life haada out yah.
This budget offers no comfort that as we work towards the months ahead, that the cost of bread will return to where it was in December or the cost of rice for that matter. It offers no confidence that the price of chicken will not go up or that vegetables so necessary for a healthy lifestyle will continue to be affordable to the average Belizean. There is no silver lining in this budget, nothing that will make Belizeans believe that the cost of living will go down no matter what.”
Hon. Cordel Hyde,
“Mr. Speaker I am not sure the members on the other side understand
what people are really going though. A $100 is not $100 anymore my brother. You can barely get a bag of groceries these days with $100 because everything gaan up. Everything, even though unu say unu wah bring it down, everything gaan up.
The second proposal of the government to deal with the rising cost of living is the removal of GST from powered milk, cooking oil, Vienna chicken sausages, corn beef, coffee, and tea. What that means Mr. Speaker is that we will have to figure out how fi hash corn beef, stew corn beef, bake corn beef, maybe barbecue corn beef, one of mi bally favorite thing is he has a baked corn beef balls which he makes on Sunday – because according to unu that is what we will have to eat everyday. We will have to eat corn beef dah maaning, corn beef dah afternoon, and sausage dah night and noh any sausage – noh any sausage: Vienna chicken sausage.
And that is why Mr. Speaker I have to roundly condemn the new government for their mass firings of those who can least afford to lose their job. Immediately upon taking office this government proceeded to fire bundles of single mothers all over this country; school wardens, cleaners, janitors, security officers, secretaries, office assistants, get sent home in droves. We neva do that ’98 big man. Anybody who this government thought were friends with the last government got sent home, even if they were just making $175 a week. Whether they are PUP or UDP those people have to eat star.”
Hon. Patrick Faber,
“And yes they were single mothers yes they were a few people who were senior age, yes I admit, and they were cleaners and those people were terminated yes but they were replaced weren’t they, and they were replaced with single mothers weren’t they. They were replaced with elderly women, these people, some of them, punished under your administration for ten long years.”
And Deputy leader Hyde event out the parliamentary cut and thrust with a cautionary tale.
Hon. Cordel Hyde,
“As the Prime Minister read his first ever budget speech the excitement from his Ministers and backbenchers were palpable, they were happy. They cheered and clapped and cheered and clapped. They reminded me of the years when we use to do the same thing, not knowing enough about the devil in the details.
See when you become a new Minister, and we’ve been there, a new government you could get carried away, you could get sucked into this Belmopan thing and you forget for a moment the people who elected you. You see the perks, you enjoy them: the unlimited fuel, personal driver, everybody everywhere calling you Mr. Minister, you feel like a lil God, a demigod. Now you’ve only been there for five months but for a lot of people out here it is beginning to feel like five years.”
The debate ended at 6:00 today and resumes tomorrow when the pilloried former Prime Minister Said Musa is expected to speak.
