7:40 PM TO 11:05 PM – That’s the three hours and twenty five minutes that it took to held the first public consultation on the 7th Amendment to the Constitution Bill. As we’ve been tell you, the amendment proposes to do three things: first, make the Caribbean Court of Justice Belize’s final appellate court, second, make it so that the Attorney General does not have to be a member of either the House or Senate and third make it so that holders of dual nationality can become members of the National Assembly. And it’s that third one that generated all the heat last night. It took three hours plus, but it was entertaining, feisty and spirited. We’ve compressed it down to ten minutes.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
It was a full house at the undersized Bishop Sylvester Memorial Center – and the howls of protest resounded off the walls.
Lincoln Gillett, Opposed
“Dual nationality is out of the question. You want to be citizen kane, dual nationality, that’s alright. Whenever you get up there and think you can have dual nationality up there, you’re going to have me to deal with.”
Woman #1,
“We go to the hospital, me the lady, and me can’t understand what the doctors are telling me. I like listening to the House of Representatives and I don’t want someone to get in there who I can’t understand whe deh the seh.”
Roy Bullit Craig, Opposed
“We are not going to attend a dual citizen in our House of Representatives.”
Anthony Sylvestre, Opposed
“With this amendment in its present form you could have a situation
where one day the Prime Minister of the country of Belize has two citizenships. You could imagine that man who would be making decisions on every aspect of life for all Belizeans having two citizenships and the situation may arise where we might be in war with that the country of his other nationality.”
Jihad Mclaren, US Citizen
“If you have served the military then you would not have wanted two citizenships to represent you. Any person who has citizenships sitting in a position of making decisions for a nation, for one nation, two citizenships make you automatically a traitor.”
Jason Guerrero, US Citizen
“I should not be able to run. If I want to run, I would have to renounce my citizenship in the US.”
Rufus X, Opposed
“You cannot serve two nations and like the lady said America that all of us so seem to hinge our future on certainly does not accept dual citizenship. You see what happened to little Marion Jones for holding up the Belizean flag. What is wrong with us, why are we discussing this? We want to be American, go and live in America. This is Belize.”
Sylvana Woods was the only person who had submitted her objection in writing and she made a passionate plea:
Sylvana Woods, Opposed
“How can I as a teach try and instil patriotism and swear to the Belizean
flag and allegiance if my government is saying it is okay to have dual citizenship to represent people. It will be a contradictory thing for the children. We will be saying one thing and living a next thing. Also you need to avoid putting people in a position of conflict of interest. I take what the Hon. Saldivar said that you can’t legislate the heart but you certainly can legislate the law, you can set the law. So why bother have laws then, I mean we have laws that we are a monogamous country and all the man they fool around so I take what you say, you can’t legislate the heart but you can provide enabling conditions. You can provide the enabling condition and that is what we look
to our government to do, to enable us to love the country even more and I am not seeing that happen with this thing unu di push pon we.
To tell the truth, if unu do this, I would do anything it takes to nuh mek it pass, anything it takes. I don’t care what because I over my dead body, this woulda happen.
And where it comes from, what is the urgency? So many other things deh fi do like the Commission of Inquiry, like the Integrity Commission and things like that. So much things deh fi do sah. Why you have wi di drag ourselves through this when we don’t have the energy to do what we have to do? You are forcing us to do something which isn’t necessary.”
And while most of the opposition was emotional – it got tactical when Committee Member john Saldivar discussed a provision in the existing law.
Hon. John Saldivar, Committee Member
“That a person born in a foreign state who has come to live in Belize and has never came or has never sworn allegiance to that country in which he was born is currently not barred from running; currently not barred. And so the attempt here is to even the playing field for the Belizean who was born in Belize who is now disqualified from running because that person has claimed another nationality.”
Lisa Shoman, Opposed
“That in Jamaica this precise point has been litigated. And the question
that the court was asked was to interpret this situation where what does it mean by your own act. The court held that any positive act of renewing and holding and travelling upon that citizenship, whether it is by using the passport, whether it is by getting the passport used, whether it is by calling a consular officer, whether it is by saying I am an American citizen as well, is your act and demonstrates that there is allegiance, obedience, or adherence. I think what you are hearing people here say is that if we give you the honour and the responsibility of serving in the National Assembly, be good enough to acknowledge that you have one master and that that master is Belize.
And I serve you notice Mr. Chairman, pass this law and I will line up to be first in line to challenge anybody who thinks they can get themselves elected and will not run afoul of the people of Belize.”
Hon. Francis Fonseca, Committee Member
“For persons who have made a decision that they want to serve at the highest levels of government, they want to serve in the legislature or perhaps become members of the executive of this country, they must have allegiance and obedience to one country, Belize. That must be absolutely clear. I think that is the point, that is the point. If somebody, we want to widen the talent base, we want to widen the talent pool, we want Belizeans to come home from abroad and contribute, but if they come home, and there are many ways to contribute, please, politics is perhaps one of the most limiting ways to contribute to the growth and development of your country, you can do a lot but there are many many other opportunities.”
Hon. John Saldivar,
“At the end of the day it is the electorate that decide who gets elected and if the electorate doesn’t want somebody to have dual citizenship, the electorate will reject that person at the polls. Why should we think that we have more wisdom than the electorate to say to them that we will not even allow that person to offer themselves to you as a choice?”
But those who controlled the emotional pitch on this night had already made
their choice, and the crowd was so spirited, the issue so contentious the room so small, that chair of the session Patrick Faber had a hard time maintaining order.
Hon. Patrick Faber, Chair
“As I am speaking now people are being disrespectful…we will have order…we will have order please.”
But the heckling continued for most of the three hour plus meeting and it turned into an uproar when Muriel Laing Arthurs spoke in support of the amendment:
Murial Laing Arthurs, In Support
“I’d like to say very sadly what has happened to this. As I’ve listened to you all I think about my Belizean brothers and sisters struggling in the US; people who migrated to the US, people who are there unable to return, people who are patriotic, more patriotic than many of you here and I say and I mean it. In New York where I resided for many years, the patriotic events, the singing of patriotic songs, some of them I don’t even hear here. But to conclude, I call this total ingratitude to our Belizean Americans. Yes, I say it again and I mean it. You can boo all you want but that is how I feel.”
Vernon Terry, In Support
“The lady used the word Belizeans and you all disagreed against Belizeans running to represent and help this country. You all are being crazy mean because many of your family members live in the United States and they have been supplying you with funds so that you can become adults and you are demeaning them, telling them that they cannot come back to Belize. They are Belizeans. They acquired another citizenship but they choose to come back here and help to administrate, legislate, and run this country based upon their skills and education etc. and you all other Belizeans, because you never travelled out or choose to acquire another citizenship, you are denying another Belizean.”
Moses Sulph, Been in Belize Since Age 12
“Anybody can bawl that they are patriotic but show how you are patriotic and I believe that I have shown and will continue to show regardless of what position I have in this country, not red or blue, but I am solely patriotic to the development of this country and I think that makes me a Belizean.”
And this debate will rage for some time – but the question is at what cost to government –they say they have no hidden agenda and if that’s right then this seems hardly worth the trouble.
In total the proposed package of amendments would make changes to 8 sections of the constitution.
