Last night we reported that the Barrow Administration would go back to the National Assembly as soon as it could to re-re-nationalize Telemedia. Today he announced that the House Meeting has been set for Monday.
Today he spoke with 7news and discussed the plan and the difficulties it engenders:
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"The notice will go out this afternoon to the Parliamentarians, fixing the meeting for Monday at 10 o'clock."
Jules Vasquez
"And what type of legislation will you bring at that time."
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"It will legislation to correct the flaws identified by the Court of Appeal."
Jules Vasquez
"The justification, 'for a public purpose', has effectively shredded by the Court of Appeal, so on what grounds would you acquire, or re-acquire the property?"
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Well I think that would be telling, but what I will say is that we are positive that we are safe because the Court of Appeal certainly did not dispute that one is able - or that the Seat is able to acquire 'for a public purpose', in fact it confirmed that. It is just that, as you say, the Court didn't think that the evidence we offered, in support of the 'public purpose' or purpose that we use, the Court didn't think that the evidence was enough - reached the required threshold. But the case, having been established, that one is able to acquire for a public purpose - we, being confident that certainly objectively - there are enough reasons there, that can legitimately satisfy a 'public purpose' - are positive that we're going to be safe, in terms of the revisit that will be done on Monday."
Jules Vasquez
"But aren't you inevitably confounded by the fact that in August of 2009, you explained what the purpose was, and those words can never be taken back?"
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"That is true, but we did not say that the purpose we were employing or the purposes were exhaustive. And so, in our view, as long as we can demonstrate, now, that material exists that can properly support a public purpose - well okay, we are using now the best legal brains we can get, or more of the best legal brains that we can get, and we are confident that we are going to absolutely preserve, for the Belizean people now, the re-acquisition of Telemedia."
Jules Vasquez
"Sir, are you concerned that you were stepping further into a situation which may induce greater liability, which may also eventually blow up in your face as did the last 2009 acquisition?"
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Well, I - 2 things. Number 1, if when we did the acquisition originally, we did it for the right reasons, not whether those reasons were technically correct, legally, is another matter. But whether morally, if morally and politically, and in terms of our nationalism, if we did the original acquisition for the right reasons, and we can fix it now, I don't see how any other course is possible. To give up now is to admit that perhaps we didn't act out of legitimate motives. We didn't have a compelling case in the first place. And that simply is not the truth. That there is likely a price to pay, we've already paid a price. That there is likely to be more of a price to pay, in terms of litigation, well I don't know that the State can "wimp out" in the face of that sort of a consideration."
And what the Prime Minister and his Telemedia Board of Directors has to consider right now is the well-being and state of mind of the staff. They are inevitably divided and confused; in just six hours on Friday they were taken back over by the Ashcroft Alliance and then re-taken by the Government appointed Board. More than that, Chairman-in-exile Dean Boyce has set up a parallel headquarters and is sending out employee directives left and right. More than that, Boyce has cautioned anyone doing business with or on behalf of Telemedia that they are exposed to liability.
That's enough to leave any employee shaken! And so we asked the Prime Minister what would be his confidence building message to the staff in a meeting that he went to right after our interview. Here's what he said:
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Well basically, I'd tell them what I've just told you, that we're going to the House on Monday to fix this, so we're going to bring the climate of uncertainty - or the cloud of uncertainty - under which they've been operating, to an end, basic message. I will perhaps also say that while this is going to happen, and this is inevitable, I'd encourage them to see it as a good thing. I will make the point that before Government acquired the last time, that loan to Michael Ashcroft's Turks and Caicos-based Bank, was already in default. And after we acquired, proceedings to "wind up" BTL had commenced. I will say to them, even if, had Ashcroft been able to regain permanent control of the company, even if they are not satisfied that he would "wind it up" - which is the way I see it - they would have to know that, as I said on Friday evening, before we recognized that we had the legal option of resisting, ultimately, if - with the Accommodation Agreement now gone - if Ashcroft, and not the Belizean People, were to own BTL, we'd have to bring in competition, and that's going to mean that Ashcroft is going to shift, in terms of his preferred vehicle, for competing from BTL to Smart. At the very least, there's going to be a huge down-sizing at BTL."
The meeting started just after 3:00 and opened with the Prime Minister apologizing to the staff for the state of uncertainty that has been created in the past week.
His presentation was followed by a question-and-answer session and it took two hours to conclude. According to management, 400 staffers attended.
And going back now to the house meeting, a notice was sent out his afternoon to Parliamentarians, giving them notice that a special sitting of the house will be held on Monday, fourth July and topping the agenda is the Belize Telecommunications (Amendment) Bill, 2011, and it reads, quote: "a Bill for an Act to amend the Belize Telecommunications Act, to clarify and expand certain provisions relating to the assumption of control over telecommunications by the Government in the public interest."
But the announcement of a House meeting to re-nationalize BTL has not deterred the Ashcroft Alliance one bit. They today sent a notice to all directors advising them that they are banned from the compound and must return all company records.
