Last night you heard veteran politician Michael Finnegan "go-off" on his parliamentary colleague Dolores Balderamos Garcia – calling her a "congenital liar," and a lot more.
That's after Balderamos Garcia and the PUP Women held a press conference to call for Finnegan's resignation.
Well, this morning, bright and early, Finnegan had a sharp change of direction. He called KREM WUB to say he's sorry:
Hon. Michael Finnegan - Area Representative, Mesopotamia
"Some people said that I had gone too far. Thursday after the debate, the leader of my party said to me that he felt I went a little too far with her. I'm inclined to accept the unacceptable and I want to stand and be magnanimous. If the public feels and it is the view of the public that I went too far then first of all I would like to apologize and say sorry to the public and the citizens of Belize. If I disrespected the House that the Speaker's chair - I want to secondly apologize to the Speaker of the House."
We note that Finnegan did not apologize directly to Baldermaos Garcia, but to all his colleagues in the house, which, we suppose, does include her. He also calls for her to apologize to the sergeant at arms, Brian Audinett known as Yellowman.
He told the hosts of the W-U-B that he wouldn't speaking to any other media, and indeed he did not. But he did issue a statement saying "I have agreed with the sentiment expressed that I went too far in the heat of the debate."
And he re-iterates,
"I wish therefore to publicly apologize to the citizenry of Belize, to the Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives and to my colleague members on both sides of the aisle and further, to request that the Honourable Member for Belize Rural Central apologize for the public castigation she gave to the Sergeant at Arms on a matter which could have been addressed privately with the Honourable Speaker."
Finnegan also mentions in that statement that eh took advice form his party leader, the Prime Minster Dean Barrow. And he probably took advice from his wife, The Special Envoy For Women And Children. She issued a statement this morning saying,
"I call on the Speaker that he will, in the future, be protective of the rights of all members, but especially the rights of the lone female member of the House of Representatives, not to be subjected to offensive language or gestures."
Her statement adds,
"In a country with a very low percentage of women in elected office, it is imperative that all that is possible be done to support and encourage women's participation in politics..."
And while, in a perfect world that coy act of contrition and a gentle slap on the wrist would be enough, in the world of politics, it isn't. We don't expect the PUP to be satisfied, and don't expect Balderamos-Garcia to apologize to Mace-bearer "Yellowman" – she said yesterday that she would not.
And today to keep the offensive going, the Belize Times sent out a sort of press release, displaying a photo of Yellowman taking a slug of a beer getting into a car outside the House of Representatives.
