You could say he wrote the book on political reform in Belize - and last night, Dylan Vernon appeared on Uncut with Jules Vasquez here on Channel 7. Vernon has participated in almost every governance reform initiative in Belize between 1990 and 2009 - and is now writing a book on it.
So, Jules asked him what he thinks of the controversial 11th amendment to the constitution. As we have reported that proposed amendment would make it so that anyone who has served a prison term of more than 12 months anywhere in the world would not be able to be elected to the House of Representatives.
Vernon basically said that one may belong in history's trash bin:
Dylan Vernon, PhD - Governance & Social Policy Consultant
"It seems to me that it just fell out of thin air, this amendment, there was no warning or discussion about it before. My first instinct is that it seems to provide some grounds of discrimination of people. It's blanket and it's past tense and I don't know, my first impression is that Belize will be unique in the commonwealth Caribbean at least for having this sort of amendment in it's constitution if it is passed. Excluding people who have served is and some one spoke about the great Phillip Goldson who was convicted of seditious intent and sentenced to 18 months of hard labour, he didn't serve all of it but it would seem that he would be unable to be run for the house based upon this new amendment and the other example of people who have served sentences and be reformed. I think we should be finding more ways to encourage people to be a part of the house of representatives to run for office other than to find ways to disqualify them."
Jules Vasquez
"Do you think it's ad hominem legislation directed against the current leader of the opposition? He is the only one in there that has served a sentence."
Dylan Vernon
"You would have to ask the government that but it is understandable that some people would think that based upon how this just fell and so I think that it's a retrograde piece of legislation that I would recommend it be withdrawn. I see no useful purpose in it at this point in time."
Uncut repeats on Sunday morning on Channel 7.
