But today the prime minister argued that the race card shouldn't be played in this instance. He said that Minister Usher's words were misconstrued and explained that the decision to send sugar south was simply business and not bigotry. He also stood up for his cane farmers in the north, saying that the previous situation wasn't fair to them. But ultimately, he put the blame on the Port of Belize workers.
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It's unfortunate and I want to make it very clear and I find it disgusting when anybody want to make it a race issue because it is not."
Jules Vasquez:
"It's your ministers sir."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"I don't care who it is and Minister Usher called me and said no way is he making it into a race issue. We were just talking that they need to get organized like the Mayas and so and that's fine, there's no problem with that. As a Cabinet, the decision was that this MOU that was signed in 2006 was the attorney general told us was unenforceable. You cannot force a private entity to stay in one company because it cost more, you have to give that private entity to go somewhere else. It is as if telling you, Jules, that you have to buy at this store where the grocery bag will cost you $500 when you could go buy it somewhere else for $100. That's the basic principle that is happening. Also we have to take into consideration it is not ASR the transnational company, it is BSI and the cane farmers. Every dollar that is paid to load the sugar, 65 cents is being paid by the cane farmers, by 5,000 cane farmers, and the cane farmers are going through even a more difficult situation than the stevedores and so they need to find how they would do cost saving measures. Now we do believe as a government, we do have a responsibility to see how we can help the stevedores and we are working on that, so we have to find a way, we just can't disregard them. And who we really believe we need to hold responsible is the Port of Belize because the Port of Belize, there is no incentive for them to improve their efficiencies because the most they're charged, the more Port of Belize collects. PBL gets 20 cents of every dollar that the stevedores charge for the loading of sugar so the longer they take, the more they make. They have not invested in improving their facilities so obviously you have to find another place where you can go that is cheaper and more effective and more efficient and more safe and that is why that decision was made to go down south."
The PM then zeroed in on both Hyde's and Usher's previous comments and attempted to clarify the government's recent actions.
Jules Vasquez:
"Minister Usher had a characterization of your government that these people don't listen, that they're forcing housing on them that is unsuitable for urban environment, one bedroom housing that are unsuitable, and he said there is a disconnect between the non-black members of the Cabinet and the representatives of the southside."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"It is unfortunate that he said such thing because it is not what we're doing, what we're doing as a government is promoting three types of homes. The one bedroom is what we call starters homes, it is designed in such a way that as a small family if you can only afford to pay $100 then you pay $100 and you save lee bit and then you're going to et the plans for them to put an extra room with time. If you were to go to Santa Elena in Cayo you would see the houses that Don Silva built way back in the 98/93 government. He built these small one bedroom houses but built it in such a way to be expanded. Almost all of those houses now have 3 or 4 bedrooms. We can't out somebody in a three bedroom house that they can't afford. So it's a matter of affordability, its unfortunate that he said that and as I said, he called me apologizing."
Jules Vasquez:
"Have you disciplined him?"
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well If the man is apologizing what you want me to do? Beat him? I can't and he has sincerely apologized that it was mischaracterized what he was saying and that he didn't really understand the housing project that we're doing. But I can tell you that the housing project will not be those plycem house that the UDP be did. It's going to be houses that are going to be durable and the families can, a little at a time, build up."
Jules Vasquez:
"Your own Deputy prime minister said that you all lost track of the PUP DNA in terms of going against the trade union and that you all are siding with the neo liberals sir."
Hon. John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well I think he needs to clear that up because I don't know what he is talking about and I'm not going to pick a fight with my deputy prime minister, I have great respect, we work very well together, but of course he has his political base and I can understand but there's nothing about no neo liberal, it's simply a matte that the sugar was not being loaded, they had already paid over $200,000 US to load a ship and I don't think they have loaded 20% of the sugar and so they had to find another avenue to be able to do it. So it's not about neo liberalism or capitalism or anything it is simple a matter where the sugar wasn't being loaded and the ship would d have left and if the ship left, we would have been stuck here with the sugar and BSI would have been fined and sanctioned by the companies they were delivering to."
