Tonight the UDP is on the precipice of another major internal war after Leader Shyne Barrow today made the stunning declaration that Patrick Faber has crossed the floor and he will call for a bye election. That's right - he's accusing his party's most senior parliamentarian and former leader of being on the side of the PUP.
To be clear on how very rare this is: in Belize's history only two persons have ever crossed the floor: that's Vicente Choco in 1975 and Stanley Usher in 1989; both crossed from UDP to PUP - and declared that they were doing so. Patrick Faber has made no such declaration - but, still, incredibly, his leader is saying effectively he has.
So what provoked this unprecedented turn? Well, it starts with a meeting of the Constitution and Foreign Affairs House Committee - which convened today to consider the conduct of Shyne Barrow and an insulting email he wrote to the Speaker of the House.
Barrow was in that meeting and was blindsided - caught totally off guard - by a letter Faber sent to the chair of the Committee, Julius Espat - distancing himself from Barrow's email, disavowing his comments, and expressing support for the speaker.
Now, in parliament, that kind of disavowal is also largely unprecedented and certainly NOT "the done thing." And that's what set the stage for his leader's drastic conclusion that Faber has switched sides.
Only 7News was outside the House Committee meeting today and Jomarie Lanza reports:
We've seen all kinds of house hijinks, but what happens when a member decides to call out the speaker? Or formally address her in black and white, outside of the house accusing her of being biased and worse. Do those same orders apply to the written word?
On August 11th, the speaker laid out publicly what Shyne Barrow wrote to her:
Valerie Woods, Speaker of the House
"Greetings, you, madam speaker have exposed yourself to be a complete waste of time as the Speaker of the honorable House."
"You repeatedly act as a shield for the government, shamelessly misinterpreting and misapplying the standing orders to protect the prime minister and his government from public scrutiny and accountability."
After the Constitution and Foreign Affairs Committee met today to formally address the email sent to Woods, Barrow was unrepentant, he maintains that the Sanding Orders do not apply in this case and he maintains what was detailed in the letter.
Moses Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"The government's position is a flawed position that the letter to the speaker of the house, the email to the speaker of the house falls under standing orders and privileges of the house. I study my standing orders very carefully and all of the different regulations and rules governing our conduct in the house. And it is very specific and it is not in my view from everything that I've read the opinion of the house committee to have these wide ranging interpretations of the standing orders that simply do not exist there is no standing order of the 80 odd standing orders there is no standing orders that deals with communications with the speaker outside of the house."
"So in my view this has absolutely no place before the house privileges committee because there was no violation of privileges in the house and even with the discussion no one could point to a standing order that was violated."
"But I stand by what I said, I believe the speaker is a waste of time. I believe the speaker shamelessly tries to protect the government. I believe the speaker had done everything to undermine and misinterpret the standing orders to stem the opposition to silence the opposition and I have a right as the leader of the opposition and those views are shared by many of my colleagues."
And while Shyne claims that the other members of his party are of the same view, the party's most senior parliamentarian, who is also a part of this house committee, made it known in writing to the Committee that he has washed his hands clean and disassociates himself from the remarks made by his leader.
Incredibly, Shyne said he has crossed the floor!
Jo
"Your views are shared by many of your colleagues? So what would you say to your colleague Patrick Faber who says that as a member of the opposition he wishes to formally distance himself from the comments made by YOU in your letter dated August 10th?"
Moses Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"He has crossed the floor so we will deal with him in a manner that the constitution says clearly that when a member of the opposition voted with the government that they have crossed the floor and they have forfeited their seat. That is what I will say about that we all know how that gentleman has behaved in the past and this is consistent with his behavior in the past and without going into anymore details that behavior was dealt with as far as him losing the ability to run for the party he was given a second chance and this is what he does now. But the difference between this and then is he has now violated the constitution because he has voted with the government and that is a violation of the constitution that means that you forfeit your seat as an opposition member and there has to be a bye-election in Collet."
But triggering a bye-election won't be that simple, but Barrow has dug in, and is certain of the fact that Woods will never see any apology from him.
Jo-
"So you maintain your position? So Ms Woods should not be seeing any letter of apology from you anytime?"
Moses Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"ABSOLUTELY NOT as a leader of the other mass political party. As the leader of the opposition we go in there everyday not to advocate on behalf of ourselves for personal interest we go in there to advocate on behalf of the Belizean people and with the exception of the one member who has crossed the floor the other members feel that we are being silenced that we are being undermined that the government is being shield and that there is biased so everything that I said is a fact the speaker is a PUP the speaker was a member or is still a member or the PUP women's group, The speaker was a PUP senator the speaker was a PUP candidate and I will move a privilege again on Friday and say these same things again in the house because as LOO I have a right to fight for the voice of the Belizeans that elected us there."
Though Shyne has made his position clear on the matter, Deputy Chairman of the committee Louis Zabaneh says that he should think twice about the example he is setting for his people as an aspiring leader, refusing to retract and follow the committee's request
Louis Zabaneh, Deputy Chairman, House Committee
"There's a subcommittee that was formed that is looking into the code of conduct for the members of the House of Representatives. I believe that the member for Mesopotamia is a member of that committee and other colleagues from the house. And at the same time as we are preparing this code of conduct we see this behavior continuing so we certainly had to convene a meeting to address the matter and make that point that it is expected that at a minimum the leader of the opposition should be apologizing to the speaker for that type of behavior."
"We certainly would hope that after this is mentioned in the house this Friday that within a reasonable time that will occur. He will have the opportunity in the house itself to make that apology, but clearly as you have correctly said he's adamant on continuing to behave in that way but the Belizean people are tired sick and tired of this kind of behavior so that will be his own judgment to decide if aspiring as a leader of the country if these are the qualities that the Belizean people would want to see in a potential leader."
To be clear, the constitution was amended after 1998 to say that anyone crossing the floor would be forced to face a by-election. But what constitutes crossing the floor? The constitution isn't exactly clear on that - and this will be a matter of much debate in the UDP. For his part, Faber had no comment when we reached out to him today. But, if Shyne Barrow is serious, he has 7 days to notify the speaker in writing of the crossing of the floor. We'll see where this one goes in the ever - turbulent UDP.
