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And while you might have expected the UDP to condemn this move, it's the opposite actually. Today Shyne Barrow told us that they support the reacquisition, however, their issue comes with the process with which it was done. Barrow lamented that the PUP is making major moves with the people's money without even consulting the public or the opposition. He also added that it is strange that the government can agree to a two hundred million dollar acquisition but still can't get a CAT scan machine for Belize's largest hospital. We spoke with him outside the chambers.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"My colleagues and myself are not against the acquisition, you look at the cost of the acquisition, it would have been better if the government would have not been this in the dark, in the middle of the night governance in the way that they went about this. Sharing the information helps to allay any suspicion and to allay any aspersion but we got no information, we got the information yesterday and then we got booklets of the deeds this morning so it's difficult to be able to say without speaking to experts, was this really valued, because they claimed it was valued at $500,000,000 and they got everything down to $200,000,000 but again I have to be consistent with the UDP practice of nationalization, we believe that we should own our national assets so in the same fashion as in BTL and BEL where we acquired our national assets and I remember Prime Minister Barrow saying that there was no cost too high to pay for what belong to the Belizean people, it was the PUP that sold our ports to a private entity so I support the acquisition."
"It also begs the question, if we have $200,000,000 to give a corporate interest, why don't we have that money to deal with the teachers, to deal with the crown counsels who are complaining that the criminal justice system is broken because they don't have adequate security, they don't have adequate resources, our public health facilities are still in shambles. We don't have a CAT scan, but we have $200,000,000 to settle debts and to, again, the settlement of the debt is separate from the acquisition of the port, I don't really want to conflate it but I understand that part of the negotiation is, well, if you want to settle this, this has to be included."
And this morning as the bill was being introduced, the member for Collet complained that they only just received a copy this morning, and are now expected to go through all its readings for full house approval. Barrow agreed with him and said that it would be a practice he would abolish if he were PM.
Shyne Barrow, Leader of the Opposition
"It has been the practice of this government, I don't know where it started but it needs to stop and certainly as prime minister of this country, I would amend the act, I don't know if it's in the standing orders or if it's a legislative thing, but we would make sure that all bills of this nature, there has to be a 7 day period or some type of notice period, the same time we get the notice, bills of this proportion need to be disclosed, you don't disclose something like this the night before. I got the bill I think maybe 5:00 yesterday evening and then, we just got a paragraph and then we got the actual documents this morning, that's terrible."
"I would agree that many of these bills should be given time for deliberation, time for public consumption, time for public consultation because we do have to take this to the House committee so again this is the government that the PUP had promised to be, a government of inclusion, of consultation, of transparency, completely open."
