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The Belize Times
Strictly Personal Barrow is bogus!
by glenntillett@yahoo.com “In response to a question from a journalist, Barrow expressed his personal support for Belize joining the jurisdiction of the new Caribbean Court of Appeal, which would replace the Privy Council as the court of final jurisdiction. He pointed out, however, that such a move would require an amendment to the Constitution.” – Channel 5 News, August 19, 1998. By the time you read this column, the House debate on the Barrow administration’s FY2010/2011 debate will have raged and the bill would have been passed into law. It doesn’t mean that everything that should’ve been said will have been said, and for sure we will be living with the consequences for some time to come.
Dean Barrow has made questioning Said Musa’s integrity a crusade and his prepared routines on this subject in the House are performance art. A few of his minions have opined to me that I am wasting my time and energy writing about his (Barrow’s) utter lack of integrity, his “laiyadnis,” his bogusness, et cetera, because he doesn’t read it. There are so many things wrong with Barrow’s FY2010/2011 Estimates of Revenues and Expenditures that it is hard to know where to begin but obviously the second largest tax hike in the past two decades does jump out at you. And the simple fact is that the humongous bite at the most inopportune time, i.e. in the midst of the worst recession in 50 years, is made so much worse because it is effectively an inflation promoter. Already consumers are seeing the spiking prices at their neighbourhood grocery stores as the shopkeepers anticipate the bill’s passage and enactment. Why can’t the Barrow administration make do with what they have? It was obvious to the Barrow administration at least by the middle of last year that we were in the throes of an economic slowdown, and they should have made the adjustments by then to ensure that the Government of Belize did not incur a large deficit. To so cavalierly blame the “planetary meltdown,” which by the way occurred in
2008, record fuel prices, which by the way occurred in 2008, Tropical Storm Arthur and Tropical Depression 10, which by the way occurred in 2008, for your lack of foresight is ridiculous. It was somewhere around May 2008 or thereabouts that the Prime Minister of Japan described the world economy as about to be beset by an economic storm the likes of which had not been seen in a hundred years. No doubt lesser folks would’ve taken note instead of pooh-poohing the notion that it would negatively affect us. I hate to belabor the point but Barrow’s cookie cutter budget is bogus in more ways than I have space to elucidate. Its prioritizations are all glaringly unoriginal and lack targets or measurable results. It is short-term (one year), and despite his paean to the benefits of program budgeting, it is short-sighted. It is also woefully short on details. It does not market Belize or encourage national or foreign investment. It does not address the fundamental weakness of a country that consumes more than it produces. It will not engender economic growth due to local factors. It entails no sacrifice by the political directorate. It does not account for the BTL debt bomb or any dividends. T he tax increases are totally unwarranted and unnecessary. Obviously the 17% increase in water rates along with the tax hike will increase the cost of living for the people who can least pay. I could go on, and on, and on … Barrow invariably chooses political
Sunday, March 28, 2010 expediency over principle. It is an ingrained reflexive response. He should be the last person to excoriate anyone on the grounds of integrity. As the opening quote shows, Barrow has been lying to us for a long, long time. When it was politically expedient, right up to a few days before the August 28th, 1998 General Elections, he supported Belize joining the CCJ. For the next ten years he was opposed. Now he has flipped his flop and is again supportive. Said Musa, on the other hand, has never changed his position on that issue. It is only one of several issues in which Barrow has demonstrated his manifest lack of integrity. Do I care whether or not he reads my column? That would be nice but the reality is that I don’t write the column for him - I write the column for those who read it. When I consider “talking” to Dean Barrow I am reminded of the old story about two men driving down a narrow one-way alley from opposite ends and meeting in the middle. Neither can pass and it is obvious that one (or both) has to back out. One driver rolls down his window and declares: “I never reverse for a—holes!” The other smiles as he puts his vehicle in reverse and declares: “I always do!” Barrow is bogus.
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