12
THE BELIZE TIMES
28 FEB
2016
LET’S BUILD BELIZE TOGETHER Presentation by Leader of the People’s United Party, Hon. John Briceño, to Galen University Students Thursday, February 17, 2016 It’s great to be here with you at Galen in Beautiful Cayo -- not only because this is my first presentation since becoming Leader of the People’s United Party, but also because I really like the energy I get when I am around young people--it’s contagious. I was once a high school teacher and every time I stepped on to the campus at Muffles College I felt a rush of optimism. I’m grateful for the warm hospitality you’ve shown me so far, including from senior administrators and faculty and now from all of you gathered here. Galen is a young and vibrant institution, and each of you will play a seminal role in how this institution grows in stature and prestige. More so, you will help to shape our nation in the generations to come. There is no better time for you to start thinking about how you want to build our nation than the present. As John Legend puts it: “we’re the generation that can’t afford to wait, the future started yesterday and we’re already late.” Now, I know that many of you here today are jaded by the political process in Belize and I can’t say I blame you. Our current political climate is poisoned by petty personal politics, political pluralism, cronyism and greed. Often the system seems so corrupt that you may think it is best just to abandon it and start over. Some people believe that the answer to all this is to introduce campaign finance legislation, but that won’t change attitudes and if we do not change attitudes then some will simply find a way around the law. Still, as unattractive as it may seem; as broken as it may be; we somehow find a way to maintain a democratic system free from violence and destruction and however flawed, the will of the people prevail. So the system may indeed be broken, but it is fixable. Ugly as it may be, it is better than the alternative, which could be despotism and tyranny. When young people say they have no time for politicians; when you say that the two major political Parties are just “six a one or half dozen ah the next,” or when people speak of the PUDP, it strikes a discordant note in those of us who are involved in the political process. PUP supporters believe we are different from the other political parties in many ways. As for my part, I want to change your indifference towards the process so we can get as many of
PUP Leader Hon. John Briceno addressing Galen University students
our young people to actively participate in the political process over and beyond just voting. As it relates to ideology, I also realize that many of you have moved past some of the old debates that so often divide us. You want to see Belize move forward in a way that benefits your generation. Maybe you would wish we could better appreciate your way of thinking, which I believe is energetic, dynamic, diverse and even impulsive. I find all of this hopeful. See I am inspired by your generation’s creativity, by your openness and your boldness. My 22-year-old son sometimes blows me away by how his mind works. My son wants to be entrepreneurial, he no want no government job, or no bank job, he is looking to build his own ladder instead of climbing someone else’s. His conversations with friends are about ideas and his range of possibilities will never be limited or constrained by political affiliation, religion, gender or status. The culture wars, which marked my generation seem passé, completely out of step with this time. Johnny is no different than those of you in here who care less about Belize and the world as it was, and more about Belize and the world as it should be and
can be. I bet that each of you here today and all of your friends are disgusted by a process that panders to nepotism and cronyism, and you should be. You are here working hard because you want a system that is meritorious, one that values your hard work and sacrifice. You know what is possible in today’s world. None of you want to be constrained; you want the freedom to create something new and dif-
ferent. See your possibilities are limitless as long as you have the Internet as your laboratory, your library or your playground. Your power derives from your creativity and is fueled by the limitless options that are available right in the palm of your hand. This is the backdrop upon which I find myself as the new Leader of the PUP and this is what inspires the message I bring to you today: We must see Belize as it should be if we are to make it better. What it was can only serve as lessons learnt, what it is can only be a catalyst, our actions today and how we adopt and change must shape what we want Belize to be tomorrow. This leads me to that important question I get asked everyday: my vision for our country, which I will try to sum up in two short sentences: I want us to work together to build Belize, all of us. Also I want to build a Belize that works for everyone. To put it in more philosophical terms: from each, person-
al responsibility for each opportunity that will bring about prosperity. If we give people the opportunity to improve their lives and the lives of the people they love this will lift up families and then together families can lift communities and that is how we lift a nation, by building stronger communities. This is how we get people to buy in; this is how we build, by investing in our greatest resource PEOPLE. This is not an abstract concept, it is something that can be done and it has been done. Think of our Independence. When Mr. Price started to talk about independence in the 1950’s Belize was not yet self-governing, we were the colony of British Honduras. Few of our people had a high school education. The naysayers felt we could never govern ourselves, some wanted us to stay as we were, some wanted us to become a colony of the United States. Mr. Price and those young Belizeans of his generation rejected any alternative that did not include full internal selfgovernment and then independence. We did not achieve self-government until 1964, and one generation later, we achieved our political independence without shedding one drop of blood and with all our territory intact. Now, more than 34 years later, we are still here, stronger and better than we were prior to independence. We have built institutions that reinforce our passion for free and fair elections, a key pillar of our democracy. We have an economic base upon which we can build and grow our prosperity, and we have institutions that foster public and private sector growth. Today more Belizeans have access to education, although not enough. We respect the rule of law for the most part; we have a professional public service and our partnerships with religious and civil society are respectable. The fundamentals upon which our state is being built are solid. To have done this much in such a short time speaks to the determination of the Belizean people. Still, after 34 years we need to look ahead and in looking ahead I feel the task of our generation cannot be incremental, we have to leap forward. We have to adapt to change. First our infrastructure must be improved so that we can take advantage of the potential that exists for us in agriculture production. Second I want us to build our technology platforms so that we can compete in the service industry and third, we must build our human resource capacity and by that I mean investing in our people. Think about it, most of our people are
Continued on page 13