6 OCT
2013
Reid BUSTED! By G. Michael Reid The latest scandal coming out of the Immigration department is big and will probably not be as easy to sweep under the rug as all the others before it have been. This one has international implications and while our Prime Minster has tried to wave it off and applied a mild slap on the wrist of the man most responsible, it will probably take a whole lot more than that. The facts as they present themselves are pretty straight-forward and if ever a man was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Elvin Penner has been! On September 9th, Elvin Penner, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Immigration, escorted a person of Asian descent to the Passport Office. Mr. Penner stayed until the person was photographed and processed and three hours later, had his driver pick up the passport. This is a process folks, that can take the “normal” person anywhere from several weeks to several years; even with all the proper documentation in place. Mr. Penner prepared and signed the necessary documents, signed the picture and declared that the person that was with him was his friend and that he had known said person for three years. To fulfill the requirements for the witness of a Justice of the Peace, Penner turned to his good friend and political associated, Alfonso Cruz, former UDP mayor of San Ignacio. The problem is that the person who Penner and Cruz declared that they knew and who Penner certified to be the person with him at the time, one Won Hong Kim, was at the time incarcerated in a jail cell in Taiwan. He had been there since July 13th. The passport was signed for and issued a full two months after the Taiwanese took Kim into custody. There is no way on GOD’s good earth that Won Hong Kim could have been in Belize on that date. Penner issued an explanation last week via an email to Channel Seven in which he claims to have
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THE BELIZE TIMES
been “duped”. The interesting thing is that in applying for a passport, and the reason why the individual had to accompany Penner to the Passport Office, is that pictures are no longer taken in a studio and carried to the Passport Office. The pictures must be taken there by a modern security camera which then immediately transposes the image onto the passport. According to Penner, “having seen the picture who is said to be Wonhong Kim on the news…it has become clear to me that the person for whom I signed the application for could never have been Mr. Wonhong Kim…” And you knew this man for
been a matter that involved other nations, it would never have seen the light of day. An interesting aspect of all this is the way the South Koreans will feel about Belize’s attempt to facilitate a fugitive’s attempt to elude their justice. Won Hong Kim was reportedly in jail awaiting extraditions to South Korea after being involved in the embezzlement of some 40 million dollars from a company in that country. The passport was supposed to prove that Won Hong was Belizean thereby preventing him from being sent back to South Korea. This is very serious. Another country that is no doubt concerned is the United States. Terrorists have access to big money and if $120,000 can get you a passport that easily, how many other passports have been secured in that way? According to the news reports, it was the Honduran embassy in Taipei that got a hold of the document and began asking questions. No wonder Dean Barrow had to act! We are talking here about a truly international incident with no less than four
proper documentation or vetting. Penner was also previously implicated in a passport that was issued in the name of a child who was dead for 26 years. Godwin Hulse himself stated in an interview just this week that “Minister Penner as an individual has always been personally involved in getting files and getting them signed and taking them to director for vetting etc. He’s been aggressive on this front.” Why then did Godwin Hulse, who is the substantive minister of that department, not put a stop to this? Is he also involved; and to what degree? Elvin Penner is the area representative for the Cayo Northeast constituency and squeaked by this past election, winning by a slim margin of 17 votes. Had it not been for the hundreds of immigrants he was able to nationalize illegally, Elvin Penner would not even be around to embarrass us in such a fashion. Penner is a member of the Mennonite community who settled in Belize in the 1950’s. He is the first of his kind to enter Belizean politics and one has to believe that his entire community now stands ashamed of his actions. The bottom line is that what Elvin Penner has done is illegal and it is criminal. Elvin Penner, Alfonso Cruz and Eric Chang, the man who is supposed to have delivered the passport to Taiwan, should be arrested, charged and imprisoned. This is a serious breach of our national security and a slap in the face to this country, which has opened its arms and welcomed Penner a Mennonite and Chang a Chinese to be involved in our internal affairs. If this one is allowed to just “blow over” then we will know that Martin Howe was right when he told Will Kane in the movie “High Noon”: “People gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it. Maybe because down deep they don’t care, they just don’t care.” Maybe we need to talk some more before we start to care!
The problem is that the person who Penner and Cruz declared that they knew and who Penner certified to be the person with him at the time, one Won Hong Kim, was at the time incarcerated in a jail cell in Taiwan three years, you say? The Taiwanese government has confirmed that the picture on the passport is indeed the very Won Hong Kim who has been in their custody for the past two months. What Penner has to explain, is how and when did that picture get on that passport? Despite the fact that the passport was applied for and issued on September 9th, the application form that was signed by Penner was dated April 22nd. The Prime Minister explained it this way, “Hon. Penner said that he signed the certificate without dating it - something that I often do...” Now hold everything! Is the Prime Minister saying that he signs important documents without dating them? Folks, if I go to Courts to buy a microwave, I make sure that I know what date I am signing on. What kind of tipsy turvy government is this man running? Despite Mr. Barrow’s claim that he acted immediately upon receiving news of the transgression, most folks know that had this not
countries involved; Belize, Honduras, Taiwan and South Korea. The Leader of the Opposition was one hundred percent correct when he suggested that the ultimate blame for all this should be placed right at the foot of the Prime Minister. He knew exactly what kind of monster he was creating. Many remember that leading up to the general elections of 2012, Elvin Penner was caught on camera in an unprecedented mass-nationalization of immigrants and there were confirmed reports that many of the nationalizations were being done without the