06 6
THE BELIZE TIMES
UDP Window Dresser
Contributed Dr. Carla Barnett in a letter to the editor dated August 12, 2015 published in the Amandala for Sunday August 16, 2015 shared some charts using data from the Central Bank of Belize’s website in relation to the evolution of Belize’s public external debt. Dr. Barnett indicated that much of the discussion regarding Belize’s indebtedness has been drawn along Party lines to which clearly the doctor has penned her article. I do agree that the Jewel’s public debt gives cause for a healthy discussion, but it is imperative that the facts be imparted in an accurate fashion if it is to be contributed positively regarding Belize’s macroeconomic policies. Conveniently Dr. Barnett has slung her political arrow to deceive the public that the People’s United Party administration has been responsible for the accumulating of the largest additions to the external debt totalling some BZE $1452.4 million between 1998-2003 and 20032008. Prior to August 21, 1998 under a United Democratic Government, Belize was experiencing what the Honorable Said Musa characterized as a “Potemkin Economy”. The UDP in their trifling attempt to garner an election victory of ’98 has set up false fronts utilizing rhetoric and propaganda to mislead the electorate that the country was wallowing in prosperity. In reality poverty was rising, the social order was spiralling out of control and the economy was in shambles. The People’s United Party won the election of ’98. When the PUP entered office they were faced with the gargantuan task of reversing Belize’s economic decline to “return Belize to a path of growth with equity”. Dr. Barnett’s contribution in the Amandala is solely concentrated on the accumulation of debt by the UDP and PUP. However, her facts will not disclose that upon the People’s United Party taking office in ’98 they were forced not only with the restoring and repairing of a crumbling infrastructure but a thousand and one problems that were facing an abandoned and neglected people of Belize. Matters worsened for the PUP government when a series of hurricanes hit our shores. Mitch in 1998, Keith in 1999, Iris and Chantal in 2001, and Dean in 2007. These storms affected Belize’s Tourism and Agricultural Sectors as well as infrastructure – roads, bridges, electricity, water and housing. The cost was estimated at well over one billion dollars. Dr. Carla Barnett’s graphs are possibly an even graver attempt to mislead readers regarding the spike in Belize’s indebtedness during 1998-2003 and 20032008 as reckless. With complementing information regarding the rationale in the spending during those periods the public will see through her deceit. Monies borrowed in the periods 1998-2003 and 2003-2008 must be considered purposeful debt which was vital to the recovery from the political storm left by the United Democratic Party prior to August 21, 1998 and the subsequent
6 SEP
2015
SOLAR MASTER INTERNATIONAL LIMITED #128,450 (“the Company”) Pursuant to Section 102 (4) of the International Business Companies Act, Chapter 270 of the Laws of Belize, Revised Edition 2000, notice is hereby given that SOLAR MASTER INTERNATIONAL LIMITED:
a) is in dissolution b) commenced dissolution on the 31st day of August, 2015; and c) JHANG, YU-CIAO whose address is 2F., No.17, Ln.236, Sec.3, Chongqing N. Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City 10374, Taiwan is the Liquidator of the Company Dr. Carla Barnett has begun her political career by deceiving the people of Belize storms unleashed by Nature. The investments made were legitimate in the rebuilding of the Jewel and stabilizing of the financial sector on the path to Belize’s recovery. The financial downturn of the global economy and its effects on Belize during the latter period of 2003-2008 must be considered in explaining the matter of the debt during the 1998-2008. However, Dr. Carla Barnett, the highsalaried leather-couch warmer who is now the UDP’s odd choice as standard bearer for Freetown, has begun her political career by deceiving the good people of Belize. She has conveniently chosen not to disclose the hundreds of millions of dollars funded by the late Comandante Hugo Chavez to alleviate the conditions of the marginalised and poverty stricken populace of Belize. Notwithstanding the millions funded by various international agencies to develop the lives of the downtrodden. Dr. Barnett’s data fails to bring to the fore the reckless spending of the poor people’s money since their coming into office in 2008. The records will show that this UDP Government has been illegally spending the Petrocaribe monies in blatant violation of the Finance and Audit (Reform) Act since 2012. Dr. Carla Barnett, has your Party and the UDP Government violated the Finance and Audit Reform Act to which you were one of the architects? Dr. Carla Barnett, should the Prime Minister Dean Oliver Barrow be subjected to penalties enacted by the 2010 amendment of the Finance and Audit (Reform) Act? Dr. Carla Barnett, was the Petrocaribe Loans Act a necessary replacement for the Finance and Audit (Reform) Act? Seemingly Dr. Barnett has fallen to the level of window dresser, forced on her by the dictates of her party politics. Dr. Barnett has become contented with the transgressions of the Prime Minister and the UDP administration. The utterance might be that the transgressions were committed with good intention. However, as Dr. Carla Barnett had once declared, similarly the transgression could be committed with bad intention. Dr. Barnett’s political intents are not to serve the people of Belize much less the good people of Freetown. Rather her intents are to serve her Party, first and foremost. Her die is cast in the political world of UDP politics as a mere political window dresser for the United Democratic Party. Machete will fly.
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