HOG HEAVEN

This week it is important to draw attention to the sixty-million-dollar Belize Integral Security Program (BISP) loan from CABEI that was approved in 2014. Those funds languished mostly untouched for over six years. In November 2020 only one million dollars had been used to cover salaries for the project unit staff that had not produced any of the desperately needed changes. This loan is part of CABEI’s support efforts to realize the Belize National Security Strategy in a cohesive design with the greater Central American Security strategy. These funds were earmarked to improve the well-being of Belizean families through the strengthening of citizen security. The funds were to be used for the upgrade of training facilities and living and working conditions of security forces, and also to acquire much-needed equipment and to increase technical capacity.

It is painfully obvious that the former Minister of National Security had more interest in Bandits of all sorts than in those security forces of which he was Minister. There was a young Belize Defence Force soldier who lost his eye due to the dilapidated state of a pier at one of the bases. One has only to look at the inhumane conditions of the living quarters at the Price Barracks or any other stations of the Belize Defence Force for confirmation of the neglect and mismanagement they suffered under Big John. There was a mandatory closing of the Sarstoon Forward Operating Base because the building there was declared dangerous. The squalor and negligence that our Belizean Security forces were subject to under Big John are human rights violations. In the North entire Police Stations were burnt down and never rebuilt, others were left abandoned because the state of disrepair made them uninhabitable for the police and their families.

All that speaks of a Minister that did not care for the welfare of those that served under him. They were subject to inhumane working and living conditions, which he, Big John, would not himself endure. His mismanagement and neglect not only jeopardized the physical health and lives of his troops but also their mental health. To be forced to endure living and working under these conditions is clearly enough to break the spirit and morale of anyone. Perhaps the well-being of the security forces and indeed their productivity was not on the list of priorities of the former Minister. Even though the funds were available there was absolutely no interest in ensuring citizen security. Whether this was just a by-product of the disdain or if it was such by design is not entirely clear.

It then comes as no surprise that when Honourable Florencio Marin and Honourable Oscar Mira took over the Ministry of National Defence and Border Security it was not only the facilities they had to renovate. There was also a great need to bolster the morale of the security forces to ensure that they can do their work, unimpeded by lack of resources or adequate facilities. This past weekend Big John again re-entered the Belmopan political scene. It seems that he had buckets of resources stashed away and clearly some people lost their heads and got carried away yet again. It is ironic that he claims to love people so much yet those who were at his mercy felt none of his empathy and he allowed them to live so inhumanely. Bacon sizzled all day at hog heaven in Belmopan on Sunday, and we leave this week with some advice for the current Leader of the Opposition, “Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty but the pig likes it.”