Rod of Correction is an attempt to recreate the unrest of 2005

Prime Minister Dean Barrow hosted a press conference this afternoon, his first in at least six months. So you can understand that there were many questions. In fact, the session went on for more than three hours. The first segment was dedicated to Belize City Council news, and we’ll get to that in due course. The second segment was taken up with current issues, and there are more than a few. Tonight, we start with the Rod of Correction, ROC. That organization piggybacked on a BGYEA rally on Saturday in the city but let’s just say the PM wasn’t impressed. He says that while he will agree that there is a level of disquiet, the rhetoric is out of all proportion to the reality. The Prime Minister claims that ROC is an attempt to recreate the unrest of 2005 and that effort, he said, is falling far short because numbers don’t lie.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow

Dean Barrow

“The movement seems to have; the meeting certainly seems to have been convened by the National Trade Union Congress of Belize and seems to be spearheaded by the N.T.U.C.B.  I found the press releases that the N.T.U.C.B. put out in connection with their position to be extremely strident to say the least. I found the rhetoric emerging from the interviews that the principals gave, in particular, the president of the N.T.U.C.B. to be disrespectful; to be entirely confrontational; to be in a word, rude. But let me make clear that it takes two to quarrel. I am not going to respond in kind. It really is an effort to manifest a crisis that isn’t there and the attempt to somehow make 2014 what 2005 was, isn’t working. I am happy that on Saturday the rally that they had was to put it factually, not especially successful. And I’m happy not so I can poke fun at them, but because I think it supports the government’s position that the streets of certainly the city and on a larger scale the people of this country are not satisfied that things are the way the Rod of Correction is describing things. I make the point that of course there are difficulties, of course there are shortcomings; of course there are failures on the part of the government.”