Juan and Silva return bout in Cayo Central
While luck is a wonderful thing to have on your side, the two subjects of our next story are depending more on their skill as politicians. In tonight’s continuing series on “Elections ’98” we hear from Cayo Central’s Eduardo “Dito” Juan and Dan Silva.
Eduardo Juan, U.D.P., Cayo Central
“Well the campaign issues in Cayo Central is that people should not reverse the clock. We must not go backwards; we must go completely forward, especially with the progress that we have had in Cayo Central – the development we have had in Cayo Central. I must say that for the first time Cayo Central people are saying that they have been receiving representation, they have a representative, so I don’t see any problem. And of course we know that all the issues why they should re-elect Dito Juan and the U.D.P. is because of what has happened in the past years. For the two times that the U.D.P. has taken over the country, it was a bankrupt country.”
Daniel Silva Jr., P.U.P., Cayo Central
“Well, I think the issues we’re trying to work on right now is jobs. I think we need more education. I think our medical system needs to be re-vamped, you know; it’s horrible. And I think our young people, I think the way we are going in this country, our young people are loosing faith in the whole system. So this election, I think, in my case, it’s the youths. We need to give them courage; we need to give them opportunities and you do that by education. By creating opportunities, for example we need to encourage computer classes, push, you know, this is the new thing, you know, data processing, tourism which is the backbone of Cayo. So these are the areas we’re campaigning on.”
Eduardo Juan
“Lack of jobs throughout the country, I’m the first to admit that we need to create more employment. A lot of Belizeans have the misconception that government is supposed to be an employer and that is a misconception. In no part of the world government is an employer. Government has to pay public officers to do public works, you know, public service, but what my opponent is not saying is that they still have the fault for not having jobs right now. The economy of this country was practically bankrupt. When an economy gets bankrupt, you could term it as it got sick. Very sick. But I want to say that everything has just been improving for the past year or two. Jobs is not a serious problem again.”
Daniel Silva Jr.
“The re-drawing mean no difference. We were going to beat him bad in Unitedville, Blackman Eddy, Ontario, Teakettle. Now in San Antonio, because of the water situation, in Cristo Rey we’re going to beat him worst as you well know in San Antonio. Right now there is no water. They have been lying to the nation there is water, but the people, if you go back there, all they get is breeze. They have a good compressor system, lot of air come out but no water.”
Q: “What is the one thing that you think will put Eduardo Juan ahead of Daniel Silva in the polls on August twenty seventh?”
Eduardo Juan
“Because Eduardo has delivered. Eduardo Juan did not promise, Eduardo Juan accomplished. The various projects that I mentioned a few just now: land distribution. I changed the policies of land distribution that in such a way people in the rural areas could become the rightful owner of their residential lot with two hundred and fifty dollars. It’s cheaper to buy the land than to pay for the surveying of it.”
Daniel Silva Jr.
“I think the difference is people have seen what we did in three years and ten months and what he has done in five years and one month, you know. All we have today in Cayo is hate. You know Dito Juan is a man that hates, you know and you cannot build Belize in hate. After the elections we need to unify as one people and to work together because we have a lot of problems.”
Q: “If elected for another term in the House of Representatives, what will you offer to, not only Cayo Central but the rest of the country?”
Eduardo Juan
“Number one to continue my good representation as a minister of government. I have served the entire nation especially as a minister of natural resources. Every single corner of this country today is saying Minister Juan really helped us and I will continue doing that. Putting a special focus on Cayo Central as a minister and a minister here.”
Daniel Silva Jr.
“Last time I was thirty three years old; today I am 43. So I have ten more years experience and we, probably some of the things I will work on is closer contact with the people. Probably, I am the one. We did a lot of work with the P.U.P. We did a lot of work in the division, for example we doubled the size of Santa Elena; but sometimes people want more than that. They would want more of that personal contact. We will work on that.”
Juan first won a seat in the National Assembly in 1984 when he defeated Assad Shoman. Silva came on in 1989 to avenge that loss, but Juan turned the tables in 1993. Cayo Central has over four thousand registered voters.
