Courtenay Says Government Has “a Problem” with Senate Commitment

The Senate withdrew into a closed session at the request of lead Government Senator Godwin Hulse, and returned approximately fifteen minutes later insisting that the motion was out of order. But Senator Courtenay maintained that the result was what they had wanted: for the record to record the injustice done to the N.G.O. community and its Senator, and to show the hypocrisy of the current administration.

Eamon Courtenay

Eamon Courtenay, P.U.P. Senator

“The Government side withdrew and they went into consultation and they came back and the President announced that the motion was out of order. The point of the matter is, Jules, that we wanted to do was to demonstrate to the public, to demonstrate to the Belizeans and specifically to the N.G.O. community, that the Government of Belize has a problem with their commitment to the people. They were the ones who amended the Constitution; from 2008 we have been waiting for this to happen, it hasn’t happened; they made that commitment, they have now done this, and there is no reason, as we saw today, why this meeting couldn’t have been delayed in order for the thirteenth Senator to take his seat. More importantly, in a circumstance where we are debating an amendment to the N.G.O. Bill, an amendment to the N.G.O. Bill that is ill-informed, that is badly drafted, that is unnecessary, and what we demonstrated also is that the N.G.O. Bill itself needs further amendments, so he ought to have been seated, and that is the point we wanted to make to the Belizean people. I listened in amazement to Senator Duncan, to Senator Barnett implying that something was wrong with the election that took place, that some N.G.O. she represented did not vote, as if to say that something was wrong. The point of the matter is that the person who they were actively campaigning for was not elected, and that is why all these stories are starting to come up and we wanted it on the record, so that when they started to make mischief on WAVE and other things, with the current Senator who was duly elected, then we will have it on the record to say that they were never genuine from the very beginning.”