Barrow: voters will make massive swing to U.D.P.
His mood is relaxed and confident, but as anyone who has ever seen Dean Barrow in court, on the rostrum or debating in the House of Representatives knows, he is not afraid to go for the jugular. Today, in the wake of Monday’s P.U.P. manifesto presentation, News Director Stewart Krohn and I sat down with the U.D.P. leader to see how he views his chances only three weeks before election day.
Stewart Krohn
“Right now in the House of Representatives you are facing a twenty-six to three deficit; this is a huge margin. Never before in the history of Belize or virtually any other country in the Commonwealth Caribbean, has an opposition party been able to reverse the tide of the electorate to the extent that it would overcome that kind of margin, even a sixty to forty popular vote in the last election. What makes you think that somehow the U.D.P. has going for it enough to make that kind of massive turn around that we’ve never seen before?”
Dean Barrow, Leader of Opposition
“The straight answer to your question is yes I do. But I concede that it is a hell of a statistic, it is on the face of it, a frightening statistic, but in the same way as people voted certainly in the post independence era again, in such an unprecedentedly overwhelming fashion for the P.U.P. last time around, in the same way they can vote in overwhelming fashion for the U.D.P. this time around. I really think that you have to focus on the fact that precisely because the mandate was so huge, the expectations were so high. And by and large, those expectations have been cruelly dashed in almost every sector you can think of, so for every action there is a reaction.”
Janelle Chanona
“One of the slogans used in the U.D.P. campaign is, take their money and vote them out. But people, during election season have been known to get what they can get now and do whatever they feel like in the ballot booth, are you worried that people are playing both sides?”
Dean Barrow
“You’re right, people can fool you. But usually that happens more to the incumbent than to the challenger. People are concerned not to directly challenge authority, that’s the way I read it. So when I tell you that we are confident we will win, we arrive at that confidence even after taking into account factors such as that there is a degree to which people will tell you what you want to hear. Making every allowance for that, we are still certain that the mood of the country is anti-P.U.P., anti the current administration, and we feel that we are peaking just at the right time.”
Stewart Krohn
“Mr. Barrow, the slogan of your campaign is, “Let’s Get it Right.” You’ve had two chances to get it right already: 1984 and 1993. In neither case did your party really impress anyone with getting it right. Why should be believe that this time is going to be any different?”
Dean Barrow
“I’m not sure, in fact I know I don’t agree with your assessment of the record. I would concede that the record was not a perfect one, and talking about the issue of corruption, I would the first to admit that there were certainly two ministers in the last U.D.P. government who were perceived widely as being corrupt. Why ought people to believe us now? Because the first thing I did was to get rid of those two ministers.”
“There is proof positive that I and the U.D.P. were absolutely serious when we insisted that people like that could not stand as candidates for our party. Apart from that, we have set out a series of proposed measures that, as I said, are concrete. I haven’t heard the other side do this yet, and seeing that they are coming off a term in which corruption has been the most endemic in public life, certainly in the post independence history of this country, I imagine their credibility would be absolutely non-existent where that is concerned. But we have said we are going to pass the unjust enrichment law so that any elected official who is enjoying a lifestyle, or who is seen to be acquiring assets that can’t be justified by his or her salary, will be liable to investigation by the Integrity Commission and will be liable to arrest and prosecution for this new offence of unjust enrichment.”
Janelle Chanona
“But on the issue of corruption, some people might say that any party pointing fingers at the other and talking about you are so corrupt is really a case of the kettle calling the pot black. How do you begin to deal with somebody who brings that up?”
Dean Barrow
“The scale of what has happened over the last five years is almost unimaginable except that we have seen it. You talk about the immigration scandal, you talk about Los Lagos, you talk about paying nine point five million dollars for the land at La Democracia when the Ministry of Natural Resources officials gave a valuation, an official valuation of three million dollars. You talk about the V.O.A. land at Orange Point in Punta Gorda being sold, again without the benefit of any kind of public tender process, without anybody else having a chance to bid. To Luke Espat and to Mike Espat and to Arnaldo Pena, you talk about what has happened to the port here in Belize City. I mean, look at the Novelo franchise that we’ve been focusing on over the last weekend. These are things, as I said, the scale of which really is unprecedented in this country. So I don’t think that any reasonable person, any objective person can deny that we have seen corruption take root in a form never before witnessed in this country.”
Janelle Chanona
“But is it a case of the voter picking the lesser of two evils. Do you really feel it’s a matter of pro-U.D.P. as opposed to anti-P.U.P.?”
Dean Barrow
“A little bit of both, and I would be honest enough to concede that perhaps more one than the other. More fed up with the P.U.P. than any ringing endorsement of the U.D.P. I would accept that, but I think then it is our job to bridge the gap between the two things. And I feel that, as I said, with the message that we’ve been articulating over the last few weeks that we are in the process of doing that. So that come election day, I feel that when we win it will be by virtue in consequence of a positive mandate for the U.D.P.”
Stewart Krohn
“Two big issues for the U.D.P. are corruption and financial mismanagement. But those two issues are really kind of abstract given the fact that over the last four and a half years the economy has grown, unemployment has decreased, and it wants to look like the majority of people are better off. How can your abstract issues compete with the bread and butter issues that the People’s United Party has going for it?”
Dean Barrow
“Stewart, I don’t accept that unemployment has fallen, at least certainly not the way government has claimed. Where is the evidence to back up these statistics? Apart from tourism, I don’t see that there is any area of economic activity in this country that has grown. In terms of if you’re going to look at abstract figures in terms of G.D.P. growth, that means nothing to people on the street. They know that taxes have gone up; they know that there is less disposable income for the majority of them. So if you ask the straight question, are you better off now than you were five years ago, I am willing to bet that in main the answer would come back, no.”
Janelle Chanona
“The P.U.P. have taken a very massive and expensive media campaign out to promote their party, clearly that’s not the same line the U.D.P. is looking at. Are you going for the “word of mouth” angle in the build up to the election?”
Dean Barrow
“There are so many people I have met who say they no longer watch the local news because they are sick to death of the commercials. There are other people that I have met who feel that it is a little bit obscene for the ruling party to be spending all this money on a media campaign when so many people have to do without. I hope that I am ascribing this properly, but I believe it is Mose Hyde, who says on Krem Radio, who says, if you don’t have a vat, rain water is just mud. And I think it is that sort of an angle that we look at and that gives us some comfort in terms of feeling that really there is an extent to which the very excess of the P.U.P. media campaign can work against the party.”
In news that only broke this evening, Barrow alleges that Minster of Transport Max Samuels has had his U.S. visa revoked on orders of that country’s Department of State. In a letter to Prime Minister Said Musa, Barrow has called on the P.M. to remove Samuels from Cabinet. News 5 has failed to confirm the alleged U.S. move, which Barrow attributes to Samuel’s involvement in the illegal sale of Belizean passports during his tenure as minister responsible for immigration. While this station certainly has no particular sympathy for Samuels, we will point out that the revocation or threat to revoke a visa is a favourite ploy used by the United States government when it wants to pressure a small country into doing something it may not otherwise want to do. As for the criminal investigation still underway into the passport scandal, News 5 understands that the majority of files have been laid on the D.P.P.’s desk and indictments are expected…sometime after March fifth.
