P.M. receives final report from Political Reform Commission
They decided not to recommend replacing the Queen as the Head of State; they don’t feel it’s time to remove the Governor General, nor do they believe electing a president would be a change for the better. But while the Political Reform Commission appointed a year ago by the Prime Minister appears to have taken the conservative route when it came to drastic constitutional change, they did take a hard line on some issues that Belizeans told them really do need improvement. These include increasing the power of the Senate by bringing the House of Representatives and the Senate together to make a unicameral assembly, creating legislation to prevent members of the House from crossing the floor and strengthening of the Prevention of Corruption in Public Life Act. In the Judiciary, the commission wants the role of the magistracy to be recognized and recommends that magistrates be given tenure. The Judicial and Legal Services Commission should be reformed and legal aid made available to those accused of a wider range of crimes, not just capital offenses. The Commission agreed that public officers are often vulnerable to political control and manipulation and recommended that the Public Services Commission be restructured and strengthened. Area Representatives should be prohibited from using public officers for political work in their constituencies. They also feel that the public was right in objecting to the Economic Citizenship Program and are recommending that it be abolished. Although the Commission has been keeping the Prime Minister informed of their progress since they began meeting last January, they presented their final report on Tuesday night in Belize City. News Five spoke to Chairman Dylan Vernon about the issue that caused the most debate and asked member Fred Hunter about the approach taken by the fourteen members in making their recommendations.
Dylan Vernon, Chairman
“Some of the issues that I remember to be the more contentious were of course the issue of the Queen remaining as Head of State or not. As you know it’s the only issue that we, the commission, had a deadlock on. Eventually some people, with good reason in their minds, began to believe that before we can speak about replacing the Queen as our Head of State, we had to consider very carefully the security of Belize in the context of the Guatemala claim that is still persisting. But I must say that as the report shows the majority of commissioners believe that Belize should eventually move to become a republic in the sense that we have abolished the British Monarch as Head of State. The question is one of timing. On that one we could not agree to.”
Fred Hunter Sr., Belize Business Bureau
“At the present stage right now we do not believe that now is the time to change the Governor General. What do you change him to? A president? Appointed or elected? Australia wants a president, or they talk about a president, but the people turn it back. You just don’t change because you want to change, you change because you want to change to go forward and improve. And how would a president work in with the present parliamentary system that we have operated for so many years, from internal self-government, before independence and after independence? The greatest proof that we have that this present system is working is that each election, government has changed and without any problem, as smoothly and without even changing step. So how do you say the system isn’t working? Now, are you going to gamble this that we know that is working for something that we have absolutely no knowledge about, no experience about?”
Said Musa, Prime Minister
“I think the commission is reflecting, pretty much the mood of the Belizean people which is one of “rock the boat, but don’t overturn it.” And I think that’s how people feel out there. They feel there are many things that are wrong, but please don’t change the system. We like this parliamentary system; we feel unique about it in Central America. We are happy not being a republic. That seems to be the majority sentiment quite frankly, and they were reflecting that so I’m not surprised.
It is my hope as Prime Minister when I study the recommendations I am hoping that they will be in line with the kinds of things that we as a party, now as a government, have been advocating for. Such as decentralizing power, some more, we are fully on board with that, such as enhancing the role of women, such as ensuring that the public service is improved, the efficiency of the public service, whatever we can do. Whether it requires amendments to the constitution, changing the titles of permanent secretaries to CEO’s, giving them more power in the recruitment of junior officers and so on, strengthening the Public Service Commission, separating the legal and judicial service, strengthening the independence of the judiciary. These are all things that we are on board with as a government.”
The Prime Minister told News Five that one of the main concerns raised at the public consultations concerned corruption and while the legislation to prevent this in public life can be strengthened, the cultural attitudes which encourage and tolerate it must change. The Prime Minister will now review the final report and decide how to handle the one hundred thirty-three recommendations, about forty-five of which would require some kind of constitutional change. No time frame for implementation has been given. Besides Dylan Vernon and Fred Hunter, Political Reform Commission members included Carolyn Williams, Eduardo Melendez, Moises Chan, Ernest Castro, Godwin Hulse, Senator Eamon Courtenay, Dickie Bradley, Douglas Singh, Carolyn Trench Sandiford, Lois Young Barrow and Silvana Woods.
