Minister of Education says U.D.P. is not failing…
The United Democratic Party government came to power on February seventh, 2008 with a manifesto entitled “Imagine the Possibilities”. With one year already under their belt, our morning show Open your Eyes has featured both the U.D.P. and the opposition P.U.P. for a review of one year into the U.D.P. Administration. Minister of Education Patrick Faber was first on Open Your Eyes to discuss whether those U.D.P. possibilities are becoming realities. According to Faber, while his government is faced with difficulties in several areas, the U.D.P. is not failing.
Patrick Faber, Area Rep, Collet
“There were many obstacles that we faced from the beginning given in fact that the finances were not in proper order and again we did not have the confidence from outside and from the Belizean people. So it took us a while to try and talk to people, to let people see that our government, our U.D.P. government is all about transparency, it is all about accountability, it’s all about getting things done and putting things right, especially those things that have gone wrong in the past. Since then we continue to try to build that confidence and I think it is coming along very well. We have certain developed the confidence of the international financial institution. That is evident now in the monies that we are getting from these entities to do the kind of programs and projects that are necessary in our education system, in our health system, in our agricultural system. All of these things we hope will jump start our finances.”
“There is certainly a whole lot of room for improvement. The fact that we came in and found the situation to be far worst than what we thought it would be has certainly thrown off some of our plans. I wouldn’t give us a perfect grade, but I certainly believe we are far from a failing grade. Given as well that there have been many obstacles—not caused by anybody—caused by Mother Nature and by God, which is clearly out of our hands. You know, of course, that I’m talking about our floods in the country, the ones in the southern part of the country, the ones in Cayo and Orange Walk and Belize District, which has contributed to a major loss of income in several areas of our country. And so it has posed many problems to us, but the big thing here William is that, an again I go back to where we started, where were we one year ago? We were on a path to destruction, but we are in a much better position today.”
