Opposition convenes People’s Assembly
While the opposition was a no-show in Belmopan for the reading of the budget or the debate, which followed, it did not stop them from saying what they thought of the presentation. Opposition Leader Said Musa used the platform at the St. Mary’s Hall in Belize City to make his rebuttal, during the first session of the People’s Assembly, invoked by the P.U.P.
Said Musa, Leader of the Opposition
“The Prime Minister presented his Government’s budget. Belizeans were hoping against hope for some meaningful relief from the social and economic famine that has spread across Belize over the past four years and nine months. Once again we were disappointed. What we got was a budget building a bridge to the past; a budget filled with empty rhetoric and talus unconcern.
How can Belize be strong when so many of our children are not in school and so many of our people have no access to proper health care? How can Belize be stable when the committed national debt stands at $575,000,000 – over half a billion dollars. How can Belize be secure when crime is rampant and prisoners escape from the prisons at will, endangering the lives of innocent Belizeans?
The P.U.P. intends to return Belize to a path of growth and development. This will require a national dialogue at the highest levels with businesspersons, farmers, workers’ representatives, professional bodies, community and church leaders as well as senior managers and policy makers in the public service. The development I speak of can be measured in terms of job opportunities and upward social mobility. Classroom facilities equipped with computers, staff with trained teachers, hospitals, doctors and nurses, pre-natal and post-natal clinics and well fed babies, playing fields, sports and recreational facilities, decent housing and day-care centers, clean and safe neighborhoods, art galleries together with drama, dance and music.
It is about empowering Belizeans in urban and rural communities to master their own situations. It is about caring for and enhancing our environment, moving Belize forward into the new millenium with confidence. Unleashing the creative and enterprising spirit of a young dynamic nation.”
According to party officials the next session of the People’s Assembly will be convene in Dangriga shortly.
