U.D.P. says amendment to bankruptcy act is justice, not politics
Another opportunity the government just couldn’t resist was the proposal of an amendment to the Bankruptcy Act… that will have the effect of enabling former Freetown Representative Derek Aikman to once again run for a seat in the House.
Manuel Esquivel, Prime Minister
“Well that’s neither here or there. The question is whether it just or is it not just. If it is an unjust law then I think it is our duty to address that. The fact of the matter is that the only person affected now is Mr. Aikman. But there are other Belizeans who could be affected and the fact that this was written into our Constitution to begin with should never have happened? and all we’re saying is that regardless of whether we’re talking of Mr. Aikman or not, we’re talking about justice. And if it is unjust to have a citizen stripped of his rights indefinitely because of a commercial debt. Not because of any wrong doing to the people, not because he has broken any law of the land, but simply because he owes an individual some money then we are convinced that that cannot be justice and all that is doing is correcting that justice.”
Q: “Is amendment to get Aikman back into politics?”
Dean Barrow, Attorney General
“Well we don’t legislate for individuals. We have legislated or are legislating in this case to address a situation that is in need of attention but very clearly a by product of the legislation would be the freeing of Mr. Aikman from the constitutional disqualification with respect to standing for or voting at general elections and I would even be prepared to concede that our interest in the bankruptcy, our review of the bankruptcy act was sparked by Mr. Aikman’s circumstance, I will make no bones about that at all.”
Q: “There is talk that with Mr. Aikman re-entering politics on your party’s side would pair him with Mr. Musa in the upcoming elections.”
Dean Barrow
“Again that’s a matter of speculation I certainly can’t comment on that at this stage. We have already the twenty nine candidates chosen as our standard bearers. Now I don’t think on the other hand that is cast in concrete. I think there are people on our side that would be prepared to be self sacrificing if they felt that some other candidacy would better serve the party and the country but beyond that I certainly am not at liberty to speculate.”
It has been speculated that once he is eligible to run, Aikman, who in 1984 dethroned former prime minister George Price, might be put up as a U.D.P. candidate in the Fort George Division… to run against P.U.P. leader Said Musa.
