Leader of the Opposition Says Government Is Tone Deaf

Moses “Shyne” Barrow

Today, the Leader of Opposition, Moses Shyne Barrow, called a press conference and this was one of the issues he addressed. Barrow said he was glad that the unions lashed out on the matter and described the decision to rescind as “indicative of a government that is on the brink of complete collapse… a government that is extremely tone deaf and disconnected,”. Barrow also agreed with the President of the Public Service Union, Dean Flowers that both the current and former C.E.O. in the Ministry of Finance ought to return whatever excess allowances they received that are not in conformity with the set of allowances.

Moses “Shyne” Barrow, Leader of the Opposition

“I’m happy to see the BNTU come alive. I think even in their release they said that the sleeping giant has been awoken. And I think that the Government of Belize has taken that for granted, and so they go as far as they’re allowed to go, which is the beauty of democracy. That you have the stakeholders, the United Democratic Party, the NGOs, the unions, the churches that can all make pronouncements on the urgent matters impacting our society and it is a hallmark of our democracy that we can threaten protest, we can threaten strike action and the government has no choice but to listen and when they don’t listen, then they suffer the consequences. So I think this government has spent all of its capital and they have no room to not listen when the unions and the stakeholders, such as the United Democratic Party and churches and NGOs speak. And so I think this is a telling moment, and so, all of the stakeholders need to continue to speak. I would have to agree with Brother Flores that both CEOs should return that money. I saw your news coverage saying that you can get a plan for $250, no, you can get five SIMs for $250. That is the family plan, so they need to reconstruct whatever it is they’re trying to do for the CEOs or whoever within conformity of logic and the regulation. So if Brother Flowers has pointed out that it is irregular what they have done for the former CEO and what they have done for the current C.E.O., they should fix it immediately.”