PM to Musa: “Stubborn jackass and I will be your stubborn driver”
Said Musa
Earlier we reported on the budget for the new financial year and the additional taxes that will be imposed. But the House meeting would not be over without the usual dose of mudslinging. And as it has in the past, the arrows of Prime Minister Dean Barrow were slung again at his predecessor, Said Musa. By any measure, it was a new low in parliament. Here is how it went from nasty to plain vile.
John Briceño, Leader of Opposition
“So that the prime minister obviously is more concerned about looking after his deficits as opposed to plight and the need of productive sector. As usual, the prime minister is going to be attacking the messenger instead of the message. But he can attack the messenger as much as he wants, but this is not going to bring down the cost of living no matta wat. We need to vote against these amendments, Mr. Speaker.”
Said Musa
“Mr. Speaker, I will make a very brief intervention. No matter how it is said, the truth of the matter is that when you strip away all the technical jargon in these amendments—whether it be the Central Bank or the treasury bills or the international financial banks—strip it all away and look at what is happening, it is to afford this UDP government the ability to borrow more from commercial banks in Belize utilizing the Central Bank through the treasury notes. They can’t get away from that. That is a simple fact. Why are we increasing the treasury notes to ten year bond; the Barrow bond for ten years? It is to give him the ability to be able to use these monies and not required to pay back for it. This is the new Barrow bond and he can’t get away from that. Thank you.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“You know dealing with the member for Fort George first. Mr. Speaker, I say again that I continue to be shocked that he can continue to speak, that he suddenly regained his voice and he intervenes so blithely, not particularly effectively, but just as though he doesn’t have a care in the world vis a vi, the debt that he owes to the Belizean people, which could only be partially repaid if he kept his mouth shut as a form of apology for all he did. I just want to say this Mister Speaker. I was reading a book, an Afghan writer and there was a phrase in the book which I suppose must be Afghan. It is apparently a traditional saying. You know what it is? “A stubborn jackass needs a stubborn driver.” You are the stubborn jackass and I will be your stubborn driver every time; every time.”
John Briceño
“Language Mr. Speaker.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Every time you get up to persist in your outrage against the Belizean people, I will be here to flog you and to chastise you.” I won’t stop until I hang a bell around…”
Emil Arguelles, Speaker of the House
“Honorable prime minister, honorable prime minister.”
Said Musa
“You are a disgrace to this nation for a prime minister to be speaking like that; utter disgrace.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“I won’t finish until I hang a bell around your neck as in the days of old what they do with lepers because that’s what you are, a moral leper in this country, and everybody should be alerted to when you are passing or when you are speaking to avert their nose. That’s what I think of you. Can I now deal with the leader of the opposition?”
Said Musa
“When Zenaida Moya had…”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“Am I allowed to speak mister speaker? I am allowed to continue?”
Emil Arguelles
“Do you have a point of order honorable member?”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“I am speaking. I am speaking.
Said Musa
“What is the point of order?”
Emil Arguelles
“No honorable member, are you saying a point of order?”
Said Musa
“It’s the Leader of the Opposition’s point of order.”
Emil Arguelles
“Leader of the Opposition, your point of order.”
John Briceño
“The un-parliamentary language that the prime minister is using in this National Assembly.”
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
“A jackass is a donkey.”
John Briceño
“Fortunately we’ve had the students that have just left because it would have been a shame to hear the prime minister speaking in such manner in this honorable House Mister Speaker. Luckily these students have left.”
That exchange was almost as bad as when the then area rep Michael Finnegan used the “B” word to describe the former speaker of the House, for which he had the sense to later apologize.
It is horrible that our House is getting to be so close to be of no confidence. All this bickering and malcontent will only further cripple the nation. We may be on the heels of a drastic future and a revolution may be of question. I try not to pick sides but this is just disgraceful. Is there no civility anymore?
I am ashamed and embarrassed to have a Prime minister like dean Barrow.
In my eyes, Dean Barrow no longer bears my respect as Prime Minister, but as an ordinary man.
“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not a bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” Jim Rohn
This is truely embarassing for the country of Belize, when leaders are arrogant and ignorant and expect crime and lawlessness to seize, when they are doing the same. This is to be the leader of our country and cannot have self control, and know what to say when the entire country is listening. God have mercy.
to me all this crazy disrespects in the house, oh come on, seems like guys on the streets. damn, well educated people fighting like low class street people in the house of rep. where more class, civilized should be, it really disgust us as proud Belizeans. and to make things worse they are both fighting to find ways to screw us more in poverty when they should be discussing ways to bring up our nation.
Prime Minister lost all respect and dignity as a National Leader. Finally Belizeans are realizing that he is nothing but a ruffian. He is so drunk with power with no sense of direction to find a way forward out of the chaos he created. “Empty Barrels Make The Most Noise” Barrow’s Bone Head Brilliance ” often brings a high cost to the Belizean people. A Master of Deception that has proven that he is all glitter with no substance!
can’t we all make a mass strike ( country wide ) to cancel this tax burden that they want to add more? any ideas?
Shame on you Mr Prime Minister.What you did was a slap in the face of all Belizeans.You are our leader.We expect more from you.
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I STILL HAVE MY MOUT WIDE OPEN, AFTER HEARING THE PRIME MINISTER SPEACH! HUH! ITS AMAZING HOW DISRESPECFULL HE IS, and yet he expect other people to respect each other when he is a big example to our belizean people , come on! Mr. Borrow! have some respect,! at least a little , or I guess you’ll need to take some really educated clases in order to have some, you are beeing soooooooooooo rude to your country, i would sugest that you owe you people an apology, if you are man enough? act like one, listen to your self! you are nothing but a disgrace to our country thats what you are, cause I haven’t seen any good chages for the people of Belize, instead the cost of living is almost in the sky, soon we’ll have people dieing of hunger, as they can not afford, this
I think mr. barrow is acting childish, he has no respect for the house, and is taking the house a joke. I think their are better ways to deal with problems. Mr. PM grow-up respect others as they will respect you. The worst thing is that all the country and the world is hearing how speaks in the house, what do international leaders would think of our country and people.
Hey Belizean pride, I’m with you, we all should get together and fight for our country, lets stop this tax thing, he has uHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ! LOTS OF MONEY HONEY, he is not worring about the poor people that work so hard to maintain their family with the little they make
Nothing strange to me,most of the top UDP leaders are ignorant,they were so hungry for power,now that they get it they can’t handle it.We all no that Said Musa screwed up but Barrow job is to fix the problem and not behaving like some of the inmates at the prisons fighting for food.imagine the whole world is watching how our leaders are behaving,i got this heads up via facebook and hi-5 this morning hence the reason i went and check it out on ch-5 news,so imagine how many Belizean are ashame and pist off of this ….ery.I told people this before election,and it’s a serious thought,whenever a blackman like Barrow gets into power,we will have some seroius problem in Belize,so said so done,i’m going back home when Barrow is out,sorry to say it like that.
The National Assembly is our National House.This is where members of Parlament get together to make laws that will affect the lives of Belizeans.I only have a standard six education, but I have enough common sence to know that you do not speak like that in the House, and you do not speak like that to A Honorable Member of the House. We expect Ladies and Gentlemen as our leaders. That type of behavior is what one would expect from a street thug.You was elected to lead Mr Barrow, so lead , or step down.Belizeans are not stupid Mr Barrow, and by the way tell that to Mr Finnegan.I as a Belizean demand an apology from you Mr Barrow,because when you disgrace your self in the House you disgrace me you son of a B. And the B is not for Barrow.
oh well, sometimes one needs to bring across a message in the best way the other person will be able to interpret it.
This is very shameful, a PM acting like this, he is full of himself, no respect for the House and no respect for the speaker of the house. He is arrogant and should have a little more respect for the house and to top it off there were students at this meeting. Star I totally agree with your post.
I am wondering if this is what “Corporal Punishment” has caused to some of our elected members of the House of Representative to behave in such an embarrasing and disgraceful manner towards each other, instead of fullfilling their promise to our people that they will work together for a better Belize. This should have been the ultimate gold rather than to be so arraogant and childish, but these are the results when “you put di carriage in fron ah di Mule”. You get confused and frustrated until you mek youself and adda people act like wah (Donkey), sarry, wah Jackass. At the end of the day, we di “Have Not’s” of Belize are the ones to suffer, while the “Jackasses Bread are buttered on both sides. Unu please noh forget all di corruptions and crazy spending of our Tax dollars ok?
I am very dissappointed as many other concern Belizeans for the Prime Minister to express his ignorance in such a manner on the media. It tells how narrow minded he is. Not much to say, but have hime continue to dig their own graves!
Now we get to see where his son Shane or whatever his name is get the bad attitude from, they all think they are above others.
i’m ashamed to have a prime minister like dean barrow
Sad but understood. I would not have spoken as such but I myself find it hard to respect Musa after he signed that secret bond. yet the pm need to learn temperance in order to be objective and deal with the matter at hand. He is operating from a grudge – one that can only eat away at his own arrogance and pride.
I am torn!
I like my PM, however I appall his behavior, and as for Said Musa……….no comment!
Lord help us when election time……I almost want to give up my right to vote in Belize – two peas of the same pod I have lost hope in our system…these Honorable men and everything but Honorable…if you would only know how much it saddens me that our country is left to choose either the crips or the bloods…..wailing (for dramatic effect)
Embarrassed to be a Belizean under a Prime Minister like that!!!!!! He acts so immature. I can’t believe his ignorance.
there is a saying, “talk to the mirror and it will answer you with the truth’ lol who is the real j? that does not bear importance, now if an apology comes out he would get more sympathizers to err is human not to acknowledge is not to have b++++ as a certain mayor puts it? lol
Agree with the comments posted. Our Prime Minister does not have any respect. He unfold his ignorance and maliciousness of which he is full of himself. I cannot say “hope he realize what he said in the House of Representatives and apologize”, because I will be wasting my time and don’t expect to any better from him. The crude fact is that a referendum should be called and get the voices from the Belizean people to have an early general election, or perhaps is time Belizeans proceed to give him some of his own medicine by means of “Civil Unrest”.
I am not left or right wing, but you barrow as a leader show know that the quality of a leader is reflected in the standards that you set for yourself. If insults were sugar, every donkey in the same house as this paragon of overconfidence jackasses would lose their teeth within two minutes.
Half of Belize would agree with you that Musa is the reason Belize is still spinning backwards today, he is everything that’s wrong with Belize: Won’t ever admit he was wrong about anything (and will lie repeatedly rather than correct himself), Musa Has never engaged in a valid exchange of great ideas in his entire career, but that is not the point here.
The point is to try to work together to make a great Belize for the people, instead of coming off as a scared child with a microphone. You did not win the fight, Musa did not win the fight, and the people will suffer.
I am no longer awed by the leaders of that country……
Look a lot of things have been said between politicians and believe me they will come together and laugh it off over a glass of whisky and have feast over some very expensive meal while you and i sit here a bicker about it. All this does is divide us as a people that is what the rich do when the poor man has nothing on his table to eat but quarrel over what the politicians say. That is one of the ways we are divided as a people. It is the shame bs just different pile. Both parties are doing NOthing for Belize other than getting rich getting richer and the poor, poorer suppression us with whatever they can do to be in control. And as for you Linsdale yes Mr. Barrow is a blackman but people like in the other party has been selling our country right under our nose- that is serious problems my friend they dont even invest the money they steal in Belize they have it all saved up somewhere far from Belize. But if you want to make color an issue my friend go back where you came from. What Barrow said was indeed inapprioriate, yes he is an exceptional lawyer but quite a lousy leader no doubt but black has nothing to do with that. Principles, they dont know what it is to be poor. They dont know what it is not being able to provide at least one meal for your child. They dont know what it is to want to give your child the best education but due to financial constraints it is almost impossible and to make sure that we dont be as educated as their kids are they ensure that we dont get the adequate education and that is for both parties. Neither of them has help alleviate poverty and try to ensure that our generation is properly educated and some of them arent black. So tell me what black has to do with it. Coming back when Barrow is out is not the solution to the problem maybe it is because you are one of the few that benefits under the other one, then you see it that way but those living here under both administration knows better.
When I saw the childish behavior of our Prime Minister, “Hon Dean Barrow” in the House of Representative sitting, it was a disgrace to the Belizean people. It is now positively clear that the ultimate leaders of the United Democratic Party are very arrogant. Then we wonder why crime and violence is not decreasing in our communities, because all of this will transcend onto the wider population, which will stimulate more crime and violence. There is now a need for “Political Reform” on the way our leaders speak to each other in a house sitting. Again “real issues” were not debated in the house of Representative sitting, simply because the ruling party continuously strayed away to downgrade themselves.
He lost my repect for him and my vote
Of all territories in the Caribbean, Belize is know for being the country with the “dirty mouth”. Just listen to your surroudings, normal everyday conversations are laced with profanities and we even find it cute and entertaining when little kids are mouthing off profanities.
Even though I think the PM could have used a better choice of words, it is very hypocritical for us to get our knickers in a twist over this issue.
We should be annoyed by bad language evertyime, all the time and do something to change it.
INTERESTING HOW CHILDISH THE ARGUMENTS ARE IN BLEIZE. LANGUAGE AND BAD PROPER ENGLISH DOES NOT MAKE OR SOLVE ANY PROBLEMS. THE PROBLEMS ARE CAUSED BY THE ACTIONS OF PERSONS OR THE LACK OF ACTIONS OF PERSONS IN CHARGE TO SOLVE THE VERY REAL PROBLEMS. SINCE THE BEGINING OF TIME PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS USED QUOTES OR PARTS OF SPEACHES AS ARGUMENTS TO THE PUBLIC.
I am a UNDP, but now i am ashame of how dean barrow behave in the house. he doesnt even deserve to be called PM but is dean barrow. he is very disrespectful, who he thinks he is, maybe he thinks he is the boss of the belizean people. he is very wrong, maybe he is the boss of his cabinet but not Belizeans. When he used the “jack” word in the house, its only this silly ministers that applauded and bang the tables. they thought dean barrow said something amazing. Mien its so shamefully.
Now he is saying the Belizean people must make sacrifices, Damn he is so wrong, why dont his government makes sacrifices? decrease ministers and minister drivers salaries, make them use less fuel. dont allow certain public officers use government vehicles for personal things to go to chetumal and so on. address these things dean barrow
Very intersting but i think theres no to fight we as Belizean just need a solution this problem better we become a nother states of America cause we got no Man with the ability to move the country forward all we got here is thieves in the National house.
Mr. Prime Minister, you shamed your nation with your filthy words. Let me remind you that is not only locally you are being heard but worldwide. how can you be so insane by acting in such uncivilized form. Please stop these bully comments on the house and give some respect to us as a nation cause honestly i dont think the belizean people appreciate it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As for everyone being so embarrased about this, there is so much more you should be embarrassed about. This behavior is typical in many parliaments. Check out YouTube videos on House of Commons meetings in Great Britain.
I believe the crimes in Belize is cause by poverty and lock of education. When I was in school in Belize, in all my classes, was 5% boys. Many of the males in the country drop out of school by the eight grade and in some cases before the eight grade. Education plays a major importance part in our lives, from the way we think to the decisions we make. With out education in make it even harder to reach our maximum goals or for our dreams to come true. Lock of education also limits the jobs qualification. My suggestion would be for the government to install rules and regulation that will make in mandatory and at the same time affordable for all school age people to be in school until at least 17 years of age. When you read the news paper or the web news, you can see that 99% of the crimes is from you ignorant men who drop out of school.
Yes, I must agree with most of the comments I read here. They say you don’t know what the situation is like until you are in it. Yes, our Prime Minister may be wrong in many ways, but should not be condemned totally for his mistakes. We are all humans and we all make mistakes. Everyone deserves a chance in life, even if they make a mess of it. I am sure the past leaders do look back now and wished they would have done some things better for Belize. But it is too late now. Our past leaders did much more mistakes that is costing us a lot right now. But obviously, no one wants to look back at the trend to see where the problems actually started. To you Hon. Dean Barrow: Don’t try to fix what is all broken up. Don’t mend things of the past administration that is going to cost the country in a year of bad economy. Raising taxes and getting ignorant will not solve the problems. There is a lot of people working in your administration, that are making a mess and doing this wrongly that you are not aware of. You need to be making changes in your offices, not raising taxes.
I disagree with your statement Shelly.Belize got the highest literacy rate in this region.
Response to Shelly Godoy’s statement. Shelly, to me that excuse is a crutch for the idiots to think that yes,” we are criminals because of poverty”. Very small changes has been done to the economy of Belize since Colonial days. I can tell you though, that our country has more educated people in our country than there are jobs, “Same old same-O”. According to reports lately, Toledo is one of the poorest district throughout Belize, but in my view crime is at it’s lowest level in Toledo. As a matter of fact, crimes are low through-out the Southern Districts (The Forgotten South) and through-out the entire country of Belize. We in the “Forgotten South” are living in poverty since Jesus Christ was a boy, so we don’t know anything about recession ok. I can tell you, that the Judicial System is also failing our citizens, along with the disgraceful performance of our educated eleceted members of the House of Representative. Shell, “Charity begins at home”, just remember that. We just have to pray and ask GOD to help us change or let HIM change it for us. The Devil is working overtime Shelly. The evil that men do don’t live after them no more, it live with them”.
Come on the way the Prime Minister behaved at the house is a shame ,I don’t think we Belizeans can call him honourable any more,because the way he acted the words he used at the house meeting is disrespectful and I give thanks to the honourable Said Musa that he did not use an obsene language in return ,and that the cabinet was in support is a real shame to all of them ministers of gov’t {UDP] – who represent their constituency.The Prime Minister should give an apology to the nation of Belize,but what can we expect from a gov’t that has accepted the remarks of Mr.Wilfred Elrington when he said that our border with Guatemala is ARTIFICIAL at the OAS, even tho the nation demanded to reprimand him,or resign as foreign Minister,he really don’t have respect for any of us Belizeans, another shame for us Belizeans,how many more can we handle!
This is the worst that I have ever seen among our local parliamentarians. My fiancee was once a politician and he never behaved in such manner. Again ones behaviour tells alot abouts ones self. I think thats who Dean Barrow is and nothing can change that. It just so sad though that he represents us intelligent Belizeans.
I say to all my fellow Belizean, be good observers and come election 2013 you should be able to make your decision for the next government.
I just wish that they would stop for a moment to listen and look at themselves and not repeat the same mistakes as they all are doing now. but try and turn a new page. It seem as though when parliament meets at the house there are always targets to the past government. We are going backward instead of forward.
That comment from the Prime Minister at the house meeting{jakass} especially in a cabinet meeting is embarassing to the nation and the region at a whole,because it was aired all around the world ,i think that if he’s not prepared to lead our Nation he should resign, he should’t take his anger\arrogance upon our Nation\people ,Belize is well known to be friendly but the word spoken by Mr.Dean Barrow [he’s really a disgrace to Belize] I believe he is setting the example to others,where is the respect? how can we expect crime to stop if the Prime Minister is giving the example on how to behave,he should be finding a solution to our crime situation which is out of control and what about unemployment, roberies,nepotism, coruption,{continues to rise } he’s just enriching himself \family cronies and not giving a damd if we Belizeans have for eat or not- I wonder where are the real posibilities he promised,what he’s been saying in the media about things getting better is a real lie ,and all that campaign ,imagine the posibilities is a waste of time to even see.Health? we go at the hospitals and there is no medication the doctor just gives u prescription and u go buy it at the farmacy, even to take a blood sample we have to pay $20.00 now, I took my mother in Orange Walk Northern hospital and thats what they charged…..and like he said things will get WORST and i don’t expect nothing to get better under the UDP- GOV’T
The Prime Minister will make Belize look like an uncivilized nation. Seems to me that the “Honorable” Dean Barrow cannot take any criticism. He was elected in a very democratic manner and he should remember that anyone is allowed to criticize the govt., no matter how wrong they might be, but is their right as a citizen to criticize the govt. if they want to. Barrow wants to run Belize like a dictatorship. I hope the Belizeans throw him out of ofice. What a disgace and embarrassment to the whole country.
I congatulate News5 for adding this section in the net so we can express ourselves,because at the radio staions ,if we call to complain about what is going on with this Dean Barrow adimistration they just cut us off the air,we all have a right to speak and question our leaders without being victimised or reprimanded for espressing our cocerns,looks like Belize is going from a free state to a dictator state,we can’t complain and not even question our leaders,we see the example with Minister Juan Coy’s \Mr. Bartolo Teul’s case.
Please check the statistic with the people committing the crimes. How many of them finish high or even finish the 8th grade.
I am not talking about the amount of Belizeans that want to school but about the people committing the crimes. How many of them finishes school. Most of the Belizeans I know is literate. The Belizeans that I know who is uneducated are men. Even now in Belize the class rooms is 80% girls.
I think more people need to step out and support the Prime Minister.
1. Musa is in no position to condem Dean (look back at former administration’s activities for reference.)
2. Yes, the PUP found funds, but covertly took them from other govt funds and covered up all! At least proposing taxes is a LEGITIMATE way to pay off debts.
3. Barrow should not have shown his arrogance. That didn’t help the situation especially with so much crime, the country needs a level headed leader.
5. Barrow should go back to the people and tell them that the taxes are only an austerity measure, and he will try to find a solution so he can bring back down the taxes within a year or two.
There are many poor and un-educated people living in Belize today, and while only a portion of those poor, and un-educated people commit the most crimes in Belize, most of the poor and un-educated people do not commit crimes, they choose to be law abiding citizens. Criminal behaviour is a matter of choices.
More than 90% of the crimes committed in Belize are done by a small portion of the poor and un-educated men and that is the sad fact of the reality, but to say that crimes are committed because the people are poor and un-educated is not true, that is the classical approach to confront the criminal behavior, and does not help to solve the problem.
Most of the crimes are pre-meditated; this gives the criminal time to think about the crime, the daily news proved that the criminal chose to do the act, thus, Criminal behaviour is a matter of choices.
What about in the rest of the world?
Who are the people that are guilty of genocides?
while many of us are poor and uneducated we got to change both partyies mein !!!! we need a new leader!!!!! people please stand up educate! educate! we need to see changes in this beautiful country!!!!we put them there an we can take them out power to the people!!!! people we are the reason they are there lets educate ourselve and others !!!! lets make a differrence that we are not fools anymore!!!!
You can take the pig out of the sty, but not the sty out of the pig. Barrow is a perfectly example of this saying. Enough said
I’m an avid reader. If anyone is interested, the book is A thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Housseni. the comment is on page 127. …Kite RUnner is another good Afghan novel… Is there any political meaning behind it though? An Afghan quote used against a Palestinian (Musa).