American Bar Association considers rule of law in Belize
oscar ramjeet
At the end of this week, the Supreme Court begins its summer recess. As it heads into its six week break, uncertainty and instability are hanging over the Justice sector. The PM and the Bar Association are still publicly at odds over the process of appointing the next Chief Justice. Last week, the government advertised the job in the local papers to replace current CJ, Abdulai Conteh. The most senior judge in line was last year confronted by the Bar for delays in the delivery of his judgments. Another judge on secondment from the Commonwealth Secretariat will be departing Belize at the end of the year. Last week the Bar objected to the contents of an article authored by the Solicitor General, Oscar Ramjeet, on the retirement of the CJ. The article was circulated in media outlets in the Caribbean and the Bar corrected what it noted were inaccuracies coming from the SolGen. The new Attorney General, BQ Pitts, has been completely silent about any plans for the judiciary. Then there is Elizabeth Purcell, an English barrister handpicked to lead prosecutions in the new fast-track court, who abruptly returned to England last week. The worsening state of affairs in the criminal justice sector and the perception of executive interference in the judiciary have apparently gotten the attention of the United States. There is a report that the American Bar Association is considering a Rule of Law Initiative in Belize and is currently advertising for a country director. Details on what all is involved in this initiative are still sketchy, but we’ll follow-up.
I hope they get the fast track court up & running soon. Hopefully our leaders will have the strength to accept constructive criticism, take advice & move in a positive direction. Full disclosure about attorneys fees & forfeiture if their client cannot prove that it came from a legitimate source is a start.
Wouldn’t that be loverly. Wonder how long they’d actually stay before being run out of the country.
The Belize Bar Association needs to develop some cojones regarding what is happening now — and they also need to do some research on the meaning of conflicts of interest.
And public service.
see i told you asbout this pm he is in love with obama now he is letting the us tell us belizeans how to run our country guess he already sold out his country to obama if the us cares about belize at all where is their help with equiptment for the police or training or anything guess they want to just come take over belize since we cannot defent ourselves why dont they go to venezuela and try to do that there ill tell you why because chavez has balls hope we dont find oil in belize then we gone fu sure more selling out of belize by this gov sad sad sad,even russia has helped nicaragua and demanded nothing in return .
Rod, for our Country and Citizens sake, I hope to God that you’re wrong my friend. This is a low blow to our Judicial Officials and it’s a damn shame. We as Belizeans need assistance in different areas, especially in leadership alright. Why the hell did we ever become an Independent Nation. It is now obvious that we have had and still do have Educated Fools (Politicians) to run and destroy our country. U.S. History in assisting any foreign countrys has proven that America has not given anything for nothing. This comment coming from you is very scary to me. First they proposed to hire the former California Police Chief to fix the violent crime epidemic in Belize and now this situation with U.S. consideration of a “Rule Of Law Initiative” in our country by the American Bar Association?. Come on, I can also smell something in the air and it’s not Belizean Breeze my friends.!!!!
Next thing you know America sending in their army to use our people as Target Practice, come on people who are bringing our Country down – THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS LOOKING ON AND SEEING WHAT IS GOING ON, THEY WILL NEVER LET BELIZE COME TO ANY CIVIL UNREST BECAUSE THAT WILL MEAN A LOT OF CITIZEN WILL BE ASKING FOR POLITICAL ASYLUM WHICH WILL NOT BE GIVEN TO US. “WISE UP OUR YOUNGSTERS WHO ARE DOING SENSELESS KILLING, MANY OF YOU ARE DEPORTEES AND HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO GO.’
Belizeans, the only solution for our mounting problems is: knowledge——knowledge——–knowledge; think about this before you react. I don’t believe everything in the Bible in the context that most fundamentals accept the Bible, but I do believe the quotation in its literal interpretation that say: my people die for a lact of knowledge; further quotation fom the Bible: where there is no vision the people perish. Knowledge, whether its proper political management or other— translate into success; and I don’t mean only financial success. Remember folks, knowledge—–education, is a continual process, because what is relivant today will become absolite in a relatively short time. To prove my point, just look at the computer that has become a driving force in societies across the globe.
I commend channel 5 for providing this forum to get feedback on issues from the public, but judging from the quality of the response its obvious that most of the respondents are lacting in good mental skills.
This is a new low for our country and this current government. I feel sad that our Sovereignty is being threatened. Of course the USA would welcome this opportunity, as already mentioned America will only do this if it is beneficial to them. There is no such thing as altruism. If the US wanted to offer assistance they could have done so in many other forms but the judiciary.
As a leader of a sovereign country, I would like to know I have the judiciary, the police force, the army, the banks, schools and hospitals working and on my side. You start losing these and you’re in trouble. What bothers me is that the leaders in Belize seem to be asleep. None, absolutely no country on this planet would willingly hand over there their judiciary to foreign hands. Let face it, with won’t be a partnership, they’ll be in charge. Anywhere else, the people would be on the streets, but not in Belize. They are so naive that they will go along with anything this government put forward.
In 1981 we were granted independence from Britain. Let face it, the UK was busy giving independence to all their colonies, as they no longer wanted them. It was costing them, so even if we weren’t ready or wanted it, we would have been given independence. If however at that time oil were discovered in Belize then the matter would have probably been different. As you see they kept on to the Falkland Island territory several thousands miles away from mainland Britain for two reasons, they are white British descendants and they had oil. They actually went to war with Argentina to keep the Falklands. We had nothing they wanted.
But I believe that they found oil in the country recently? And guess what, the US estimated the world’s oil supply would be depleted by 2062. USA would be looking for their energy supply from somewhere else beginning now. These people think long term, unlike us Belizean who thinks about today only. They think about their next generation, make forecast and projections, for the greater good of their country. Our leaders think about their term in office no long-term vision where we wanted to be in 2020, 2030, and 2040? Therefore what may seem pretty benign on the surface may have further implication beyond just helping the people of Belize with their current problems.
This is a conspiracy theory, and may be controversial but plausible.
THE UDP has/is disappointing US. They promised us so much more when PUP was in. NOW…. IT’S MORE OF THE SAME. Where do we turn?????????????????
earl gray we turn to revolution my friend just look honduras had the balls to get rid of their president why we belizeans cant do the same take him fly him to washinton where he can follow obama around looking at him in awe they talked about musa looking at fidel in awe but at least he wasnt giving away the country this pm looks at obama in awe and is giving away the country i smell a revolution brewing belizeans whey uno need fu wake up marley said get up stand up stand up for your rights .
Can we areally learn from a justice system that let go OJ simpson free after committing the murders, they let go Michael Jackson and they let go Kobe…… come on the street thug gets jailed while the multimillionaire star gets away thats how their system works…
PLUS EVERYONE SUE’S THE HELL OUT OF EVERYONE ELSE.
oo by the way i hope news5 the best in belize is getting all these post to this useless gov . post all comments on your live broadcast so all belizeans can see.
I agree with the comment that Belize is a sovereign country & the American Bar may be intervening for less than altruistic reasons. We may want to consider that some of the same concerns that we have expressed are forcing America to look closely at what we are doing. After oil was discovered in Belize there was an article in the Los Angeles Times. Great. The rest of us from Belize could only wring our hands & hang our heads in shame & disbelief as we watched the wells being named in memory of someone’s relative, the battle over drilling rights & who gets theirs off the top & the Zabanehs went from having the ability to have the government take people’s land through eminent domain & turning it over to them to now controlling our oil. We were fed the BS line that they wanted a Belizean company controlling our assets. Whatever the final resolution was, the Belizean people still ended up getting shortchanged. I am not sure where the money came from to create a pedestrian friendly Albert Street; it is beautiful but unsafe, day or night. There is no point in rehashing conversations about what was done with the money donated by Venezuela for housing or any of the other stupid things we did that showed how corrupt & incompetent our leaders are/were since the discovery of oil.
Late last year, 4 ‘Somalis’ were apprehended as they walked along Northern Highway, none had passports & told a whopper of a tale. The story was in March or April’s Amandala. These four men asked for asylum only after they were picked up. We have no way of verifying anything they said & many of the countries they passed through did not share a border, let’s not forget the Atlantic separates the U.A.E. & this hemisphere. None of us know if, when or how this situation was resolved . Despite these men’s stories about their lives being in jeopardy if they are deported back their country & if their government found out where they were, their families would be at risk, why Belize, Brazil is booming, U.A.E. is prosperous, we are being played for suckers & they counted on us not having the resources & desire to investigate. Who are these men & where did they come from really?
Cruise ships are now coming into our ports & this week there was a story about selling the port to a Turkish company. A real government employee was arrested for taking a bribe & failing to deliver the real fake documents for which she was paid. The person who bribed her, turned her in. The question that no one can answer is how many false documents are out there in the hands of “Belizeans”. We do not want Belize to become or appear to be the weak link in the chain because of lawlessness, corruption & indifference. What assurances do the citizens of Belize have that a “tourist” entering our country under one name cannot board an airplane & be in the U.S. or parts unknown within hours with “our” help & our documents in hand.
If the American Bar can help us strengthen DPP as they use it as a cover to keep an eye on what is going on, we backed ourselves into this corner. As frustrated as most of us are with the imbalance of the skill sets between our prosecutors & the defense attorneys & our police department’s incompetence, we cannot lose sight of the message we are now sending to the rest of the world. We can align ourselves with the Arabs, Chavez, Castro or the Americans & have them hose us down with our own oil or be invaded by Guatemala & see how much worse life will be when Guatemalans & Mexicans start fighting over control of our country & its oil. There are a lot worse things than American interference.
I have been upgraded.
But on a very serious note. BZNinCALI, very balance arguement and you make some valid points.