Promises, Promises! But opposition says U.D.P. promises empty

When the United Democratic Party won in 2008, the twenty-one pledges in the party’s manifesto played an important role in the landslide victory. Briceño punched many holes in that manifesto since he sees most of the pledges as nothing but empty promises three years later.

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition

John Briceño

“Sadly this budget will be known for all time as the empty pot budget. It offers nothing to Belizeans by way of hope and has no plan for lifting our nation out of crisis. This time the Prime Minister does not even bother to boast about his stimulus package. Last year’s empty motto of “Recovery Today, Prosperity Tomorrow” seems more like an insult to the struggling, overburdened taxpayers of Belize. The U.D.P. promise to create five thousand new jobs. Where are those new jobs? The fact is that between 2008 and 2010, unemployment almost doubled. The U.D.P. promised to produce six percent G.D.P. growth annually. And yet today the Prime Minister is happy to say that after three years he is satisfied with an honest growth of two point four percent. Last year, the Prime Minister promised poor Belizeans a meager six million dollars in relief in its Capital II expenditure of which four million dollars was to be used for the conditional cash transfer programme, a million in food assistance and another million for the apprenticeship program. Of course these were all just empty promises. Solo palabras que son dulces para un nino ampriento. The Prime Minister in his speech last two weeks ago said, accordingly we will continue to make impregnable, the ramparts guarding the poor and the marginalized. This government repeats with no apology and indeed with much pride that our pro poor programs are the centerpiece of our social campaign. Ramparts guarding poor Belizeans Mister Speaker? Well here is the impregnable truth. Feeding the poor; the Prime Minister promised last year that he would spend a million dollars for a food pantry program and all he spent was a shameful ten thousand dollars. Apprenticeship Program; he promised to spend one million on the apprenticeship program. Well of that only a meager fifty thousand dollars of that was actually spent. Conditional cash transfer; he promised four million dollars and the poor got a stingy thirty thousand dollars. Of the six million promised to help the poor, the prime Minister spent less than one hundred thousand dollars. Are Belizeans to accept these words as fancy and sincere when faced with the unshakeable truth that of a proposed six million dollars to help the poor, this Prime Minister and this U.D.P. Administration can only offer the one hundred and forty eight thousand poor Belizeans ninety thousand dollars or less than two percent of what they promised to invest. Five cents, imagine five cents for each man, woman and child. Five cents can’t even buy wah sweet. Shame, there is suppose to be a shame Mister Speaker. Shame on you for trying to fool the Belizean people with your fancy seductive words and your unfulfilled promises.”

We’ll have more on the debate in the House later in the newscast.