P.U.P. launches culture manifesto
It’s no secret that the People’s United Party has been under attack for several years due to major scandals involving U.H.S., D.F.C., S.S.B., Mahogany Heights, various land grabs and assorted shady deals involving Glenn Godfrey. But the one area where the P.U.P. has shined beyond reproach is that of cultural development. And today, with a younger post-modern Musa at the controls, the ruling party played heavily to that strength.
Yasser Musa, President, NICH
“We need to understand that our freedom of expression has to remain firm and we have to teach the next generation of artists that we today, on the eighteenth of January, accepted what our ancestors have given us and we want to pass that on. Free expression.”
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Under the theme “Culture is Cool”, this morning the People’s United Party announced that over the next five years, they plan to introduce African and Mayan history to tertiary level institutions, create a pension fund for veteran musicians and establish a financial support programme for budding artists.
Yasser Musa
“Now I might be a bit ambitious but I want to move forward and I know this crowd will move forward with me, that we need to start our fund with no less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“The African and Maya history programme is a revolution for our school system. We cannot expect that in three to four years we will address and adequately confront the mass mis-education that has occurred over the past one hundred and fifty years. We must insure that this model is firmly entrenched in the teacher education program of our university so that the future generations can benefit.”
“I know Leila and Lord Rhaburn, you are still young at heart but the Paul Nabors the Benjamin Nicholases all of these artists are in the twilight of their career. We cannot abandon them. What they have given us is so intangible and we have to pay respect to them and so we have to ensure that the state adequately supports them.”
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education and Culture
“Today our vision that we are presenting to you is larger than any political party, it is a vision for the cultural development, the cultural growth of Belize and it is, it is—it comes from the experience of hard work.”
But the boldest cultural campaign promise so far is a seven million dollar idea to buy laptop computers for the approximately thirty five thousand students in standard four to second form.
Francis Fonseca
“We think an absolutely worthwhile investment, all of us who have children…”
Janelle Chanona
“The machine would be theirs to keep?”
Francis Fonseca
“Theirs to keep, it’s a laptop for them and the important thing is loading the laptop with educational material, culturally relevant material so it’s all aimed at educating our kids in a culturally sensitive way.”
Yasser Musa
“And we are not saying that this laptop will be the end all of education. There is still the power of communication by the teacher. There is still the power of the book but what we are saying is that we cannot overlook how technology has taken over, how it has enveloped the lives of our young people. So it is the state’s mandate to make sure that a child in Cirque Sarco has the same opportunities to get a laptop as the child at Holy Redeemer or Corozalito.”
According to Musa, today’s presentation pre-empted the official launch of the P.U.P.’s 2008-2013 manifesto to spotlight the party’s plans for culture. But P.U.P. chairman Francis Fonseca is confident the electorate will like all their plans for the next five years.
Janelle Chanona
“As you prepare for the future, looking back would you say your party has achieved its manifesto promises of 2003 and going back to 1998 even?”
Francis Fonseca
“Yeah, actually I did a very comprehensive analysis of the work that we’ve done. I would say we’ve accomplished about eighty-five percent of the proposals that we put forward for 2003-2008. Others we’ve met half way and some we have not done at all because of other circumstances. But I feel very good. If people look at the record people would be able to say that the People’s United Party said they would do these things and they have done them for the most part. And I think when people generally look at our entire record, at the work over the last ten years but particularly the last five, yes there were tremendous challenges that we’ve faced and there were obviously mistakes that were made. I believe that if people look at the vision that we are setting out for the next five years and compare it with the other side, I think people will be willing to give the People’s United Party another opportunity to govern Belize.”
The PUP manifesto will be presented at the Bliss Centre at ten on Tuesday. Reporting for news Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
