Prime Ministers Forum; 30 years as 3 leaders take the stage

Said Musa, Dean Barrow & Manuel Esquivel

But shortly at the Bliss, a Prime Minister’s forum gets underway. It is a first of a kind organized by the Institute for Social and Cultural Research.  It is also a rare and unique event because we have hardly seen three heads of government on the same platform to reflect about nationhood. News Five’s Jose Sanchez has a report.

Jose Sanchez, Reporting

The Prime Minister Forum, a first of its kind will have three of Belize’s Prime Ministers: Dean Barrow, Said Musa and Manuel Esquivel; sitting on stage at the Bliss while discussing nationhood.

Nigel Encalada

Nigel Encalada, Director, Institute for Cultural and Social Research

“Mister Price will not be able to attend; however, we have confirmed the participation of the other three—the two former prime ministers and the current prime minister. And so what we are asking them to do is to reflect on Belize’s experience with independence over the past thirty years. To perhaps also reflect on the values that have motivated them to become involved and to indeed what has brought them to the point of becoming the highest elected officials in the country. Make projections; lay out their vision for Belize in the next thirty years. So it’s a sort of a nation building activity; it’s not a debate. It is something where we’ve asked them to make genuine reflection to the nation of Belize. And so we’re looking forward to it being a first of its kind activity, an event that inspire the people and the nation of Belize to begin to think about what the solutions are to the question of nation building.”

And though George Cadle Price, Belize’s first Prime Minister will not be in attendance, a video presentation featuring Price will be showcased at the event.

George Price, Former Prime Minister

George Price

“We were a party—no one individual can do it, we had to be a party. And that was the beginning of the party system and it had to be a party representing everybody. It can’t be a school. We made the mistake by going there as an alumni association. You can’t build a party just on a school; it has to be all the people. And so we began working on that and we brought everybody especially the poor people and the down and out people—those are the people that we had to get in and thank God we succeeded in that.”

Jose Sanchez

“It’s hard not to ignore that our national development has only come with those who have affiliated themselves with parties and every five years, if a party changes that development then starts from scratch. It is hard not to ignore or ask them to accept responsibility for what hasn’t happened or what has been constantly been starting over.”

Nigel Encalada

“Well this is the; when a person aspires to participate in the political system; it is part of the structures that are in place for governance. So it is hard to separate the two. However, part of the forum also asks about challeng4es. Because I have never had the opportunity to be prime minister and indeed I would suspect that it is not an easy job though people would expect readymade solutions to these things. So what we are asking them to do then is to reflect on what those achievements or challenges are or were.”

The event, expected to run from seven to nine, will be moderated by Dylan Vernon.  Reporting for News Five, Jose Sanchez.

Immediately after the newscast we will be carrying the Prime Minister’s Forum, which is one of the big ticket items in this year’s celebrations.