Courtenay says he will enter electoral politics
And while those political leaders were talking, so too were the new inductees into the former ministers club, a body whose membership yesterday doubled to a total of four. This afternoon John Briceño and Eamon Courtenay visited our studios where they individually explained to News Five’s Stewart Krohn why they did what they did and where they may be heading. We’ll lead off with Courtenay, who as Foreign Minister at a time when Belize seemed to be spreading its diplomatic wings, was reaching the peak of a distinguished career. Why did he resign when he apparently had everything to lose and little to gain?
Eamon Courtenay, Resigned as Foreign Minister
“Two things occurred to me yesterday morning when I found out what had happened in Belmopan whilst I was in Panama. Firstly, that the decision of the Prime Minister to demote the then Deputy Prime Minister John Briceño was something that I disagreed with fundamentally. I did not think that was a right decision. Secondly, my relationship with John Briceño, there was absolutely no way that I was going to stay in that Cabinet once John Briceño determined that he was not going to say. So both in terms of a bad decision by the Prime Minister in my view and an act of solidarity on my part with my friend and my colleague, there was no way I was going to stay. Stewart, nobody is indispensable and not only are we the chair of SICA, but we are the chair of COFCOR, the foreign ministers. And I was in Panama at that very time chairing a number of meetings along with colleagues from Canada. I was with Peter McCain the minister of Canada, as a matter of fact when the news came to me, I was at lunch, Condoleezza Rice was across the table and I could see that other ministers in that room had found out because obviously the ambassadors here were informing their ministers that things were happening in Belize. So there were a number of things that we were doing at that time when that happened. I am not indispensable, Belize has an excellent team of diplomats, an excellent team of foreign service officers, a very good team of foreign trade economists, and I believe that they will have to carry out the work forward. It is at a critical time, it is very unfortunate that it has happened at this time because there are a number of issues which require ministerial input, which requires political work, which requires experience, and I think Lisa is going to find it extremely challenging coming in at this time.”
Stewart Krohn
“You mentioned that the Prime Minister made a bad decision. What do you think possessed him to make that decision?”
Eamon Courtenay
“Stewart, I really don’t know and I wouldn’t want to speak for the Prime Minister. All I keep hearing is that it is as his reaction to John Briceño’s position on the U.H.S. thing, that once he indicated that he would not support the resolution before the House, that this was the Prime Minister’s response. That is what I hear, I don’t know. I will ask the Prime Minister.”
Stewart Krohn
“Don’t you find it odd that the Prime Minister in fact came around to that position, essentially admitting that the people who counselled him to withdraw the motion were right, but now it seems that they are being punished for giving him what turned out to be very good advice.”
Eamon Courtenay
“I don’t understand it. It’s a mystery to me and as I said, I hope he will be able to give an explanation to the nation, but also to me.”
Stewart Krohn
“Let’s look back for a minute, back to over nine years ago; the Musa administration comes in with a young promising team. How did it come to this? Did you ever imagine that what started out with such promise would have come to this end?”
Eamon Courtenay
“I don’t think any of us could foresee anything like this. I think we are all collectively disappointed at what has happened. I think we are all searching within ourselves to see whether any one of us individually or collectively did something wrong or did something right or shouldn’t have done thing. To bring up one of the most controversial points, the whole G7 issue, should the G7 have happened earlier? Should we have gone back into Cabinet? Should we have stayed out? I think these are things that we are looking at ourselves now and saying individually, “What should I have done?” But I will say to you Stewart, we have missed an opportunity to move this country forward in a significant way. We had an opportunity as a government under the leadership of our party, the Party Leader Said Musa, and I believe in my heart of hearts that we missed an opportunity; Belize should have been further forward. But I am an optimist, and I believe that we are going through extremely difficult times and that will pass and I believe that our party will form the government and our party will lead Belize along a different path. And that’s what we need, a different thinking, a different path, a different vision, and I am optimistic that that is going to happen.”
Stewart Krohn
“Along those lines, you are the only one out of the four former ministers who is not involved in electoral politics, you are an appointed Senator. You don’t have a constituency to go back to in the same sense that the other three essentially will have fulltime jobs for the next nine months trying to get re-elected. What does Eamon Courtenay do for the next nine months or next nine years for that matter?”
Eamon Courtenay
“Stewart, I quite frankly I will seriously consider entering electoral politics after the next election. I enjoy public service, I believe I have something to contribute to Belize, I believe that the P.U.P., looking the right way, doing the right things with the right people can move forward and I hope to be a part of that. I am excited, I have been looking at a couple constituencies and once the dust has settled after the next election, I will probably make a move.”
