Mark fires back at Luke, Winston and “Chief Crony”

Viewers of this broadcast are no strangers to the controversy swirling around recent elections for the board of the Corozal Free Zone. Ostensibly a fight over the rules governing proxy voting, the battle is in fact part of the growing war for the heart and soul of the People’s United Party. Today Minister Mark Espat for the first time publicly addressed his critics … and made it clear that he has no plans to retreat.

Mark Espat, Minister National Development
?I am absolutely comfortable that not only were the elections held according to the law but that they were free and fair and that they stand. The Prime Minister was made aware by me of the circumstances surrounding the elections and was absolutely supportive of the process, especially of ensuring that it was free and fair and reflected the will of the sixty-three percent of the investors who voted.?

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
?Minister I asked this question to your primary objectors at this point. Is this situation the result of a bunch of P.U.P.s backbiting each other for power??

Mark Espat
?Janelle the issue from the two individuals that appeared last week in the media is really not about the Corozal Free Zone. It is about where the People?s United Party is heading. It is about a small group, a minority but a loud, obnoxious at times, arrogant and I daresay gluttonous minority that feel that they have an entitlement to privilege and to power. Those two individuals, it is well known, are on a leash and their handler, the Chief Crony, trotted them out to attack me, because I am a problem. I am a problem because I am not prepared to conspire in order to ensure that a crony gets on the C.F.Z. board of directors. But that is not the oath that I took and that is not what the people of Albert expect to do. And I don?t believe that is what Prime Minister Said Musa expects me to do. So that is what the problem is. The problem is as Mr. Smiling said, about the old P.U.P. Well, the PUP lost the election on March the first of this year by an astounding sixty-four to three. It is the lowest point of the P.U.P. and I think I speak for tens of thousands of P.U.P. all over this country who would like to see a new start. Who would like to see the party come to grips with the mistakes and have that old P.U.P., Mr. Chief Crony and his small rabble of cronies who at times have hijacked the ship and led it down the wrong road have them admit that it is their policies that have gotten us to this state and be quarantined so that a new P.U.P. can emerge. One where it is not that we are declaring war on ministers who are trying to do their jobs according to the law, but that we declare war on poverty, we declare war on those Belizeans who do not have healthcare and who are not able to get into school and we provide better healthcare, education and security. That is the war we should be declaring. This make no mistake about it is an issue about the old P.U.P., who believe that the feeding frenzy can continue and about a new P.U.P., which I believe in which seeks to fulfil the aims and objectives of the party which is to serve in the best interest of all the people.?

Janelle Chanona
?As a part of that new P.U.P. that you speak of, how do you go about fixing this to come under one party to address those issues of poverty and such that you spoke of.?

Mark Espat
?That is the challenge for a political party that is at a crossroads. I believe our party is at a crossroads. It is at a crossroads, because its old ways can no longer work. And I don?t want to speculate about exactly how it will happen. It is a painful process by any measure. I know there are many P.U.P.s disaffected and disillusioned P.U.P.s who are saying why can?t my party change, why can?t my party renew itself. Why can?t it do what it promised to do, and so that process will be painful and it will be difficult. But I believe we better face it and we better face it now.?

In case you were wondering, Espat has confirmed that the Chief Crony he referred to is none other than Minister of Home Affairs Ralph Fonseca.