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Self-preservation as motivation

EditorialSelf-preservation as motivation

Entitled “Of Criminals and CEOs”, the article is in the magazine’s science section and contends that narcissistic personality disorder, known as NPD, afflicts some of society’s most successful members. Bold, creative visionaries in the world of politics as well as in business are as likely to show the traits associated with the personality disorder – grandiosity, lack of empathy, and exploitativeness – as criminals and psychiatric patients.
–    pg. 155, DINNER WITH MUGABE, by Heidi Holland, Penguin Books, 2008

To understand where we are at this newspaper in December of 2017, you have to go back to what happened in late July of 2004. The ruling People’s United Party (PUP), which this newspaper had basically supported in its 1998 and 2003 general election campaigns, was hit by a major Social Security Board (SSB) financial scandal, which caused a massive public outcry. The SSB scandal was quickly followed by a Development Finance Corporation (DFC) scandal. Separate inquiries into both the SSB and DFC essentially established that Belize’s public finances had run into unprecedented problems, to put it very, very mildly.

Now one of the reasons why Kremandala has never sought to include itself in the administrations of ruling political parties which we had supported in their relevant campaigns, is precisely so that when serious problems arise in that administration, we do not have to endorse incompetence, irregularities, or outright corruption, because endorsing such would lead to our losing our precious credibility as a newspaper and media house. It is because of our credibility that we have survived and grown over our 48-year history. We treasure that credibility.

Now, we have to go back further in history. Kremandala affiliates’ participation in general elections in 1974 and 1989 (Evan X Hyde in Collet in 1974 and Rufus X  in Belize Rural North in 1989) established that there was a small bloc of voters, about  4 percent, who supported Kremandala position and programs above the equivalent positions and programs presented by the PUP and the United Democratic Party (UDP). A small voter bloc of 4 percent, once it is a solid bloc, can be influential in close general elections.

It was no doubt for that reason that high-ranking leaders of the PUP, who had lost the June 30, 1993 general election, approached the chairman of Kremandala, who had retired from electoral politics twice before, in 1974 and in 1977, for him to return to electoral politics as the PUP chairman in Lake I. Clearly, those PUP leaders felt that the aforementioned 4 percent bloc would be of political value to them.

It was out of that process of consultation with the Kremandala chairman, perhaps we should say tangentially, that his second son, Cordel Hyde, ended up winning the PUP Lake I chairmanship convention in 1994, and again in 1996. The Kremandala chairman returned to Partridge Street, even when Cordel Hyde won the Lake I seat and became a Cabinet Minister in the 1998 and 2003 PUP governments.

The saga of Cordel Hyde and his brother-in-law, Mark Espat, hit headline news when they were two of seven PUP Cabinet Ministers who challenged Prime Minister Said Musa in August of 2004 where the handling of public finances under his Finance Minister, Ralph Fonseca, was concerned. For his stand of principle, Mark Espat paid the price of his powerful Tourism Ministry: he was fired from Cabinet in late December of 2004, whereupon Cordel Hyde resigned from Cabinet in solidarity with his G-7 colleague.

The two men returned to Cabinet in late 2005, but were both fired from Cabinet in May of 2007 because of their refusal to support P.M. Musa on the weird and controversial Universal Health Services (UHS) issue. A bunch of developments subsequently occurred, including the landslide PUP defeat by the UDP in the February 2008 general election, the resignation from PUP leadership by Rt. Hon. Said Musa immediately afterwards, and the election of John Briceño, supported by Mark Espat and Cordel Hyde, in a convention to decide PUP leadership in March of 2008.

Many notable events have taken place in the Opposition PUP since then, but we will have to skip these for the time being. The point of this essay is that when the UDP came to office in February of 2008, now Prime Minister Dean Barrow considered the Zinc Fence to be his friend. This is documented.

It is impossible to pinpoint when Mr. Barrow’s opinion of Kremandala changed, but it is for sure that the atmosphere became hostile during the Citizen Kim/Elvin Penner immigration scandal in September of 2013. To a certain extent, the fact that Cordel Hyde, now National Deputy Leader of the PUP, and Kremandala are now in exactly the same boat where UDP antagonism is concerned, is somewhat coincidental. There is no denying, however, that blood is blood.

Since 2013, the attacks on Kremandala by the Barrow administration have been devastating. It is possible that in the beginning, all Mr. Barrow wanted to do was to put his UDP media systems – Guardian newspaper, WAVE Radio, and WAVE Television, on a solid financial footing, and obviously, as Minister of Finance, he was in a position to do so. And he did so do. There are individuals connected with these UDP media enterprises who have become ostentatiously wealthy during their three terms, and their enrichment was noticeably taking place during these last four, five years, when Kremandala was beginning to lose jobs and having to downsize. It was not that Kremandala’s credibility had been reduced, or that the UDP media systems had become credible and popular with the Belizean people. After all, the UDP media systems were, by definition, forced to regurgitate the UDP government’s sick propaganda line, which is already being publicized by the Government Press Office. Whatever was going on, UDP media systems flourished, and Kremandala struggled to survive.

Well now, it does appear that there will be national municipal elections in 9 or 10 weeks, and Kremandala’s self-interest lies in the area of sending a message to the monarchical Mr. Barrow and his UDP. The weeks ahead will feature Guardian/WAVE face to face versus Kremandala. We are unapologetic about our self-interest, because all the evidence indicates that Mr. Barrow has seriously harmed our businesses, and the suggestion is that he intends our destruction.

So then, from our standpoint, the issue this March 7 will be a simple, clear-cut one for Belizean voters: do you believe Guardian/WAVE or do you believe Kremandala? Let’s roll the dice. The fact that what would benefit Cordel Hyde and the PUP insofar as the March 2018 municipal results are concerned, would surely also benefit Kremandala, is being manipulated by UDP propagandists to tell their people that Kremandala is controlled by the PUP. Fair enough. The UDP faithful will vote for the UDP, come hell or high water. The Belizeans we are concerned about are our traditional four percent, to whom we will say: remember 1979 and its aftermath; remember 1984 and the aftermath; remember 1998 and 2003, and then remember 2004 …

Yes, we have self-interest in the March 2018 election. It’s about self-preservation. There is a role that Partridge Street has played here for the last 48 years, and the Belizean people and history will judge whether that role has been beneficial for Belize or negative for Belize. Yes, we are a minority entity, and whereas minorities are bottom line irrelevant in Belize’s first-past-the-post electoral system, it is because Kremandala has played a notable role in Belize since 1969 that we have earned the support we have received. That popular support has had value for specific party politicians, from time to time .

It is unfortunate that in December of 2017 self-preservation has to play such a significant role in our thinking. Mr. Barrow has made it so that we have no other choice. Continued power has led to surpassing hubris in the minds of the UDP leaders. The weeks ahead will be dangerous ones for Kremandala, because Belize has become a near lawless society. Those who are in political power can do as they please, and with impunity, and the Belizean people have seen enough evidence of this to appreciate the present crisis in our constitutional democracy. We feel we have to send a message to those on high.

Power to the people.

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