GROUP OF THREE DISCUSSES GOOD GOVERNANCE

January 08, 2008

This afternoon, the Group of Three, as they call themselves, presented proposals for fixing the governance system in Belize.  According to the group, public consultation and public polls have showed that Belizeans are dissatisfied by the way we are governed.  The group is comprised of former senator Godwin Hulse, former Cabinet Secretary Henry Gordon, and C-E-O for the Belize Chamber of Commerce Kevin Herrera.  Godwin Hulse said that in order to address this situation in the country, three key area need attention; transparency, accountability and more people participation.

Godwin Hulse,former senator:

“And we felt that tax payers funds are to be used for the collective benefit of the people. Such funds are to be treated with the utmost respect and anyone who abuses or misuses such funds betrays the trust of the people and commits an offence against the people. Therefore, the custodians of the people’s assets and resources must account to the people in a timely manner for the stewardship of those assets and resources, and the people have a right and a duty to demand such accounting and to take appropriate action to secure it. Two, transparency; we believe that any business the government conducts, it conducts in the name of the people, therefore the people have a right to know the business being conducted in their name and it follows then that the people’s business must be conducted in the public’s domain and the people have a right to know, and we don’t have to be wrestling the government down to the ground to find out what are you doing in my name. and the third was people’s participation; we felt that the people respect the system of representative government, however, the people require these representatives to work in their best interest and to dialogue with the people on an ongoing basis in a process of making decisions. It follows then that the representatives must work with the people in determining the destiny of the people and therefore, the people have a right, a duty, and a responsibility to participate in making decisions that will affect their lives. If we subscribe to that, then it speaks to the need to have consultations when bills are being presented and to afford the time and space to do so, and to recognize the input of the people.”

Hulse added that what cripple the system of democracy and proper governance is the issue that the Government is run by a political party.

Godwin Hulse,former senator:

“We have a system of government not withstanding all the structures that is nothing more than a political party in power, true and simple because when we go to vote and we vote that representative, he or she who wins and goes to Belmopan and forms the House of Representatives on that 29 and soon to be 31 individuals who are discussing back and forth and fighting for the benefit of their constituency and doing all of this and therefore the Cabinet is on it’s toes because it doesn’t know if it’s going to get its way. No, no, no, you have representatives who are representatives of political party whose first loyalty is to the political party, who takes instructions from the political party and who does what the political party wants. The political party is with due respect to anybody within a political party. It’s nothing more than an organization, it doesn’t pay taxes but it’s a membership organization with one common goal, to capture the resources of the country, to manage it in a so-called magnanimous concept of the great and good of the people, but it has a private goal of perpetrating itself, and no party will deny that.”

According to Hulse the people have little power in deciding who runs the government.  Because of this, the group has come out with several proposals to amend the problem.  One such proposal is that most high ranking officials should fall under the Governor General and not the Cabinet since this hinders the democratic and transparent process.

Godwin Hulse,former senator:

“I think it was important to remove the oversight bodies from the day to day operations from the control of the Cabinet. There’s no point in having the auditor general, the integrity commission, the FIU, the contractor general and the ombudsman on all the oversight bodies that suppose to be officers of National Assembly and report to the National Assembly on the stewardship of Cabinet under the control of Cabinet in any form, fashion or manner. It will not work, and we then require that audit of the previous fiscal year be presented before the appropriation bill becomes law for the new fiscal year, and there’s an awesome mechanism we’ve created to ensure that. Trust me. We want to revamp the finance and stores orders and instituting in them severe penalties for noncompliance and then we want to reconstitute the public accounts committee which is the most important control committee in the national assembly making it a joint senate committee chaired by a social partner member of the senate because we do not believe that this business of having one party, mainly the opposition chair and all the arguments about we couldn’t find forum and we couldn’t get the date and all the rest. Let us get that committee up and running.”

In addition, Hulse said that proper consultation should be carried on before any major decision is made by the House of Representatives.  Henry Gordon said that Belize has the structure of a democratic government but we still have corruption in the country because the system of government is administered improperly.  

Henry Gordon,former Cabinet Secretary:

“What we don’t want to do is to put anyone person in a position where he or she can control this nation, can control the people. We have that with the Prime Minister as he is appointed right now. The power of the party in power has been running this country the wrong way and we want to stop that in respect to which party is in or in respect of which governor general or person is in that office.”

And to do that, they have suggest that the Governor General be selected by the House of Representatives after two thirds of the house has accepted.  In addition, the Governor General should serve for a term of seven years and at the end his term may be renewed.  Further people participation will include the voting of party leaders and deputy leaders at the polls.

Henry Gordon,former Cabinet Secretary:

“We want to put in the mechanism to ensure that the leader and the deputy leader of any political party that wins the majority of seats in the house of representatives shall be first of all elected as members of the house of representatives simply by your party winning a certain number of seats or the majority of seats, the leader and the deputy leader will become the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. Just as you may not know who your prime minister could be, we want to ensure that you will know who the Leader of the Opposition will be solely proposing that members of the house will be providing a mechanism to ensure that the leader of the political party that wins the next highest number of seats in the house becomes the leader of the opposition.”

And on the issue of an elected senate, Gordon said they have come out with their idea of the how it should be selected and work.

Henry Gordon,former Cabinet Secretary:

“We have suggested that the senate should be elected on a proportional basis. On a proportional basis, we would have in the senate a better representation of the parties and therefore of the people and that is aspect increasing people participation. But not only do we want proportional representation, but we’re suggesting that this senate must be empowered some more with powers to pass or reject any resolution or any bill or motion from the house of representatives for which was initiated in the senate because it is a part of the National Assembly and the National Assembly of Belize is the body that makes laws for the peace, order and good government of Belize.”

Among other proposal, the Group of Three is asking more participation from the Governor General as stipulated by the Constitution of Belize and a fix date for general elections.  Hulse told us after the conference that he does not support that the referendum for an elected senate be held on the same day as elections as the past government cannot bind the new national assembly to be formed after general elections.

Godwin Hulse,former senator:

“I voted to ask the people the question. I believe in asking the people the question but I believe that the question must be asked properly and at a proper time and the question needs to have a result. If the National Assembly is going to ask the people the question, but the National Assembly is dissolved, and the question is going to be asked tied to an election and particular a party campaign, it is a disingenuous question. It should be asked another day, constitute the National Assembly and win. This is a political party campaign. You win and then you put the question and say well I had put it in my manifesto and people accepted it and so now I think I can proceed. So it is asking a question which has no capacity to implement and this National Assembly that is asking a question cannot find another National Assembly. The National Assembly can say that they don’t care about that question. So you should ask the people when you have the authority to bring it about.”

Arturo Cantun,Love FM:

“What do you suggest that Belizeans do? The thing is that it’s going to be on the ballot February 7^th.”

Godwin Hulse,former senator:

“You could always ignore it.”

The Group of Three hopes that non political and political parties will go through the proposals and consider them when and if they form the new Belize Government. 

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