Message to the blue people (Part II)
Posted: 03/04/2007 - 05:37 PM
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The PUP coalition with Kremandala held for the March 2003 general elections, and the result was another big victory for the blue.
Our feeling at Kremandala had been in 1993 that the PUP had approached us for a coalition because they believed that our twenty years in the Partridge Street neighbourhood (on the boundary between Lake Independence and Collet) had created a positive impact among the people. Kremandala had become the largest employer in the neighbourhood. We sponsored all kinds of sports teams; we paid school fees; we paid medical bills and funeral costs. Kremandala had become a famous institution in the ‘hood.
At the same time, as the most widely read newspaper in the country, Amandala had influence outside of the Lake Independence/Collet neighbourhood, while the young KREM Radio had fought the mighty Broadcasting Corporation of Belize (BCB) to a draw in Belize City and its environs. A coalition with Kremandala assured the PUP the goodwill of an influential media house.
In return for its credibility and goodwill, Kremandala received PUP support for Cordel Hyde’s Lake Independence candidacy in 1998 once he had won the Lake I conventions of 1994 and 1996. It was a disturbing sign that a powerful faction of the party had openly fought against Cordel in 1994 and 1996, but it was a case in1998, as it is said, of all’s well that ends well.
In 1994, following the Lake I convention, Kremandala’s Marshall Nunez had challenged the PUP Collet constituency incumbent, Remijio Montejo, but Montejo won easily. By 2002, Marshall had become a PUP insider. A two-time Deputy Mayor by then, Marshall enjoyed the confidence of the PUP leadership. While he was still friendly with Partridge Street, Marshall had become a full-fledged PUP when he challenged Montejo again in 2002. Raymond Cox also challenged Montejo, so it was a three way race. The tactics used by Remijio alienated PUP supporters to the point where, while the PUP won 22-7 in the March 2003 general elections, Montejo lost Collet, usually considered a PUP division, to the UDP’s Patrick Faber.
The Collet situation said something about trouble brewing in the PUP alliance with Kremandala, but no one could really see it at the time.
Ralph Fonseca was at the height of his power following the 2003 general elections. But there was a bone in his throat. That bone was the Kremandala chairman, who, in his capacity as UB chairman, insisted on following the advice of the accountant Cedric Flowers with respect to the assets of the University of Belize. Ralph had major plans for UB real estate in Belize City, especially for the Belize Technical College campus.
Fonseca decided to reduce the government financing for the university, which provoked a crisis. The response of the UB faculty and staff, which had initially been very hostile to Evan X Hyde, was to go into one week of emergency consultations, day and night, to prepare a restructuring plan which Prime Minister Said Musa, apparently under some duress, decided to accept.
Now there are things we do not know about the nature of the political relationship between Said Musa and Ralph Fonseca. It is for sure that Mr. Fonseca is more important politically to Mr. Musa than the Kremandala chairman. But we saw instances at the University of Belize where the P.M. made decisions which Mr. Fonseca had reasons to oppose.
Whatever the case, it appeared that after the UB restructuring, Ralph Fonseca decided that he would put Evan X Hyde in his place – in the streets and on the ground of Lake I/Collet, the very area where Kremandala’s credibility and influence had been the basis for the PUP’s coalition approach in1993. Remember again, to repeat, this was a time, middle and late 2003, when Ralph Fonseca was at the absolute height of his power within the ruling party and within the Government Cabinet itself.
The most dangerous time in the streets is when you are attacked by your friends, because you are usually caught off guard. This is what is sometimes called a bushwhacking. The Kremandala chairman had to run for his life, literally. In retrospect, this meant that Ralph Fonseca had unilaterally decided to destroy the PUP alliance with Kremandala. This was from way back in middle/late 2003.
In politics, all is fair. You should not swear for anyone in politics where their loyalty to yourself is concerned. When we say that Hon. Ralph “unilaterally decided to destroy the PUP alliance with Kremandala,” we can not swear that the Hon. Said did not know of Mr. Ralph’s decision. Neither can we swear that he did not acquiesce in it. We would not want to believe that. But, life is real.
This, then, is the message to those of our friends who are blue. At Kremandala, we did not break our trust with you. We remained true to our creed of “power to the people” at the University of Belize. For this, Hon. Ralph decided that we should be sacrificed. That was his right so to decide. Politics is not a tea party. In politics, to repeat, all is fair.
There were men who people thought were Kremandala, who betrayed us. They did so because of reasons of their own. We have waited almost four years to send this message to you, our blue friends. The formal dissolution of our political alliance with you was made by us, Kremandala, on December 28, 2004. But the knife had been placed in our back from middle/late 2003. On these matters, the record must be set straight.
Power to the people.
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