UDP Leader’s endorsement of African and Mayan history Excellent!Very GoodGoodFairPoor Rating: 5 / 5 (2 votes)   Posted: 22/01/2008 - 12:42 PM Author: The Hon. Leader of the UDP Opposition, Mr. Dean Barrow, on Sunday morning made an unprecedented public announcement of support for the African and Mayan history project. He was speaking on KREM Radio’s Sunday Review, which is hosted by Yaya Marin Coleman.   Mr. Barrow said that he had previously said as much in private to the University of Belize’s Dr. Joseph Iyo and Dr. Angel Cal, the academic leaders of the project.   Mr. Barrow went on to say that he had declined to express support in the past because of his feeling that he was being pressured to do so by Evan X Hyde, the chairman of Kremandala. It has to be our assumption that the past he was referring to has been his time as Leader of the Opposition, which is a matter of just the last ten years.   Firstly, if Mr. Barrow resents being pressured by the chairman of Kremandala, he certainly will not be the first to be so pressured, and he probably won’t be the last.   Secondly, the matter of African and Mayan history is an issue raised by UBAD (and RAM) from 1969. Mr. Barrow was in law school in Jamaica at that time. He did not return to Belize to stay until 1974. He should not take the burden of the UDP position upon himself.   The UDP had three leaders before Mr. Barrow – Dean Lindo, Dr. Theodore Aranda, and Dr. Manuel Esquivel, none of whom found the time or the inclination to support the African/Mayan history project.   We are saying that this non-support was a UDP position of 25 years standing before Mr. Barrow took over the party’s leadership. We never held Mr. Barrow responsible for the UDP’s position. Within the UDP itself, there was opposition, for various reasons, to the African/Mayan history project.   We welcome Mr. Barrow’s statement of support for the African/Mayan history project. Such a statement makes him a bigger man. Bipartisan support for the African/Mayan history project now makes Belize a better place where the national dignity of indigenous people is concerned. There are, and have never been, any benefits involved with the project for this newspaper or the Kremandala institution. We never sought any.