A recipe for re-election
Posted: 18/05/2009 - 10:43 PM
Author:
At the risk of barging in on the Prime Minister’s kitchen and interfering with his bubbling political pot, it is timely to point out to him (and his assistant cooks) that the ingredients in this nasty BTL entanglement could make a magical stew for UDP re-election in 2013. If Mr. Barrow seeks a succulent electoral dish – a serving in equal parts of the national interest and UDP re-election – then his government should acquire BTL immediately and end the current impasse in the telecom industry. Call the acquisition “conservatorship,” as the Americans do, if nationalization is too socialist a term.
BTL is one of the country’s most profitable companies. Before the Musa/Fonseca assault on the company (on its luscious dividends, that is), BTL was a brilliant blend of shareholders, designed, in fact, by a previous UDP government. Social Security had owned about quarter of the company, earning a healthy return for the workers’ pension fund. Thousands of Belizean small shareholders earned an excellent return on their equity. MCI, a global telecoms provider, was the “strategic investor”, providing the know-how where Belizeans couldn’t, while training hundreds of IT workers in new technologies.
As Belizeans spent more to talk, to text and to surf the Internet, these huge profits (tens of millions each year) largely remained here at home, ploughed back into the Belizean economy and representing a robust source of income for many thousands of Belizeans.
At the present time, these precious dividends, along with unconscionably high management fees, are siphoned out of the economy, paid to offshore companies and foreigners. The BTL workers labour in fear of their bosses. Telecommunications rates are set artificially high, stifling industry and development. Although Belize once boasted of having the most modern telecom system in the region, we have now fallen behind our neighbors significantly.
The UDP government should now acquire BTL from its current owners, regardless of whether the company is actually owned by Ashcroft or charitable trusts he controls. Surely Lord Ashcroft could not object to the company’s acquisition, since he has openly offered it for sale.
Unlike Musa/Fonseca who acquired BTL for Ashcroft, Barrow would acquire BTL for the people. The acquisition could be funded by reselling the shares to Belizean companies and individuals. The bridge financing required could be raised relatively easily, especially with interest rates at historic lows. SSB has the cash to purchase a minority stake once more. Our teachers, soldiers, public officers and individual entrepreneurs would then sign up for shares. Belizean companies could be offered limited blocks of shares as well.
Invite in Jamaica’s Digicel as the strategic (and passive) investor. Bring back the original company bylaws that protected the small shareholders and their dividends. And insert an amendment into the Belize Constitution to ensure that the company can never again be pillaged as it was by the Musa/Fonseca/Ashcroft tag team.
Mr. Barrow has a unique advantage in that he retains several of the key architects of the original BTL privatization model in the persons of former PM Manuel Esquivel, accountant Net Vasquez, attorney Lois Young and others. Given the stubbornness of the current BTL owners, as long as fair value was paid, there would be minimal outcry internationally.
A nationalized BTL would be able to both offer lower rates and earn dividends high enough to make the acquisition by GOB achievable. The one crucial element working against Mr. Barrow is time. He has to act now, while he retains the goodwill of the electorate and while he can muster the unity of his party. Each passing day erodes both of these pillars of support. There is also the almost certain election of a Conservative Government in the UK, one that is sure to do the bidding of its Vice Chairman, the same Lord Ashcroft from whom BTL would be acquired.
Act now, Mr. Barrow. Use your 25 votes in the House. Justify the mandate that you were given. Acquiring BTL is that rare “win-win” gamble that the Prime Minister should seize.
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