When past PUP governments sought bipartisanship on issues of national importance, for example the Guatemalan Claim, the place to start was always at the House of Representatives. It is in the House, where the people’s Representatives sit, that this UDP government should have tabled its Restore Belize Proposal. After mature and rigorous debate, and after showing good faith by taking into account the priorities of the Opposition, the government should then have commissioned the House Committee on National Security, a bipartisan group that can also accommodate community representatives and public officers, to oversee execution of the plan.

 

Instead, the Barrow administration has sought to play petty politics with the most urgent issue facing this nation – the safety and security of its citizens. It is not bipartisanship or shared responsibility that Mr. Barrow craves but a chance to deflect the blame for rampant crime, a chance to diminish the Opposition; what he seeks is a cheap storyline for the UDP media to flog and a photo opportunity to placate his prospective international funding agencies.

 

The record shows that no sooner had Mr. Barrow stepped out of the offices of the Leader of the Opposition after their crime summit than he, Barrow, launched an attack on the previous government, and on the Opposition Leader himself. The UDP newspaper, in a headline story subsequently distorted the PUP posture. Next, Mr. Barrow launched his broadside against the Chief Justice and the Judiciary. How can the PUP, in the face of these unmistakable acts of bad faith and in the ongoing UDP campaign of victimization against PUP supporters and perceived supporters, countenance any real partnership with this administration?

 

Throughout the ten years that Mr. Barrow was Leader of the Opposition, he rebuffed any overture at bipartisanship. Not even the constitutional amendment for Belize to join the Caribbean Court of Justice fell outside the gambit of partisanship, according to the Barrow Doctrine. Barrow opposed every single PUP attempt to toughen crime prevention laws. He spoke against every new funding measure for the Police and the BDF. He resisted any collaboration without blinking an eye. Now that he is in the hot seat, skewered daily by the orgy of violent crime afflicting the nation, Barrow wants nothing more than to share the blame for his administration’s abject failure in providing any sense of security to the Belizean people. He will not have that luxury. He does not deserve this.

 

It is his government that rightfully must bear the burden of producing results. And what positive results can come when the UDP slashed the national security budget by more than $6 million this year? How can the PM chop spending on police officers, on intelligence gathering, on the Training School, on the forensic laboratory and then expect that crime can be controlled? How can he accuse police officers of operating a crime ring, yet to date bring no officer to justice for this activity? How can he tap an inexperienced and puppet Senator to stand in as Public Security Minister and expect to be taken seriously?

 

Barrow has moved from failure to greater failure. The much vaunted Operation Jaguar, the precursor to Restore Belize, has already fizzled, defanged by the criminal elements. Established as a stage for the UDP’s Commissioner-in-waiting to shine, the curtains came down prematurely on Jaguar and on the pitiable Aragon. Murder after brazen murder has ‘restored’ mayhem to the streets, not law and order. Since Jaguar was launched, the PM’s law partner was gunned down, two teenaged girls have been murdered, a popular cyclist was assassinated and the steps of the Courthouse became the scene of the most sensational gang murder of the decade.

 

When Mr. Barrow gets serious, when he behaves as though crime transcends party politics, then he will discover a willing and capable partner in the PUP. But he cannot be sincere when he will appoint an unelected UDP politician as Attorney General. He cannot be sincere when he will disrespect the Chief Justice and the Bar Association. He cannot be sincere when police officers whom the Mothers for Justice have fingered as complicit in murder are allowed to intimidate their victims’ families while in uniform.

 

Having ascended to the highest political office in the land, the Prime Minister, for the first time in his career, confronts problems that his prodigious tongue cannot solve. Effective governance is much more about work than about words while Mr. Barrow is so much more about words than about work. The PM finds that he cannot intimidate criminals into good conduct; in many instances, these youth are forced into a life of crime and hustling because there are no other options. When someone’s best friend is hungry, when hopelessness shades his life and only juggling makes ends meet, how can the bluster of a Prime Minister, especially one so vain and narcissistic, induce a pause to your conduct?

 

Sadly, the murders, maiming, raping and robberies will continue. The UDP have spat in the face of all the social partners long before inviting them to support Restore Belize. To the business community, Barrow gave the finger as he levied $110 million in new taxes in March of this year. With the unions, he ignored their pleas for constructive engagement. With the Bar Association, he rejected any notion of consultation. To the NGO Coalition advocating an offshore ban on oil drilling, he has unilaterally decided that their case has no merit. And to the Opposition, he has now made it clear that scoring political points is more important than meaningful engagement.

 

First restore yourself,Mr. Barrow. Only then can you Restore Belize!