Corruption in Belize A fake deal of the century
out of control
Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2020
By Wayne Kublalsingh
On Jan. 28, 2020, Donald
Trump, to alarums,
polite cheers and claps,
and the ubiquitous glare of
mobile screens, marched
Benjamin Netanyahu, the
prime minister of Israel
to a podium in the East
Room of the Whitehouse
and released his keenly
anticipated Deal of the
Century. Throughout the
entire episode, these two
kept nudging and touching
each other, sweet
like that; and Netanyahu
smiled like a Cheshire
cat that had not only
been given milk, but his
cream.
The last time I saw
Americans so happy, so full
of bonhomie and cheer,
was when George Bush Jr
outlined his rationale for
invading Iraq before the
US government. Congress
was packed. Boy, the seats
could not grow warm.
Everyone kept jumping up
like Jack in the Boxes at
every turn in the speech.
And like the Iraq war, this
speech will lead to ash
and death. It will lead to
no peace. It will lead to
more war. Here are three
reasons why:
NOAH TALKING TO
MOSES
There were no Palestinians
present. Noah was
talking to Moses. The only
three Arab state officials
present, of the 22 members
of the Arab League,
were the ambassadors of
Bahrain, Oman and the
United Arab Emirates,
three satrap states of the
US in the Middle East.
The ‘Deal of the Century’
is supposed to be a peace
deal between the Israelis
and the Palestinians. The
Palestinians, who from
the beginning distrusted
the deal, even as Trump
moved the US Embassy
into Jerusalem and recognized
Israeli “right” to
the Golan Heights, had
called this deal a slap in
the face. They had been
told to wait. Wait and see,
don’t be presumptuous.
Now they waited. And this
is what they saw.
Hours later the Palestinian
President, Mahmoud
Abbas called the deal, “a
slap of the century. By
God we are going to return
several slaps against the
oppressors.” He called it
“nonsense from beginning
to end,” and excoriated:
“One thousand times, no
no no to the slap of the
century.” The imbalance
was patent. The deal was
Israel-centric. Abbas said
it gave anything and everything
to Israel: policy
for Israel, sovereignty for
Israel, occupation for Israel,
control for Israel.
A NEW
BANTUSTAN
The deal gives Israel
“undivided” control of
Jerusalem, and a sliver
of East Jerusalem to host
a Palestinian capital. It
gives them a permanent
border on their “Eastern
front,” and control of
Golan, Samaria and Judea,
ancient holy and historical
sites. It gives them the
settlements, insidious and
hostile encroachments
into Palestinian territory.
It threatens to disarm
HAMAS, the paramilitary
wing of the Palestinian
cause and to de-radicalize
Gaza. It slices into Gaza.
Abbas complained that
the 1967 War had left Palestinian
with only 22 percent
of its territory, and
this plan wants 40 percent
of this 22 percent.
Donald Trump boasted
that $US50 billion would
be invested in Palestine
should they accept the
deal, and one million
Palestinians would find
employment. Netanyahu
affirmed: “It takes enormous
talent to reject $50
By Wellington C. Ramos
Adjunct Professor of History
and Political Science
In the 1970’s when Belize was
still a British colony and I was a
police officer, our country had
a director of Public Prosecution
Office, an audit department and
a police department that worked
hand in hand together on all
matters of stealing as a government
employee, bribes, corruption,
extortion, forgery, fraud,
uttering, conversion, embezzlement,
and other crimes that government
officials and civil servants
committed.
In those days most of the
civil servants that were arrested,
charged prosecuted and sent
to prison for these crimes were
employees from; the post office,
customs and police departments.
Since our independence in 1981,
some of our civil servants are still
committing these crimes boldly
and nothing is being done to
them because of their political
affiliations with UDP or PUP.
The prime minister and his
ministers in Belize are above the
law and none of them have been
arrested charged and sent to prison
for any of these crimes that
they have committed over the
years. Why? Because the people
that have the power to arrest,
charge, prosecute and send them
to prison, are the same people
that they appoint into their
positions and they serve at their
pleasure.
These are the: attorney general,
commissioner of police,
the director of public prosecutions,
magistrates and judges. all
of these individuals are loyal to
the prime minister and serve for
them and not the citizens and
country. If a person is arrested
for a crime in Belize, the prime
minister or one of his ministers,
can call the inspector of police
and ask him to release that person
from prison.
These are the three most powerful
law enforcement officials in
our government because of the
functions they carry out which
are: attorney general chief enforcer
of our country’s laws; the commissioner
of police to apprehend
all law breakers including the
prime minister and ministers of
his cabinet and the director of
public prosecutions to prosecute
all those accused of a crime, who
were arrested and charged by the
police.
This is something that police
officers, members of the Belize
Defense Force and civil servants
in most government departments
witness regularly and are afraid
to speak about, due to fear of victimization
from their supervisors.
The victimizations or retaliations
they will receive can be; daily
harassments, a transfer from the
Department, refusal or a delay
in processing citizens legitimate
documents, no promotions, termination
from employment or
other unfavorable actions.
Sometimes it is not only the
Civil Servants that get punished
but also all their family members.
There is a phrase in Belize
that goes like this, “If Yu Can’t
Ketch Harry, Yu Ketch Hi Shirt.”
Meaning that they will find a
way to victimize you some way
or another. This have been going
OP-EDS
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Continued on Page 11
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President Donald Trump speaks during an event with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East
Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday,
Jan. 28, 2020. Associated Press / Susan Walsh
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