This is political persecution at its worst carried out by a vindictive, and malicious regime, aided and abetted, some would say goaded, by jaded and jaundiced journalists. The plain and simple fact is that the former PM or any of his officials did nothing wrong or illegal. What diversion of public funds?

This guarantee of the debt of the Universal Hospital with the Belize Bank was severely criticised and was at the time the subject of great political controversy. Indeed there were public protests and some disagreement even within the cabinet. But as the former PM said at the time, he had signed the guarantee in good faith in order to save this tertiary hospital from closing down. He further accepted that public sentiment was against the government using tax-payers’ money to settle the debt. This was the context in which Mr. Musa and his administration went in search of a “private sector” solution and why he aggressively sought out the assistance of two friendly governments - Taiwan and Venezuela in order to settle the debt.

There was no diversion of the grants. They were transferred by Taiwan and the Venezuelan Bank to their intended destination - The Belize Bank, because the debt was owed to the Belize Bank. No one benefited personally from these money transfers; not Mr. Musa, not Mr. Fonseca and not Ms. Mai. By settling this debt, it is the government and people of Belize who benefit.

And yet one should not be surprised if trumped up malicious charges are brought by the UDP. That is in their DNA. Remember Bader, the imported special prosecutor who carried out their political witch hunt at a cost to the Belizean taxpayers of wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In Belmopan the Cabinet holds its weekly Star Chamber investigations about who next to fire (over two hundred  persons have already been retrenched, from foreign service officers to school wardens and ferry men); whose contract is to be arbitrarily terminated (many have); whose land is to be ‘quitared’ or confiscated.

Meanwhile on the streets of Belize City, senseless murders are committed almost as a daily routine. The tears of grief and anguish shed by mothers of the victims on the nightly television news are painful to watch. Crime has spiralled out of control.  People are living in fear.

For a government that came into office with promises to reduce the cost of living, bring down gas prices at the pump, reduce electricity bill by fifty percent, govern with transparency and accountability, the honeymoon is over. Their mantra during the campaign “life haad out ya” has boomeranged straight in their faces.

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