The Caribbean Court of Justice, which Dean Barrow so vilely disrespected as Leader of the Opposition, approached the Bar Association of Belize to ask them to host a seminar on Monday, June 23, 2008  titled “CCJ and CSME Vehicles for Regional Unity: What does it mean for you and me?”.

The CCJ has taken the more mature and diplomatic approach to the unreasonable and myopic rejection of the colonial UDP government. The seminar, then, is a responsible response to engage the Judges and Tribunals as well as the Bar in respect of their rights and obligations in the inevitable and absolutely necessary unification of the Caribbean Community. The Belizean edition of the traveling seminar is evidence of the CCJ undertaking to launch a series of public education initiatives to enhance the knowledge of the local Bar and Bench.

  CCJ President, Rt. Hon. Mr. Justice de la Bastide

The body has commendably and quietly pulled all its stops to afford this callous and irrational UDP Government a way out from its regressive position in respect of the regional CCJ initiative. Distinguished participants feature three distinguished judges of the CCJ and a panel boasting representatives from five Caribbean jurisdictions. The list of speakers and attendees is headed by the very President of the CCJ himself The Rt. Hon. Mr. Justice de la Bastide, alongside The Hon. Mr. Justice Nelson, Hon. Mr. Justice Pollard, Hon. Mr. Justice Saunders, Hon. Madam Justice Bernard, and  Hon. Mr. Justice Wit.

This, by all accounts, is a formidable cast, and renders the UDP Government’s position that much more absurd as Belize’s influence in this promising institution is evident, for none other than our very own Chief Justice Dr. Abdulai Conteh sits on the Board of Trustees for the CCJ Trust Fund. A powerful position, as this board is responsible for directing the operations of the purse strings of the Courts.

What compounds this unjustifiable rejection of the UDP administration of the CCJ is that Barrow himself should be one of the first to embrace this Caribbean campaign. His career is a result of Caribbean progressiveness and vision but are we to expect gratitude and loyalty from him? The absence of these virtues is now exposed regionally.

It was always curious to us how an attorney who was one of the first four royal Belizeans to be recipients of a Caribbean initiative- which saw the introduction of the regional law school- could more than three decades later decry and refuse to see the continuation of this regional initiative with the implementation of a regional final court. How can a man, who is the prime minister of our nation, which is so linked to the Caribbean, speak so disrespectfully of Caribbean Court of Justice as Barrow has done in the House of Representatives on previous occasions?

We do hope that despite his hypocritical stance toward the CCJ, Barrow will be forced to swallow his monumental pride and attend the Seminar on Monday.