During the UDP term of 1993-1998, Dean Oliver Barrow was dubbed the Minister of Everything and the Master of the Game, notwithstanding the fact that he was forced to play second fiddle to then Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel. While the gargantuan ego of the man must have compelled him to regard those monikers as glowing accolades to his political and intellectual prowess, they were most certainly not complimentary. In fact, they facetiously referred to Barrow’s supremely enhanced belief in his own abilities to the exclusion of everyone else, and also to his unshakeable conviction that he could control every situation through the use of eloquent phrase, dramatic gestures and smoke and mirrors – much glitter and no substance, so to speak.

The recent BTL debacle has proven that the Master of the Game has returned with all frippery and dubious glory attached – with manipulation skills amplified tenfold by an enforced ten years in the political doldrums of opposition from 1998-2008. The magician has managed to throw his invisibility cloak over an act of sheer dictatorship and has pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat and convinced many Belizeans that he did it for them and for the nation. He has waved his wand over the fact that he hijacked a private entity in one day and has convinced Belizeans that BTL is now for them and they will magically, mysteriously and immediately have access to lower rates and a spectacular array of new services. But not so…!

What the Prime Minister has done is a masterful display of emotional manipulation, nothing more. Barrow, with the able assistance of the Kremandala media empire, has managed to convince a section of society that Lord Michael Ashcroft is a ‘virus.’ Hell, even the race card was introduced along the way – rich white billionaire versus poor black Belizeans! And it worked well, in certain sectors. So when Barrow stood in the House of Representatives and spoke so eloquently about ‘despots’ and ‘tyrants’ and declared that he had figuratively run the Lord out of town, certain Belizeans in certain sectors stood and pounded their chests and roared their approval of the actions of this modern day bald-headed Daniel in the lion’s den.

See, that’s all well and good, but the question remains – how will all those poor, chest-pounding Ashcroft hating Belizeans benefit from Barrow taking over BTL? Nobody seems to know. What we do know is that Barrow had a personal gripe against Lord Ashcroft, though he made millions off Ashcroft as his attorney for years and though he publicly admitted in the House that Ashcroft had bankrolled the UDP in its victory in 2008. Somewhere in that time the Ashcroft/Barrow relationship went sour and the PM used his newfound power achieved through the largesse of Ashcroft to not only bite, but bite off the hand of the Lord who had fed him and the UDP. So make no mistake – the Barrow/Ashcroft thing is personal. For the Kremandala media empire it’s the same. Krem had a personal gripe with Ashcroft because they borrowed some money from him and didn’t want to pay up, so to speak. Ashcroft won, and almost overnight he became the infamous ‘virus.’ Except that Krem took a page from the magician’s book on misdirection and in stellar fashion and fabulous sleight of hand turned it from a Krem/Ashcroft fight into an Ashcroft/poor black Belizean fight. Amazing, really, and it worked to some extent.

Did I mention that the Master of the Game is back in fine form? See, just a day after GOB took over BTL, it was announced that KREM would be given back advertising which had allegedly been withheld. Talk about an instant plum. So, effectively, since the plum will very likely be juicy indeed, KREM has been silenced, at least on the BTL thing. As to Channel 7, owner Net Vasquez has been placed at the helm of BTL – anybody want to place any bets that there will never be a negative story on the UDP/BTL on Channel 7? If there were any lingering doubts, they have been effectively dispelled in the days following the hijacking of BTL, since Channel 7 has become the new cheerleading squad of Net/BTL/UDP. And then there’s Channel 5, which is going through its own worries right now as the UDP attempts to grind them into figurative dust through intimidation and power plays. While not silenced, that media house has been tainted somewhat with the sour grapes phenomena. Anything said by Channel 5 on the BTL situation will be spun as Ashcroft sour grapes. So, abracadabra, hocus-pocus, voila, the Master of the Game has effectively captured/bought off/shut down a major section of the so-called independent media.

But lights and smoke and mirrors and shadows and muddy waters aside…the reality remains ominous and the questions glaring…how will poor Belizeans, me and you, benefit from the takeover of BTL? Nobody seems to have a concrete answer to that question, but sure as hell that question should have been asked and answered before the takeover, not discussed after. Another question is – how will we pay for BTL? Even the Master of the Game seems stumped on that one – mumbling about shares and ‘Belizeanization’ and in the same breath babbling about mysterious foreign partners and SSB. Please don’t tell me that the Prime Minister made his oh so bold move without knowing how we would pay for BTL. And then of course there is that little pesky thing called investor confidence. The magician didn’t seem to know any tricks to cover up that one, so he just took it out of his act completely. He has said absolutely nothing about the absolute fact that potential investors will think twice and three times before ever spending one RED cent on our shores. Why would they, when the PM has shown that if he falls out with them for some reason, he can waltz in and take over their companies without a care in the world, compensation and other considerations be damned.

So the PM and the UDP can ride on the high horse of irrational emotion and drift in the clouds of nationalistic fervor for a time, but sure as hell they will come crashing down to the cold, hard and rocky terrain of reality sooner rather than later. And the thing is – they won’t come crashing down alone – see, our fortunes have been tied to those of the UDP, and in this BTL issue at least, as they fall so shall we and the nation fall.

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