Posted: Sunday, May 25, 2025. 9:00 pm CST.
Тhе vіеwѕ ехрrеѕѕеd іn this аrtісlе аrе those оf the writer аnd nоt nесеѕѕаrіlу those оf Вrеаkіng Веlіzе Nеwѕ.
By Delroy Cuthkelvin: Before we even get to the substance of what he had to say, and the merit or lack thereof therein, let me give a relevant account of the most recent verbal exchange I had with the gentleman in question.
It was February 23, 2025, the day before nomination for the March 12, 2025 General Election. The context was that, in various constituencies, two sets of individuals were about to get nominated, both being recognized by Elections and Boundaries as UDP candidates with the color RED beside their name. It was a situation created by one of the craziest decisions ever to be made by the department charged with the solemn duty of administrating elections in our country, and whose responsibility it is to ensure as much clarity and as little confusion in the minds of the electors.
(The High Court has since ruled that the October 20, 2024 event held by the Tracy Panton led breakaway group in which they purported to had taken command of the UDP “was not a valid UDP National Convention and that the decisions and resolutions adopted at the said meeting were and are not binding on members of the UDP.” This means anyone they nominated to run for the UDP was NOT a valid UDP candidate. There are, or course, lawsuits emanating from that post-election judgment, the outcome of which will be, to say the least, interesting).
So, my purpose for placing a phone call to Michael Finnegan one day before nomination, was that I felt he, a retired senior statesman (arguably), who presumably still wants the best for his Party, would feel compelled to attempt one last-ditch effort to bring the warring elements together so we could avoid the confusion and give our Party a fighting chance in the general election.
To my astonishment and disappointment, Finnegan’s response was bluntly, “Why unu di call me?” When I further pressed, he concluded, “Listen to mi, the election wa solve everything.” My response to him was that if we entered the general election divided, we would re-emerge from it divided. And, as I predicted, here we are today, two months and a half after the general election, just as divided, though it pleases me not to say, I told you so.
I’ve related that brief pre-election exchange with Michael Finnegan to make the point that, given his dismissive attitude at that time in response to my appeal for intervention on his part to forge some kind of unity within the UDP heading into the general elections, which is when unity was most needed and most urgent, his motive now for such an impassioned call for unity after the race is, at least, highly questionable.
Michael Finnegan spoke to the media last Friday morning and chose not to condemn his former ministerial colleague Boots Martinez’s alleged looting of public lands, regarding 2.5 acres of Belize City beach front for the alleged giveaway price of $1,000 from the Lands Department 2 months before Parliament dissolved and elections were called in November, 2020. This dubious land grab came to light due to a video in which Boots was berating a man who dared to gain access to what was Belizean Beach before it was essentially gifted to Boot’s crony, John Pollard, at the cost of tax payers.
It’s the kind of behavior by ministers of government in the last UDP administration which long-time UDP members such as I (having been inspired and motivated by the patriotism and decency of Philip Goldson and Sir Manuel Esquivel as selfless stewards of the national patrimony) are not at all proud of, and which we know was largely responsible for the devastating defeat our Party suffered in that election on November 11, 2020.
But there are some among us who feel the UDP has nothing to be ashamed of, or to apologize for, with respect to all that went so terribly wrong in 2020, nor do we have any obligation to clean up our Party and prove ourselves worthy again of the trust the people had placed in us the last time we were elected to run the affairs of the nation. They believe it’s simply a matter of holding things together and awaiting our time and our next turn when the pendulum will automatically swing back in our favor.
Herein lies the problem with the old guard, who Michael Finnegan appears to be speaking up for. Their preoccupation, it seems, is about personal interests and personalities, not about what’s right for the people and nation.
Take, for instance, John Saldivar. When he was designated by the United States of America (State Department) for alleged Significant Corruption, Finnegan said absolutely nothing. Finnegan did not appear in the media to call for Saldivar to step aside after having lost 3 times, suffering at the time his worse loss by 2,000 votes to a newcomer in the 2020 General Elections.
You may recall Armenian crime boss Lev Dermen, who was the reason for Saldivar’s forced resignation as UDP Leader elect 72 hours after he handily won the February, 2020 National Convention. Incidentally, or not so incidentally, Saldivar’s victory in that very national convention was enabled, fuelled and resourced by the unbroken bond of the old-boys network within our Party.
What you may not remember is that Michael Finnegan had tried to help his ministerial colleague John Saldivar by allegedly personally recommending the crime boss and Saldivar’s financier Lev Dermen to the Minister of Foreign Affairs to be an Honorary Consul.
The pattern of alleged corruption and the ministerial oath of loyalty is glaring.
Which brings us to the Multi- Million Dollar question of the day. Why are the Michael Finnegans, the John Saldivars and the Boots Martinez’s of the world so determined now to free the UDP of Shyne Barrow, who they themselves had initially helped to install in Mesopotamia and as Leader of the Party? Could it be that he is now seen as the disrupter who has since made it clear that he intends to clean up corruption within the Party, and has already made significant moves to do so?
And, why are they so convinced that the leadership of the Party should automatically and immediately now be handed over to the individual who lead the pre-election movement to get rid of Shyne? Is it because that person has now surrounded herself and formed a pact with all the corrupt former ministers most responsible for the Party’s devastating defeat in 2020, a pact to protect and preserve their political career at all cost and at the expense of the foundational principles of the UDP?
When we behold the impassioned call for Party unity on their terms and by their definition, these are the pertinent questions that must be asked. I have my conclusions, but I will leave you to deduce as you may.
Let me end by saying, as a long-time member and organizer of the UDP, and a Belizean who understands that an emboldened PUP government absolutely must have a formidable UDP at its heels, there is nothing I want more than unity and stability within our Party. Indeed, it is something I have been wanting, expressly so, well before the general elections.
In order to move the UDP forward, we need healing, atonement and forgiveness. I love my Party and all my UDP colleagues, even those that deviated from the foundational principles that once made the UDP so strong.
Indeed, the UDP needs to unite, but we cannot do so by sacrificing the truth, lest the entire exercise proves useless and fruitless.
The time for unity is now, but the time for truth is always!
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