7 News Belize

Moya, the Making Of Icon
posted (July 9, 2010)
Now that she's been given a chance to have her appeal heard, will Mayor Zenaida Moya Flowers be expelled from the UDP? Well, if we read the Chairman's comments correctly, there's no way she should be. We're referring to those comments about the nature of political parties, he said, quote: "The objective of a political party is to win elections. Really it's not to govern well, it's to win elections."

And that description seems to suit Zenaida Moya Flowers just fine; after all the criticisms of her is that she governs poorly - and even that might be an understatement, but win elections? She hasn't lost one yet! But still she faces expulsion from her party, and so, to try and figure out where it all went wrong, Jules Vasquez looked back in the archives and found out that from when he public life started, Zenaida Moya was a rebel without a pause - so then why wouldn't she also rebel against the UDP....

Jules Vasquez Reporting
Zenaida Moya first flashed across our screens/appeared on our radar in 2004 - at the time she was the Registrar of Cooperatives - taking a stand for the small local producer:

July 1, 2004 newscast
Zenaida Moya
"I see this as the most formidable way of the small man to actually get his or foot into the global arena."

But soon she was in trouble in that post taking on the country's biggest, most powerful Co-op:

So what went wrong a government employee? And soon, that government employee Zenaida Moya was removed from that post for all the righteous trouble she caused,:

Newscast, October 1st, 2004
Indira Craig
"Well, that's the last whistle Ms. Moya is going to blow on the country's biggest co-op, because effective yesterday, she was transferred."

She had been quieted, but not for long, because by January of 2005 - she re-arrived as a fresh new face of an increasingly militant union movement:

JANUARY 25, 2005 newscast
Zenaida Moya
"What I am hearing from you guys is that you guys are ready to go ahead and continue the strike?" (applause) [Teachers Reply Yes.]

Moya was thrust to the frontlines for her fearless, lucid plain spoken-ness:

Zenaida Moya
"The workers want that there be a new mandate by whatever government comes in clearly we are calling that new elections be held."

And when those elections weren't held - Moya herself got into the next one:

September 28, 2005:
Zenaida Moya
"Yes I have resigned from the public service. Sometimes in life you have to make sacrifices to ensure change in the society that you live and I have made that sacrifice. I have resigned, yes I have lost all my benefits but that means nothing to me if I am serving my people. I could not be cooped anywhere. And as for being unemployed, I see myself as the next mayor of Belize City."

And that confident pitch was dead on as the head of the UDP slate she was resoundingly successful at the polls on March 2006:

March 2, 2006
Zenaida Moya, Mayor Elect
"It's almost official, two to one, that is how it is looking right now. There are only a few votes left to count and that's it."

This first UDP mayor in 16 years sailed in on a swell of goodwill and hope:

Zenaida Moya
"Today we are going to say thanks for voting the UDP, thanks, we truly mean that and we will do betterment for Belize City. You will see progress. We will revatalized Belize City. And come 2008 whenever it is call UDP will be ready so Belize City, Belize be ready because we are coming. UDP all the way."

That chant led by a young politician now makes a hollow echo into history's all enveloping horizon, and as that old song says, time has re-written every line, and really to be fair to all of us there's no way we all could have known then what we all know now about the frail, fragile nature of hope...

But this isn't a lament for Mayor Moya Flowers, it's a celebration, of possibly the most well known Belizean woman and among the most recognized politicians in history, in short an icon, celebrated for her warrior spirit and adored for her deadly drama:

Zenaida Moya
"Godfrey Smith, Francis Fonseca and all of them that is how they act and I hope all the supporters of the People's United Party see what is happen, that is what they voted for and I hope they understand and I hope they get the sense, I get enough of their abuse, enough of their tyranny. It will stop now."

Zenaida Moya
"I welcome a challenge, it will just make me stronger alright, solidify."

Mark King
"I might go down as a fallen soldier but I do it with joy, I do it with laughter, I do it for my country and I'll do it for my party any day, anytime."

Zenaida Moya
"It's from Mark King alright; I mean this is somebody that is not too right. For me to respond to these allegations I mean Jules you really have me laughing."

Zenaida Moya
"Zenaida, you don't need this mein, you don't need this, but you know what because I am already in it and because of the first female mayor of Belize City I cannot go down."

And that's why UDP Chairman Doug Singh was probably right when he said Mayor's Moya's poltical career is far from over: Hon. Doug Singh

"I personally think she still has a political future and I think the party believes that she has a political future whether that is within the United Democratic Party is a different issue that is a chapter yet to be written." In her career Moya has won two heavily contested conventions and two municipal elections.

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