Email

Print

Senator Henry Gordon
"That's part of our culture where we do not want to participate but I think it's important for us not to feel that the language is too highfalutin as you would say but that the language can be explain to us so that each one of us can get a good idea of what really is to be transpired if this amendment goes through and I am not here to pronounce it wrong or right but I think people should understand what it is all about because it's all about how we are govern and whether or not we can improve how we are govern."

Senator Lisa Shoman
"All of a sudden in the last 3 and a half years we have had a flurry of 4 changes and people now are starting to feel as though why the need for change and to feel as though they want more education for themselves about what the changes will imply. So I think it is going to be important. Unfortunate we get stuck in a tribalism where what you say is collared by where you support and I think it is important for all Belizeans to know that there is competing views on the constitution but that they themselves should be able to understand what those views are and then be able to formulate their own reaction."

Audrey Matura - Shepherd - VP, Oceana
"As is I am saying that that subsection 9 that is being put in and two; that is being amended or classified is really going to be offensive to the principles of our constitution as it presently have been."

Janelle Chanona
"Just to clarify the opposite of democracy is dictatorship. Would you say that if pass that would be the general direction of where Belize would be going?"

Audrey Matura - Shepherd - VP, Oceana
"It could possibly be because when you are deny the function as it supposed to be where you should have access to it then that's a problem and having access to the court doesn't mean that they will rule in your favour it's just the fact that you have a right to access it to ask them to adjudicate on matter - they might rule in your favour or they might rule against you and I have said earlier too is that the court in itself has its own check and balances that's why we have a three tier system in the court so if you are not satisfied with the first tier you can appeal. If you are not satisfied with the second tier, you can appeal. If you are not satisfied by the third tier - at least by the third tier that becomes the final law and that becomes the binding law."

"Now this is not something the average Belizean would comprehend immediately, so it's difficult. The challenge ahead is really not so much what the government is doing but rather the fact the masses in this country is not aware as to the basic principles to our democracy. If they would be aware then what the government is proposing would be easier understood."

The debate will be aired on Love FM starting at seven on Monday evening. The public consultations on the proposed amendments are set to start on Wednesday August tenth in Belize City.

Following reactions from the legal community on the Constitutional changes, Prime Minister Dean Barrow took on critics today in an open letter to the public to clarify his administration's intentions. In the letter, the PM says quote, "Those campaigning against the Bill, which we must never forget has the enshrinement of public utilities in state control as its principal objective, say two very wrong headed things: that the unlimited power to amend, which the Constitution has given to parliament, is a sure open door to abuse; and that the Bill would deny access to the court for anyone wishing to challenge a Constitutional amendment. If it is true that the unlimited power of the Legislature to amend the Constitution is an invitation to tyranny, then that has been the position since 1981 when the Constitution came into force. And to argue about what, as a result is possible in theory, without accepting what is impossible in practice, is to proceed in error or deception...it is insulting to our people to suggest that there is any greater practical chance of abuse happening here as opposed to [what] is happening in Canada or the United States. Just as in those two countries, there is in Belize, the kind of democracy, tradition and people power that is the ultimate safeguard against abuse." End quote. Regarding the right of access to the courts, the PM maintains, quote "the 9th Amendment Bill does not stop any citizen from going to court. And the campaigning lawyers know this." The release ends with the Prime Minister stating that quote, "The Government will consider itself bound by the outcome of the public consultation process."