In a few minutes, the second public consultation on the ninth constitutional amendment will start up in Corozal town.
The Belize National Teachers Union held its own consultation today at the Civic Center in Belmopan. They invited five high powered presenters: President of the Bar, Jackie Marshalleck, Solicitor General Cheryl Krusen, Senator Henry Gordon, Attorney Audrey Matura Shepherd, and Activist Patrick Rogers.
About 500 teachers attended and the venue was full with an attentive, engaged audience that stayed right through lunch.
But - after that three hour plus session - they didn't take a position - that won't happen at least not for another five weeks. General Secretary George Frazer explained:
George Frazer - General Secretary, BNTU
"Above all, we feel as a union that we should try to be above the political fray, and let our teachers, as educators - because many of them, when they go back to school the students might be asking questions, including the students at high school and junior college - so we believe it is important for them to hear broad-based interpretations and views on the matter. What we have decided is that, having heard the presentations today, we will encourage teachers country-wide to attend the different national consultations, and we will ask by branches - the 10 branches - to submit written recommendations so that at our next council meeting, we are able to compile these and formulate our position. We know that as the consultation goes on country-wide - and as we recently heard earlier this week - the Council of Churches was able to get some movement on the matter. We are concerned - were and in a way still are - that there were sections in the proposed bill which seemed to challenge the right of the individual for access to court. We want to give the process time to work itself out, and by October 1, all the 10 branches should submit their written reports."
And while the union will remain circumspect for at least another month - as we've reported, the Evangelical Association of Churches and the Belize Council of Churches have pledged their support for the Ninth after changes were made to the language of the amendment.
But, online columnist and Ashcroft Alliance Attorney Godfrey Smith has heaped strong criticism upon the church. In a column published online this evening, he says that the churches were, quote, "duped and outmaneuvered by the PM using a simple lawyer's trick."
He heaps it on liberally, adding that, quote "The Churches...should have taken their legal advisor (into the negotiation with the PM)...Unless of course they felt that in God they had the supreme advisor; in which case, He (God) failed them miserably." End quote.
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