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Musa On Price Part 2
posted (September 23, 2011)
And it is impossible to discuss Price without discussing the man who inherited his legacy, Said Musa. He took up the Party's Leadership in 1996 after Price stepped down.

Now Musa is not the sainted figure that Price is - and there are those who might say that he betrayed Price's vision of a mixed economy by embracing neoliberalism.

Yesterday Musa discussed Price's creedo and his loyalty to it:..

Hon. Said Musa
"To speak of his philosophy if you may call it that, it was neither capitalist nor socialist, he was not a communist, we all know that, although his life style might have lent many people to believe that he lived the life of a true communist, but he was not. Mr. Price's outlook in life I believe, from my years studying at his feet, was somebody who studied very closely the Papal Encyclicals."

Jules Vasquez
"You have been characterized as pursuing neo liberalism, and do you feel then that you betrayed Mr. Price's or you did not live up, you pursued another path than what Mr. Price may have espouse you, which was a far more conservative mix economy?"

Hon. Said Musa
"As a famous economist John Maynard Keynes once said when the circumstances change dont you? And I believe that, not trying to vindicate may self but I certainly don't feel that I betrayed Mr. Price's vision for more just society. We were dealing with different times, times had changed, and we were dealing with different issues. but yes and the world had changed you know, the whole economic system, the global system had change significantly from the early days when Mr. Price was starting out the revolution, and you know it would have been difficult I believe to move confronting what you called neo liberalism in a confrontational way. We had to find a way to continue to attract investment to this country because Belize needs foreign investment. We had to continue to understand that to fight poverty you have to create wealth. Now, I would be the first to admit that we fell short of bridging the gap between the rich and the poor and in fact it has gotten worse over the years, the growing poverty in our country. And a lot of this had to do with growing income in inequality, so that's the weakness of the neo liberal system, that it does not address this issue in any satisfactory manner. The Capitalist system works in terms of creating wealth but the trouble is to create wealth particularly for those at the top."

Jules Vasquez
"Without the implicit perhaps explicit support of Mr. Price would you still have been party leader?"

Hon. Said Musa
"I don't think it would be fair for me to answer that, let me just say from my perspective I felt that quietly and secretly I felt he supported me, but Mr. Price was scrupulous in his evenhandedness when it came to his leadership contest. He never voice any support for either myself or the Honorable Florencio Marin, before or on the day itself. In fact an interesting thing happened on that day he castigated my supporters right at the convention for putting up a banner at the entrance to Belmopan saying Price supports Musa or some words to that effect, again, because he wanted to maintain that scrupulous evenhandedness, to ensure that the party faithful decide for themself who they want as leader. Whether he himself voted for me? I felt so, but I mean that is not the question right?"

Jules Vasquez
"But looking at it I don't see how one would have been, would have ascended to the post of party leader without some sort of nod from Mr. Price absolutely he never gave any public but he must have?"

Hon. Said Musa
"Well let's put it this way, he didn't discouraged me."

Jules Vasquez
"Now but, and that brings me to my next question. Do you feel, was he misused in his final years? We know that he came out and supported Francis Fonseca, and I remember as well, I support Fonseca and I think he was also upset about that one at the time he was already 89. But do you think that he was used and misused for political games extraneous to him in his last era of his life?"

Hon. Said Musa
"No, I think he genuinely felt that, he wanted to support Francis and he made it known by that time. We were in opposition as we were in 96 but Mr. Price decided that on his own man, nobody could persuade Mr. Price he didn't want to do, that is the bottom line."

Jules Vasquez
"However, but I thought that you said, that he felt that he had to approach leadership conventions with evenhandedness?"

Hon. Said Musa
"Yes, I did say that, and but he changed like all of us do at times, by 2008 and he did support Francis."

Jules Vasquez
"When he lost in 1984, that had to be - obviously that PUP was annihilated at the polls, but he personally was beaten by a complete new comer Derek Aikman. It would leave any average person devastated for years - lost the elections the first post-independence elections and then lost your seat. How did he take that?"

Hon. Said Musa
"No bitterness, in fact the very next day Mr. Price was out of his house on Pickstock Street and he went to Independence Hall and he went to The Belize Times and asked what he can do to help at the Belize Times. I mean that was the quality of the man, that he could take a defeat."

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