Email

Print

And, rather suddenly, Prime Minister Barrow has chosen an elected representative and a juniour minister to take over. Today, when we got the opportunity to speak with the Deputy Prime Minister, we asked him for his take on the portfolio re-assignment:

Reporter
"In the press release, it said that Dr. Barnett, but yesterday cabinet colleague Mr. Wilfred Elrington made it very clear that processes at the department that one would have expected to be expedited was still sluggish, so the question still remains did she jump or was she pushed out of the ministry?"

Hon. Patrick Faber, Deputy Prime Minister
"Well you are questioning the prime minister's position again. You are told that it was Dr. Barnett that made the request then that is what it is. The counter that you made just now does not support that she was pushed. Indeed things may not have been moving at a swift of efficient pace; I don't know that you can blame any one particular minister for that. This is something that we've seen and this is what I believe Minster Elrington was saying yesterday that the problems, the corruption even if you will, that the Department of Lands face and the larger ministry faces are not necessarily any kind of indication of the integrity of any of the ministers. This is something that is systemic and we know this to be the case. Every good Belizean knows that when you go to lands you want things to move along, there is some greasing of the paw that you have to do and that is wrong and so what my colleagues in the past have tried to do and of course I believe the Hon, Hugo will do the same thing is to try to continue to clean up this mess, but to do it in a way where things are not going to stand still and there can be an efficient flow of services to the people."

So, did the Prime Minister make a safe choice to appoint Hugo Patt as the New Minister of Natural Resources? Viewers will remember that up until the point where Gaspar Vega was scandalized for land dealings, the Ministry of Natural Resources was regularly assigned to the serving Deputy Prime Minister.

We asked the Deputy PM about that change, and about Patt's Ministerial promotion, and he said, that it is unfair to call Patt a Junior Minister. Here's how he explained why:

Hon. Patrick Faber, Deputy Prime Minister
"I believe that your constant categorization of the honorable Hugo Patt as a junior minister is most unfair. This is a man who has won his seat twice. In fact, we have seen where governments are formed and people who have never before won an election become powerful ministers. So to call him a junior minister is an unfair categorization. I believe that Hugo will do well. He has demonstrated his ability time and time again. He is a very shrewd guy; he is honest, he is decent. I believe he can do this job and do it well. That is not to take away from away from any my other colleagues who held this position. But to categorize him as junior and so he is not able to hold the position is a bit unfair. As you pointed out, it is normally a post held by the deputy prime minister and party leader of the party, but I am in love with the Ministry of Education, as you know. It is an area that I enjoy working and even if the prime minister would ask me, I would have gently tried to escape. Although once you are called to serve by the PM, so it is not something that this deputy party leader and prime minister feel any way about."

Reporter
"Some are looking at Mr. Hugo Patt's promotion if you will, as an attempt to neutralize any attempts at power plays made by you and Mr. John Saldivar. Is that in deed what the prime minister was trying to achieve?"

Hon. Patrick Faber, Deputy Prime Minister
"You seem to think that I can answer on behalf of the prime minister in that regard. But no, I don't know where these positions comes from and I supposed its only speculation, but what I can assure people is that while it is that there is the leadership of the party at stake and potentially the leadership of the country at stake as well, there are obvious things that will come in a race like that. I want to allay the fears of all that contest whether it be between Minister Saldivar and I or there are other entrance as some people are speculating would be the case. I have no such evidence. Whoever is in the race, we will not destroy our party. We believe firmly in the democratic principles of our party and that is why we believe in having these conventions If people are aspiring. But that will not affect the unity of our party and in fact we have met - Minister Saldivar and I on numerous occasions to say each other that that is not our goal. You know that we have been long standing friends and molders in this party."