And so while he says the ICJ campaign was far easier, for a while there it seemed very unlikely that Belize would get that “yes†to the ICJ. Shoman gave us his assessment of what he fells tipped the scales of public opinion and voter sentiment in favor of a “Yesâ€:
H.E. Assan Shoman - Belize's Agent at ICJ
"When I first came into the picture a few months ago, I saw that on the grounds the No was overpowered and many shared that opinion as well but I also felt that once people know the reality, they will make up their minds the way wisdom takes them. Remember, that that that time there was nobody saying yes. The government was conducting a very sterile campaign not saying yes or no, present the facts, be informed and so on. The No people were out there years, hammering No to ICJ."
Jules Vasquez
"What accounts for the change you believe in the majority of voting public opinion?"
H.E. Assan Shoman
"I think it was not one thing, although there some highlights along the way, but it was a series of things and events that took place. One of them, most important one in many case, was the ramping up of the referendum office awareness campaign. I think a high point too was that lecture tour that the UB and the social sector senators, sort of raised the level of antics, raised the level of the scores. That was a ten venue tour and I think that raised the antics, that got more people interested. Some people will say, it helped the No more because it gave them a platform, gave them a profile which they didn't have before. I don't know, I thought it was necessary that they be heard, that both sides be heard. So that was one, I think the next big event was the 5 Foreign Ministers, there were 5 former Foreign Ministers who were saying, it is Belize that opted to go the scores, we had to pressure Guatemala through the International Community to get them to agree to go on legal issues alone to the court and so on. I think that also was a major point."
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