So, the China flirtation is also a problem for the Americans, but when he spoke on the adjournment, Kareem Musa glossed it over. He said it was a personal visit - which he again insisted was arranged by Johnston Ou, the president of the Belize Chinese Association. Here's how he and the PM argued about that one:
Hon. Kareem Musa, PUP, Caribbean Shores
"I was invited to visit Beijing and Shanghai, Mr. Prime Minister, by none other than the president of the Belize Chinese Association. His name is Johnston Ou and it is unfortunate that we live under somewhat communist circumstances where businessmen like Johnston Ou are victimized and attacked that they then have to put out press releases, that all they went to do in China was to translate. I can tell you, Madam Speaker, we visited so many facilities, agricultural facilities, technological facilities and not one day did Mr. Johnston Ou provide any translation services."
"I was invited unofficially Mr. Prime Minister, I don't know if you've been watching the news, but unofficially and not as a member of the People's United Party, although there were other members there. I was invited, also not as a member of your government, so you don't have to worry about diplomatic relations being, you know, put at risk as you want to try to suggest. Because what you are trying to signalled to me and the rest of Belize for us to be burying our heads in the sand like Ostridge and being afraid of facing the world that is in front of us, that would make our generation a bunch of cowards. That is what you want to encourage, that we would be a bunch of cowards to not realize the impact and the role that China is playing in the world today. So its not about destabilizing with any relations with Taiwan, I went there on a friendly trip to learn and there is nothing wrong with that and I want all of Belize to know that, there is nothing wrong with that."
"You are out of touch Mr. Prime Minister, you are old, you are tired, it is time for you to go."
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"As to being old and tired, well how old is old, I am 68 years old and proud of it, but the bottom line is this: when you talk about who old and tired and don't want to go, you should talk to your father, it is he you should be talking to. If I am 68, he must be 76 and he is announcing that he still will run again in Fort George. That is what is old and tired and needs to go."
"Sir, the media and the public saw a press release that Mr. Johnston Ou issued officially in which he calls you a liar. Now your turn around and you say that Johnston Ou liad. Then explain to me how you, a member of this national assembly accepts an invitation from Johnston Ou, and furthermore the sense that we have is this was an all-expense trip that you went on. You accept an invitation according to you from Johnston Ou who turns around and says you are a liar and all you can do is to say its not you who are liad and he is liad? Well what business you had in accepting a trip from Johnston OU who you now condemned as clearly a figure that cannot be trusted. What does that say about your judgement? But you are a member of the party representing the party in the national assembly, so you are a member of the PUP and you are a member of the national assembly and you are a member of the national government of Belize. You cannot go on an all-expenses paid trip at the invitation which you say came through Johnston Ou, but which Johnston Ou comes from some Quisar government agency, some regional arm of the Chinese government. You can't accept that and come here and tell us and tell the people of Belize you have nothing to answer for, because you went as Kareem Musa. Did you pay for it? They paid for it. They sponsored you."
"As I told that trip have to have taken because you went on your knees. You what is the problem though and when you came back you didn't say a word. You didn't say a word to anybody until you made the media know that you had gone on this miraculous on this trip to China where you had this great epiphany, you discovered how you deal with poverty alleviation. You didn't say a word, it was when they caught you, it's then you bawl and then you start to talk about that Johnston Ou invited you. You knew that what you had done was wrong and you were trying to hide it. Talk about hypocrisy. Look, I have spoken off the record to people in your party and I know that your trip was unauthorized, unsanctioned and unapproved."
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