It took a little over a week of tension, turmoil, and road blocking for ASR/BSI and BSCFA to finally sign a two year. commercial agreement. It also took the prime minister cancelling his trip to Italy and rushing back to Belize the resume the role as intermediary between the two sides. And during the all-hands-on-deck negotiation, the pivotal moment was when the two feuding parties finally sat together in a room - something they hadn't done during the entire process.
Today, Minister Kareem Musa, who is the chair of the ministerial subcommittee but only seemed to appear at that stage, said that the problem wouldn't have been solved without that key face to face. But why did it take so long for both sides to simply sit and meet? That's what we asked him today.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"It was a tough negotiation. As you know there was the ministerial sub committee that the prime minister assigned to this particular negotiation, we've been in this process for months with the different sides and we were able to narrow down the parameters of the dispute, we were able to work out certain kinks but at the end of the year, I think the intervention by the prime minister became necessary and eventually despite all the bad blood and tension and mistrust it became necessary for a face to face meeting and so while it is the parties might not have wanted to meet face to face, I think the prime minister's decision to have them meet face to face was absolutely critical and it came at the 11th hour but absolutely the matter was resolved amicably and at least for now everybody seems to be happy."
Courtney Menzies:
"How is it that this type of intervention to meet face to face didn't happen long before the season started?"
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"Like I mentioned, there is a lot of mistrust and so it was just working with the parties, massaging out the differences, getting them to that table eventually. It had to happen, we told them that, it had to happen that there was be a face to face meeting but there's a lot of bad blood there, it's been decades of bad blood that's been building and I think seeing the parties in a room together and seeing how we were able to just work out the terminologies, I think that's what it came down to, because there's nothing new in terms of what was sorted out or arranged last week to what took place on Monday night, I think everything was already there, it was just to iron out the details, at the end of the day, I think both sides realized that benefit, and moving forward hopefully we can have that type of engagement between the parties."
Courtney Menzies:
"So now what happens with the commission of inquiry?"
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"That is going to start within the next 30 days, I think they are finalizing the terms of reference, the prime minister's office is working the terms of reference and we should be getting that commission of inquiry off the ground within 30 days."
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