By Dylan Vernon, TIMECOME #12, 10 September 2024.

During the long bacchanal this month, we can be excused for not reflecting too deeply on September’s absurd legacy of contradictions. Every year on September 10th we celebrate the British staying in what became Belize. Then just 11 days later we celebrate the British leaving. If ‘national post-colonial schizophrenia’ is a thing, Belize would be a prime candidate for collective psychotherapy. Some Belizeans embrace this unique 10^th and 21^st irony sin preguntas. But a few of us can’t help but ask critical questions that some deem as irritating or unpatriotic. But here goes.

In the 1990s, I spent a lot of time getting worked up over the 10^th, which I viewed as damaging colonial baggage. The fact that I am now more chilled about it does not reflect a change of view; only that I decided to redirect my energies to other substantive issues. But three things spurred me recently to re-visit our ‘Septemba Kanfyoozhan’. First, I refused invitations this week to appear on talk shows to discuss the 10^th. I have done one too many of these and figured it wasn’t worth increasing my blood pressure for a fluffy 10-minute chat while still waking up.… Read the rest...

By Dylan Vernon, TIMECOME #11, 5 September 2024.

Whether you find the current infighting in Belize’s Opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) delightful, depressing or just plain popcorn worthy, it does raise a few prickly constitutional questions. For example, can the Honourable Shyne Barrow, the current UDP Leader of the Opposition (LOO), force members of his own party to vacate their parliamentary seats? Such questions put a spotlight on Section 59A of the Constitution of Belize which deals with members of the House of Representatives resigning from their political party or crossing the floor. Has 59A served our democracy well? Does it need rethinking?

Current UDP Woes

Cutting to the chase, a long-standing cut-throat competition (since 2020) for leadership of the UDP has devolved into a political circus that sometimes seems just on the verge of partisan suicide. It almost makes the intra-party conflicts of the People’s United Party (PUP) of 2008 to 2015 seem distantly quaint.

Most recently on 28 August 2024, the central executive of the UDP announced that four of its executive members had ‘constructively resigned’ due to actions it perceived as violating the party’s constitution. Three of the four have held or sought the post of UDP party leader before: John Saldivar, Patrick Faber and Tracy Taegar-Panton.… Read the rest...

By Dylan Vernon, TIME COME #10, 8 August 2024.

For this TIME COME, I share the keynote speech (without the ad libbing) I had the pleasure of delivering to the 102^nd Annual General Meeting of the Public Service Union of Belize on 2 August 2024 in Belize City. The AGM’s theme was “PSU: 102 Years Strong! United in Service, Legacy in Action.”

Congratulations on the 102^nd anniversary of your Public Service Union. There is much in your PSU legacy to be proud of but also more legacy to create. I have been asked by your Council of Management to share some thoughts on key issues of political reform in Belize today. Whenever we use the word reform it is usually because something needs fixing. In this case it is our very democracy.  I opted to build my remarks tonight around an issue I know that your union has often highlighted: the blatant failure of Belize to deliver constitutionally mandated annual audits of public accounts in most of the past 12 years. However, I propose to approach this ‘audit problem’ from a rather different and wider angle than what you may be used to.

On the PSU Legacy

Before I get to that, let me share some bits and pieces of your PSU legacy as it relates to Belize’s post-1950s constitutional history:

• In 1963, the then Public Officers Union was one of very few organisations to submit proposals on the self-government constitution.

… Read the rest...

By Dylan Vernon, TIME COME #9, 23 July 2024.

For those in the Caribbean expecting inspiration from the Report of the Constitutional Reform Committee (CRC) of Jamaica, don’t hold your breaths. After a fourteen-month process, the fifteen-member CRC released its Report in May 2024, and it is currently awaiting debate in Jamaica’s Parliament. The cautious tone of the recommendations is not surprising given the elite approach that characterised the CRC membership and much its process. Could it be too that the failure of advancing progressive recommendations in other CRC processes led to bland conservatism? Witness what happened, for example, in St. Vincent & the Grenadines (2009), in St. Lucia (2011), in Grenada (2016) and most recently in Chile. Whatever the reasons, it is another opportunity lost for progressive and substantive constitutional decolonisation in the Caribbean. Is this the same familiar road that Belize and the rest of the Caribbean are going down?

 A Top-Down Process in Jamaica

Apart from Belize and Jamaica, constitutional reform processes in CARICOM states are now underway in Barbados, , St. Lucia, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago. St. Kitts & Nevis has promised one. Antigua & Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have promised to start a process to ditch the King as Head of State.… Read the rest...

By Dylan Vernon, TIME COME #8, 9 July 2024.

Three recent developments sparked my interest in this topic: the Cabinet decision in late 2023 that Belize could send armed forces to Haiti, the extension of the current state of emergency in parts of Belize (that brings suspects face-to-face with armed soldiers), and the introduction last month of the National Security Council Bill. The latter defines ‘armed forces’ as the Belize Defence Force, the Belize Coast Guard and “any other authority of Belize that has functions relating to the military defence of the country on land, air, sea, or in the cyber domain.” These developments all beg a critical question: Does our current Constitution deal adequately with matters related to the role and use of our armed forces? I argue that it needs to do better.

Not Much in the Constitution 

In his 2008 book A Caribbean Identity: Memoirs of the Colonial Service, A.S. Frankson tells of how one day in 1969, when he was permanent secretary of Home Affairs, Minister C.L.B Rogers directed him to prepare a Cabinet paper (his last) on the establishment of the Belize Defence Force. Due largely to delayed independence it was not until 1978 that the Belize Volunteer Guard transitioned into the Belize Defence Force (BDF) – with the mandate to defend Belize and to support the maintenance of order within its borders (Defence Act).… Read the rest...