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...

By Dylan Vernon, Real Story #9, 12 June 2024.

In my Fifteen Proposals for a People’s Constitution, I argue that, although Belizean political culture will have some influence on constitutional reform decisions, not everything about it deserves preservation or adaptation. Yet it is important to build on the bits that do. As Belizeans, we generally value free elections, peaceful changes of government, open political expression, political tolerance and ethnically inclusive party politics. In this REAL STORY post, I focus on the latter. In the nationalist and post-independence politics of Belize, there were moments when our multi-ethnic demography seemed to be a potent brew for the development of ethnic-based parties. But Belize has been successful in avoiding these – unlike Caribbean states such as Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. So, how has Belize managed this and how do we keep it so?

Ethnic Politics & the Nationalist Movement

There were potential opportunities for ethnic-based parties to spring up in Belize in the 1950s and 60s as the Belize’s nationalist leaders jostled for power and formed political parties. Although not as overt, as say between Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese groups, there were pre-existing tensions among some of Belize’s ethnic groups – due, in part, to the divide and rule tactics of the British.… Read the rest...