Saturday, July 11, 2015. By: Charles Leslie Jr.
People keep saying young men will become extinct because of all the crime in Belize City. That is not what will happen. 60% of the Belizean population lives outside of Belize City.
This is what may happen if real proportional representation and proportional budgetary allocation is not instilled in our constitutional laws:
What will happen is that there will be an uprising against Belize City. Because the rest of Belizeans who live outside of Belize City are tired of working hard and watching all their hard-work and money being arbitrarily pumped into Belize City, mainly into the pockets of politicians in Belize City, with little return and benefit to the actual citizens of Belize City, and especially to the rest of us. No politician in Belize City can brag about upliftment of their people when, in 33 years of our Independence, more Belizeans are poorer today than ever, all our smart Belizeans leave for a better life and our youths are so jaded and hopeless, that their frustration is leading to their demise which is plastered on the news now, almost every day.
Recommendation:
- Demand that real proportional representation and proportional budgetary allocation is enshrined in our constitution: By doing so you will be demanding that your money stay in your pockets, your homes, your communities, your villages, your towns, so that YOUR hard-work and money can benefit you, your family and your constituency.
Potential result:
- With real proportional representation and proportional budgetary allocation, it would not matter who the area representative is, what party they represent; their constituency will get the resources that is allocated to them under constitutional law – Example: the Prime Minister, no matter who he/she may be, will not be able to arbitrarily give Collet Area Representative $50,000 for Mother’s Day Cheer and Dangriga and Toledo East Area Representative only $25,000 each – What will happen is, the more you and your constituency inputs into the system, the more you and your constituency get out of the system, guaranteed in our constitution, thus creating a positive economic competitive environment that will ultimately benefit the entire country and help create equitable distribution of our resources.
You may say, “these two things are too simple.” Indeed, they are simple, however, without real proportional representation and proportional budgetary allocation enshrined in our constitution, which will create a foundation for equity in our Belizean society, it will be difficult for any other laws or policies to have any positive effect on our deteriorating socio-economic situation, for most of these laws and policies are like taking an Advil to get rid of a headache, and ignoring the fact that you have a baseball size tumor growing in your brain. We need to cut out the tumor and then start eating right and exercising to the get the body in tip top shape.
I would appreciate any feedback. Discussing ideas in a cordial and respectful manner will create an environment where you will encourage others to share their ideas, and ultimately, the hope is to have the best ideas float to the top. This can be done without bothering to attack politicians, we need to attack the system and work on coming up with new unorthodox ideas and new systems that will make this one and the politicians who are using it to remain in power, obsolete.
May God bless you all.
The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the Belize Media Group.