Featured story
If you liked this story, you may
vote for it. Comments are open.
The sensational aspect of Wednesday afternoon’s march by COLA against Lord Michael Ashcroft, was the prominent participation of 4 UDP Cabinet Ministers and 2 UDP Ministers of State. The 4 Cabinet Ministers were Housing Minister Michael Finnegan (Mesopotamia), National Security Minister Carlos Perdomo (Caribbean Shores), Attorney General/Foreign Affairs Minister Sedi Elrington, and Education Minister Patrick Faber (Collet). The 2 Ministers of State were Hon. Edmond “Clear the Land” Castro (Belize Rural North) and Hon. Michael Hutchinson (Belize Rural Central).
Two days before the march, on Monday, June 16, it was announced that the said Lord Ashcroft, through his Telemedia telecommunications company, had purchased Channel 5, previously believed to be controlled by Stewart Krohn. But Ashcroft had always owned a meaningful chunk of Channel 5, and, in fact, provided the start up capital for the station in 1991.
On Tuesday, May 13, 2008, when KREM Radio was battling in the Belize Supreme Court to keep Ashcroft out of their company, Krohn released a statement to the effect that Channel 5 had enjoyed a nice relationship with the Lord. This is what Krohn said: “A company controlled by Michael Ashcroft purchased a 20% stake in Great Belize Productions Limited and a loan facility was provided by the Ashcroft-owned Belize Bank. That arrangement has run smoothly over the last seventeen years, with all loans being repaid and the minority shareholder has not sought to exert any influence over broadcasting operations.”
If Ashcroft did not seek to “exert any influence” over Channel 5, it was because he didn’t have to. At the end of the day, Ashcroft and Krohn, it does appear, essentially shared the same views.
Having purchased Channel 5 from Krohn four weeks after Krohn made that May 13 statement on his behalf, Lord Michael Ashcroft then proceeded to install Amalia Mai as the television station’s chief executive officer. Amalia Mai is very close to the new PUP Leader, Johnny Briceño. Of equal concern is the fact that Briceno’s Belize City consigliere, Eamon Courtenay, is Ashcroft’s Belize Bank and Telemedia lawyer. Johnny Briceno’s Speednet/SMART telecommunications operation, which was facilitated by Lord Ashcroft in 2006, must now come under some scrutiny.
The implications of all this for PUP Deputy Leaders, Mark Espat (Albert) and Cordel Hyde (Lake Independence), who marched Wednesday afternoon with COLA; are immense.
Lord Ashcroft was supporting Hon. Francis Fonseca (Freetown) in the March 2008 PUP leadership convention, because his hold on the PUP would have remained as octopus-like as during the SaidMusa/Ralph Fonseca era. (Francis and Ralph are first cousins.) Espat and Hyde supported Johnny Briceño, but the Amalia Mai appointment to Channel 5 by Lord Ashcroft suggests the Lord is insisting on maintaining his PUP option.
UDP Leader, Hon. Dean Barrow, has always erred on the side of caution in his dealings with Lord Ashcroft. We think the UDP lost the 2003 general elections so badly, when those elections should have been much closer, because the UDP were afraid to take on Ashcroft and his Belize Telecommunications Limited.
In recent weeks, Lord Ashcroft’s behaviour with the new Prime Minister has been nothing less than disrespectful. UDP Cabinet representation at Wednesday’s COLA march sends the message that Mr. Barrow is indeed taking the gloves off where Market Square is concerned.
On Partridge Street, we believe Lord Ashcroft has gotten out of control in Belize, and he needs to be disciplined. Exactly how this will be done, is a major challenge, because of Market Square’s lock on the finances of Belize. What that lock on Belize’s finances means is that Ashcroft uses our Belizean money to entangle and exhaust our government and his local opponents with litigation after litigation after litigation. Partridge Street will support the Prime Minister in his fight with the English Shylock.
All power to the people. More »
Trackback
|
Tags:
critique
|
Category:
Commentary
| 
Share
Share this article:
| Bookmarks
Comments