Deputy Prime Minister Says Cabinet Allowance Cuts May Be Needed to Help Belizeans

Deputy Prime Minister Cordel Hyde says Cabinet may have to consider cutting its own allowances to help Belizeans struggling with the cost of living. Hyde said the Government must be prepared to make sacrifices for the people it serves.  His comments come amid a public discussion within the Government about social justice. Last Thursday, Prime Minister John Briceño took issue with comments made by Infrastructure Minister Julius Espat during an appearance on the Love Morning Show. Hyde has now added his voice, saying Cabinet cannot bury its head in the sand and act as though everything is all right. He also had a message for the Prime Minister.

Cordel Hyde, Deputy Prime Minister of Belize: “If we don’t do anything then it will only allow people to continue to say that we are disconnected and we are out of touch and we don’t want that to happen. We don’t want that stain to be on us. I think we have to really really put some dent in our allowances to show people that we are living in the same space and we want and we understand what is happening out here. We can’t bury our heads in the sand as a people and as a government and particularly as a government. I think that we have to face the reality and the reality is that we are not this sleek running machine that we were as a party a year and a half ago when we were winning elections by record margins, unconscionable margins that you’ll probably never ever hear in the history of us. But we have some issues. We have to look inside ourselves and try to renew ourselves. Try to rejuvenate ourselves, try to refresh ourselves, try to recalibrate and get ourselves back on track and remember where we came from. Remember from whence we came. When we started to win it was after thirteen years of losing. Thirteen years of having the hardest time to get people to run for our party because we were in such a losing state and then now we fast forward to now and we feel like everything is great because we are winning we’re on such a winning streak and now everybody wants to run for us. But we need to look internally. We need to find a way to solve our problems. I think we have the talent, we have the capability to figure it out. To work together , to sit together, to try to solve our problems together because the nation requires that we do that. We do not want to go back to our losing ways.”

Hyde’s remarks follow his acknowledgement that, although the Belize dollar’s fifty-year peg to the U.S. dollar is worth celebrating, many Belizeans still feel the strain of rising living costs.