7 News Belize

A Look-Back At Hon. Mark King's Public Life
posted (February 8, 2013)

Mark king a look back from 7News Belize on Vimeo.

Hulse's Cabinet Colleague Mark King, now on suspension has been making news all this week. But, in truth, his career in public life, has always been newsworthy. King isn't like any political newcomer we've ever seen: he's brash, bold outspoken, and daring - his critics say, he's crazy. Maybe all those traits led to an embarrassing event at the Princess Casino in Corozal on Tuesday morning… Tonight we look back at his some of his more outrageous moments since he burst on the scene in 2006 - to try and see if Tuesday's events could have been foretold. Jules Vasquez reports:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
When we first met Mark King in February of 2006 - he wore a sheepish look - and that's because he was seeking nomination as a city council candidate in a city in which he was not even a registered voter.

February, 2006
Stuart Leslie, Chief Elections Officer
"Basically Mr. King is registered in the Belize Rural Central Division and so he did not appear on our list for Belize City."

Jules Vasquez
"Certainly you must have strong words for candidate."

Hon. Dean Barrow
"Absolutely. I don't how that could have happened but I don't want to make too much of it, all is well that ends well."

It ended well for King; he won the election, but just 7 weeks later - he was threatening to resign:

Indira Craig
7NEWS has obtained a copy of a letter written to the mayor by councilor Mark King in which King gives notice of his intent to resign from the council.

He didn't resign, but within a year, he had started boycotting council meetings:

July, 2007, Mark King, Belize City Councilor
"I must differ on issues whereby it comes to issues within the City Council. I know there is a little terminology that Mark King likes to give trouble. I am not a trouble maker."

But by August of 2008, he would prove himself to be one in one of the most damaging and sensational interviews ever:

Mark King, Belize City Councillor
"I want Mayor Moya to resign immediately, before the next election, and I want Mayor Moya to apologize to the Belizean citizens. I think she should be expelled from party politics in the UDP immediately."

"In order for many to live, some must die. Martin Luther King took that stand. I can in no way be that man but today I stand firm to tell the residents of Belize that I am willing to take the stand to let them know the truth. After this interview I don't know what grounds I will stand with the UDP but I can tell you when I leave here the Belizean public has the truth and nothing but the truth and that is something I will always be remembered for."

"And no politician comes out and speaks the way I do because they know they are going to be chopped. I feel right now my head is on the chopping block, then again Jules you know my military background, so let it be.

"In 2006 thirteen thousand and odd people voted for Mark King and those nine councillors. We must give them something back and today I bring it raw and uncut to them."

"Today I might go down as a fallen soldier but I do it with joy, I do it with laughter. I do it for my country and I do it for my party any day, any time."

14 Months later - no longer an elected councilor - King was on the picket line with sanitation workers against his party, or, more specifically, the UDP council he used to be a part of:

Mark King, Belize City Councillor
"I think city councilors can pay themselves and that amounts to over $30,000 every time they pay themselves and I think that money can be used to pay our workers, our Belize City workers."

"Look councillors, if unu tek unu stipend this month, unu really unjust to the Belizean workers out here. Give them the same stipend that you all are getting."

Because of stunts like that King was banned from running for office for 3 years - an when he re-emerged in 2012 they still didn't want him:

Mark King
"The letter states that I have been disapproved to run as a candidate under United Democratic Party for the Lake I division."

Jules Vasquez
"But Mr. King, apparently nobody wants to tell you but I will tell you what I have heard from "big" people in the party that they think you are crazy. They really do, It's not my opinion, its what's they are saying to me "Mark King crazy, we will not allow him to run because he is crazy" Do you accept? Do you know that they feel that way?"

Mark King
"Jules so you are saying right now if any Belizean out there applies to join the United Democratic Party and they tell you that that man is crazy. Let me tell you why the United Democratic is afraid for me, it's because I have video and audio recordings and proof of everything that I say and do in this party."

"Jules, I will tell you right now that I come in peace, I have on my white gloves and I ask the United Democratic Party to work with me when that gloves is on because I don't want to go further than that, it won't be good for any of us."

And it seems that threat was enough - the UDP capitulated and they let Mark King run - again he won, and 6 months after the elections he issued the kind of deathblow that would make even Manuel Esquivel wince: he announced that hundreds would be fired:

Today one man, a first time representative - at that - stood isolated in a small office conference room - far from the grand hotel halls where events had been held in the past:

Hon. Mark King
"As the minister task with this grand responsibility it pinches my heart to know that the program must come to an end as all other things. However reality steps in, we simply don't have the money."

It's still not clear if King went out on his own to make that bold statement, but he took a bullet that no rational politician would if they had a choice - which is what may have earned him the Prime Minister's apparent admiration:

Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"In terms of since he's become a minister, really, I have found Mr. King to be extremely self-contained."

And, also, through his wild days, it seems he also won himself a place in the PM's heart:

Jules Vasquez
"There are those in the UDP who would attest that this individual has been out of control by his public actions, and by his not-so-public actions for some time now, and that being in office has only perhaps inflated his exposure to this type of incident."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"I have no knowledge of that. I know that when he was in Opposition, and was fighting for the cause, that he was a brave soul who would engage in public displays meant to dramatize his opposition."

And now it has come to this - a public fight with police, following a tantrum in a casino - was the UDP right in 2011, was he unfit to hold office in the first place.

Now he faces history - could he be the first member of Cabinet to be convicted on criminal charges? But with this footage he may already be convicted in the court of public opinion.

King returns to court on April 16th.

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