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Hon. Dolores To Hon. Finnegan: “Resign!”
posted (August 12, 2013)
We've shown you a lot from last week's house meeting – but what we didn't show you was one exchange that happened near the end of the session. And we will show you tonight because it's become quite a big deal for the PUP who are calling for a member's resignation.

The back and forth started when Dolores Balderamos Garcia stood up to speak on the adjournment. That's reserved for matters of public importance, and Balderamos Garcia used the platform to address the decorum, or lack of it, allegedly shown by the mace-bearer Brian Audinett, known as "Yellow-man". That led to an off colour response from the UDP Party Whip Michael Finnegan.

For context to tonight's headline story – we have that exchange from Wednesday – we warn you though, it's definitely rated PG:

Hon. Dolores Balderamos Garcia - Area Representative, Bze Rural Central
"Mr. Speaker, I am extremely concerned. I believe that the Sergeant of Arms that we have now, not only has he been found guilty of harm to a woman back in 2006 and charged $150 but I have personally seen the conduct of him being inebriated in these precincts, of him draining the bottle of Belikin outside of this House and of his behavior and of his conduct out in public, urinating in public and now we have a situation."






Hon. Michael Finnega- Area Representative, Mesopotamia
"Matters on the adjournment must be of national importance, what does this have to do with a man drinking a Belikin beer or whatever it may be. That is for the staff committee, you are getting personal - that is your problem."

Voice of: Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize, Area Representative, Queen Square
"Make a formal report to the speaker, the question of how the speaker governs the employees of the house, is a matter for the speaker. To just get up and malign the man like that without him having a chance to defend himself, I find that out of order. You talk about mean? That is mean!"




Hon Michael Peyreffitte - Speaker of The House
"The sergeant of arms is not entitled by law to respond to you, that's unfortunate."

Hon. Michael Finnegan - Area Representative, Mesopotamia
"To get up and say that the she saw the chairman of arms urinating out there - then I nearly want to ask her, like what - you understand me Mr. Speaker. If she saw the sergeant of arms urinating, what size was it? She's asking for it Mr. Speaker. You will get up as a big senior member of this House, an attorney at law and you will look at a small man, a small minded man (not a small minded man) but a small body man like the sergeant of arms. When you were in government and Brutus was the sergeant of arms, Brutus came across to me where I was sitting down and he came and took away the mike from me. I don't have any problem with Brutus, he's a PUP - you set him to sit down where 'Yellow' is, he's doing his job so what's wrong with that. He didn't go pass the limit, you remember the occasion Prime Minister so I surely don't know - because the things I know about you mam and the things I know about your husband that they have told me, you have got to be very careful."

So that was Wednesday, and since then, there have been howls of protest against Finnegan's off colour statements. All that rage was crystallized at a PUP Press conference this afternoon at the party's Independence Hall Headquarters where the party issued a position statement on Michael Finnegan:….

Wendy Castillo - PUP United Women's Group
"We will not tolerate such vitriolic behavior against any woman, let alone a distinguished Belizean Member of Parliament, like Hon. Dolores Balderamos Garcia , public servant, wife and mother who was exercising a democratic right to raise an issue of public importance in the House. That this occurred without rebuke is unconscionable and a matter of public disgrace and at the obscene display of disrespect during a House Sitting. It signals a new low in our national discourse and we must not allow it. It has to stop! It stops here and it stops today! Therefore, PUP women demand a public apology from and the immediate resignation of the member for Mesopotamia. Finnegan gave Belizean women a vivid colorful display of the kind of shameful treatment they justly seek to avoid when entering politics."





Sylvia Flores - Former Speaker Of The House/Former Representative
"And such assault that took place ought not to have taken place, there are rules as to how the Speaker of the House should behave and I felt that was an occasion when the Honorable Speaker should have ruled against the member for Mesopotamia. What he said and what he did in the House was unbecoming."






Hon. Dolores Balderamos Garcia - Area Representative, Bze Rural Central
"Let me share with you a little secret, it was nothing nice - up to now, I feel hurt. Right Honorable Said can tell you that I called him to say that I said that I did not feel like ever returning to that House. I don't care about ever saying anything again about that misogynist, I don't care to do that, but I do care that we must raise the level of discourse because there are too many problems in this country that need to be addressed. We will not cower, we will not be intimidated and we will continue to stand for what is right. There is no apology and no explanation whatsoever to a matter of public importance and national interest."

And so while Balderamos-Garcia has no apology, not surprisingly, neither does Michael Finnegan. After the PUP press conference, the media went to his home for a response. The veteran parliamentarian was unapologetic, and still very raw in addressing the issue:


Jules Vasquez
"Do you have any apology to make to Dolores Balderamos Garcia?"

Hon. Michael Finnegan - Area Representative, Mesopotamia
"What did I do that was wrong?"

Reporter
"You talked about Yellow man's penis, if she saw it?"

Hon. Michael Finnegan
"That was - I will get philosophical - that was tantamount of asking for the proof. But let me go further, she lied on Yellow man because she has never yet seen Yellow Man urinating or as Creole would say 'the piss in public' - she like her party leader is a congenital liar. She needs to apologize to Yellow Man because he couldn't answer for himself, he was not in a position to answer for himself, he's out of the hood and out of the great constituency of Mesopotamia so I answered from the poor man. Never did one day, in the National Assembly, neither side - disrespected any Sergeant of Arms but you know why she went out and disrespected Yellow Man? Because the Village Council elections, they were so heated a few months ago and she and Yellow Man tackled in Hattieville. Every single village she lost and I feel she felt that Yellow Man was a cause of that and she went and made that blatant and hilarious attack on the 'boy from the hood', not when I'm around. I didn't disrespect women by attacking Dolores Balderamos Garcia for attacking Yellow Man who could not answer for himself. I wasn't attacking women; I was attacking her - Dolores Balderamos Garcia as a representative in the National Assembly. And talking about women, from I got married - I'm married 27 years - I have never had a child out of wedlock like some of those who were sitting at the press conference this afternoon in their approval for the women of Belize. If you want us to get bad - let's get bad!"

Reporter
"Ms. Balderamos asked for your resignation - will you resign? She doesn't want an apology, she wants a resignation."

Hon. Michael Finnegan
"Ms. Balderamos asked for my resignation? I will tell you the only time I will resign and I would want to do it tomorrow. I would want Ms. Balderamos to be the candidate that will not run against me in that great division of Mesopotamia and I will resign tomorrow morning. And I guarantee you; I will beat her by over 1000 votes. The more they talk about me, the bigger I win my seat. And do you want to bet with me? I will put a bet because you are a big boy in this politics game - you want to bet with me that when this election is called, I will go bigger than where I went the last time."

Jules Vasquez
"Sir, you like to say that it's a big man game in parliament. However, it is also a 'game' if you call it that for distinguished people to act in a distinguished fashion."

Hon. Michael Finnegan
"For big men to act distinguished."

Jules Vasquez
"From the fact that you're saying 'big men' mean that you're not factoring in the woman. There's one woman in the House. The things that you said to her, including talking about her husband and talking about seeing someone else's private parts - would you have said that to a man in the House?"

Hon. Michael Finnegan
"She is disrespectful."

Jules Vasquez
"Answer my question."

Hon. Michael Finnegan
"I am answering your question - she is disrespectful and she needs to be answered in the fashion in which she behaved."

Balderamos-Garcia has not indicated whether she will ask the Speaker to intercede. She says she will take advice and decide on that later.

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