As you saw in our Friday newscast, quite a number of teachers used the question and answer section of the forum to criticize Foreign Minister Elrington's perceived weak stance on the Guatemalan dispute.
We'll have a little more on that for you tonight, but first, here's Assad Shoman defending Elrington by publicly accept responsibility for the polarizing term, "artificial border". You will remember that Elrington had to deal with a firestorm of public criticism for using the term, but on Friday, Shoman told the teachers they should be upset with him, since he, Shoman, used the term first to describe Belize's border.
Here's his hearty disclaimer:
Ambassador Assad Shoman - Opposition representative
"Others complain, they say Mr. Elrington is the foreign minister and therefore we should not take the case to the ICJ. That makes no sense to me. He will not present the case in the court. We have a team of lawyers that we have identified. People criticized the minister because he spoke about artificial frontier. But I said that before he said that. In my 13 Chapters which many of you teaches in your schools, but you don't criticized me for that - I said that. Because it's true, it's artificial. It's drawn on a map - it's not a river or mountain that divides us. So let us be clear. We are trying to work as a national team - as a united front with one objective and one voice - Sedi wants to protect and preserve Belize as much as any of you do and as much as I do. We have different styles. We may differ on certain approaches, but our objective is the same - we are trying to work together to reserve this Guatemalan claim once and for all."
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