7 News Belize

Stand Up, But Don’t Speak Up?
posted (May 12, 2016)
Tomorrow is teacher's day - but instead of taking a trip, Belize's teachers have been invited to take part in a rally - as part of the BNTU's "Stand up for Belize campaign." It's a deviation from the planned activities for the day - where each district branch of the union was supposed to arrange outings. But the teachers say they have to come together to oppose the Sarstoon S.I. Today in Orange Walk, the Minister of Education told CTV-3 that while he doesn't agree with their message, he supports them in saying it:..

Hon. Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
"I believe that the teachers have a right to make that decision. It is that we celebrate teacher's day in various different ways in different years. This year it's to be celebrated at the branch level which means that the branches of the BNTU get to select. I'm not going to get into the union's business as to how they conduct themselves. By right each branch should have come up with their own, but they have come up with this demonstration as I understand it as a joint decision and I will never stand in the way of teachers or any Belizeans for that matter demonstrating their patriotism. But of course you know that I was a part of the cabinet decision to put in place the statutory instrument that they are protesting against and of course I absolutely don't agree with the protest against that particular statutory instrument although I respect their right as patriotic Belizeans, if that is their view to go out there and to do that."

And while Faber was freewheeling in his support of the teachers, there's a memo circulating which suggests that government wants to muzzle public officers. We can't vouch for the authenticity or the date of the document, because we've only seen the picture of a portion of it, but it quotes the public service regulations 2014 which expressly disallows public officers from conducting interviews on matters, quote, "affecting the defence or military resources of Belize." Those regulations go unto say "a public officer shall not respond to questions of public policy in a manner that could reasonably be construed as criticism of government..."

The advisory closes, by saying, quote, "Let us be reminded that this is a national security matter which our Ministry of National Security and Ministry of Foreign Affairs will duly address." End quote.

Now, some quarters say the memo is a directive in advance of tomorrow's rally to intimidate teachers and public officers from freely speaking their minds. Well, we'd have to see the whole document with a date before we go that far - but if it is calculated to muzzle free speech, it seems that such a memo would only encourage criticism. And besides, teachers are nto government by the public service regulations; they are governed by the Education rules.

For his part the Education minister told us today that he checked and that document did not come from his ministry. Besides, he says, quote "we have never and would never gag the teachers, of all people," end quote.

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