Later on, we asked the Prime Minister if his Government would try to block the PUP from doing this, since government controls the numbers in the senate. He said that, subject to Cabinet's approval, he might be willing to withdraw his proposal for a Joint Select Committee, and let the PUP get their way, provided that the Senate probe has the right amount of UDP Representation:
Rt., Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister of Belize
"Listen, we have no difficulty with the public hearings. We genuinely felt that a bicameral procedure would better serve. I heard people say 'oh, it is so that we can put members on the joint select committee, ministers whose names have been called.' We would never do that. But the bottom line, we are very clearly in support of an inquiry and if it is going to be such a big deal, this argument that it should be senate select committee as opposed to a joint senate select committee, I would ask cabinet to re-look at the position. Doesn't much matter to me, because either way the objective of having the public hearings will be achieved."
"Every standing order that talks about a committee of either chamber, says that the balance on the committee should reflect the composition of the particular chamber. We have in the house the majority, we have, talking about the political parties, in the senate the majority. How dare they say that the committee must be composed of the 3 social partners in which we have no problem; 1 PUP and 1 UDP. We won an election you know. I have no problem with that committee being chaired by a social partner. I have no problem frankly if the combination of social partners and perhaps a PUP senator, on that committee would together outnumber the UDP senators on the committee, because the idea is not to hijack the process."
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