We've reported on the ten commissioners of the PCC who have written to the prime minister rejecting the report that was sent to him. These commissioners say they were never allowed to see the report before it was sent and they take issues with several of the recommendations.
Today we asked the Minister of Public Service - and former Minister of Constitutional Affairs - about his thoughts. Unlike the current Constitutional Affairs Minister, Henry Charles Usher- who is known as a hard-liner - put the blame entirely on the commissioners, insinuating that they wanted their own personal views to be reflected in the report, rather than the sectors they represent. Here's what he told us.
Henry Charles Usher, Minister of Public Service
"Well, I think that, first, I'm happy to see that there was a report prepared with 167 recommendations. It was delivered to the Prime Minister. And now that with the amendment that we're attempting to get through to increase the time we have to look at those 167 recommendations. Remember, this initiative, called the People's Constitution Commission, was to hear the views of the people, was to hear the views of the Belizean people at home and abroad, because they actually had an opportunity to reach out to the diaspora. It wasn't necessarily to hear the views of the commissioners. And that's what they were. They were they were told from the very beginning your views, your personal opinions. You have to put aside. You are merely a conduit for the people to talk to the government. It has always been a situation where the people say, oh, the government is not listening to us. Well, we're giving you a direct opportunity now to talk to the government directly through this conduit called the People's Constitution Commission. The views and opinions, the passion projects of the commissioners were not supposed to be in that report. If they wanted it to be in the report, they should have had somebody in the public raise it at one of the consultations."
Jules Vasquez
"However, so then you must take issue with the National Women's Commission and the National University, who are two signatories of the letter. They are functionaries of the government."
Henry Charles Usher
"No, I don't take issue with them. I just think that they perhaps misunderstood what they were there to do, that they were not there to say what is the position of the National Women's Commission? They were not there to say, what is the position of the national university? They were there to say, okay, we went to so many consultations countrywide, including, an online version with the diaspora, and this is what they are seeing. And this is what is in the report now in terms of their procedural issues, I can't comment on that because I don't I wasn't a part of it in terms of how the whatever got into report got there in terms of where it came from."
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