On election-day on February 7th, 2008, Said Musa boldly told the media that he would not be running for electoral politics in Belize again, that he would retire, but low and behold the forked tongue of the past PUP leader has been once again exposed. On Thursday of last week he held a constituency convention in which he selected a new committee and where he announced that he will be running again.
Those members of the committee as we understand it include, Henry C. Usher, Scott
Haylock, Yolanda Fonseca, Penny Leslie, Margaret Nunez, Karl Pickwoad, Erica Cattouse, Andrew Longsworth, Michelle Balam, Lydia Vivas, Carlos Matus and Carol Francis. Apparently Musa is attempting to make himself battle ready for the PUP’s upcoming national convention. Thing is that his return is viewed with double reservation, from within the Not So Old PUP would prefer that he remains in his political pasture, after all he was the cause for the most devastating defeat that the PUP has ever suffered. In the public’s eye Musa is perhaps the personification of all that was the cause of the PUP’s 10 years of maladministration.
For Musa to want to comeback is a laughable matter, while he may be able to secure a bit of support from within his constituency that is probably as far as he will ever be able to go. Across the country the PUP is divided between the Old and that Not so old factions and even within those who support the Old Guard, Musa is regarded as the PUP Leper who no one dares affiliate themselves with for fear of moral contamination.
While Musa is making his comeback into the PUP fold, the present leader, Johnny Briceno, as weak as he is, is trying to cling on to hope and is strategizing on how to save his failing leadership. There is no doubt that the wolves are at his door and reports are that on Saturday, a meeting of some sort will take place. The venue is a farm located at mile 30 on the Western Highway. There, confidants of a “happy tail” nature are expected to meet with Johnny and offer him advice on how to keep the reigns of the PUP. Reports indicate however that the venture will be nothing more than and exercise in futility. Musa’s comeback and reassertion into the PUP is giving Johnny the chills as his impending doom is materializing more and more.
