Motorcyclists Gear Up for Showdown Over New Rules

Two of Belize’s most outspoken critics of the proposed motorcycle regulations are gearing up for a showdown with the Ministry of Transport. Jose Luis Uc Espat and Sylvia Waight are calling on motorcyclists across the country to join a protest leaving from the Memorial Park at two p.m. on Sunday, December twenty-first. The pair says the new mandatory training is nothing more than a hustle, and they’ve fired back with their own set of recommendations. They’re also criticizing Dr. Louis Zabaneh for what they describe as insensitive comments, implying the new fees cost less than a funeral. Here’s what the organizers had to say as they prepare to take their fight to the streets.

 

Jose Luis Uc Espat, Activist

“They just come up with what’s going to benefit them with money. So what can make the government this money. They noh see out here? They don’t see that, that people are having a hard time to meet bills, to meet this and to many people with the prices of gasoline. A motorbike is their means of transportation, their primary means of transportation. So you are now in a hustle trying to take away people’s primary means of transportation.”

 

Sylvia Waight, Protest Organizer

“The motorcycle is the average Belizean’s means of transport. You will never, never, never see the daughter or the son of a wealthy Belizean or a rich, a rich foreigner living in Belize driving a motorcycle. They will be driving the latest SUV or the latest Prado. They will not be driving a motorcycle.”

 

Jose Luis Uc Espat

“Why not amalgamate it and bring it into the regular testing and question? Bring it into the booklet that, that you receive to study when you’re going to do your theory and then be questioned and drilled in the practical for the same thing and not have an additional cost for the people.”

 

Sylvia Waight

“Mr. Zabaneh, one last appeal to you. Bring in the helmets duty free, free of all stamp duties, free of all taxes, and apologize to the people for what you said about three hundred dollars being less than a casket, because what you said was extremely offensive.”