The Role of Political Leaders in the Birth of Belize

Over the weekend, Belize celebrated its 44th Independence anniversary. Once a small colony, the nation now proudly champions its right to self-determination. At Battlefield Park, leaders reflected on the heroes who shaped Belize’s journey. In tonight’s Belize on Reel, Britney Gordon takes us deeper into those reflections.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

The Battlefield Park sits at the heart of downtown Belize City.  Since 1638, it has dutifully served as the preferred meeting place of Belizeans and it’s there that labor activist, Antonio Soberanis and the People’s United Party got their start; and on Sunday, the forty-fourth anniversary of Belize’s Independence, it’s where Belizeans gathered to celebrate the sovereignty of their nation. At the ceremony, Prime Minister John Briceno spoke to the significance of the park to the People’s United Party.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“From this very spot the father of our nation, George Price assured our parents and grandparents that we deserve to determine our own destiny. That together we were strong enough to chart our own future. From here, he acclaimed that we had come a long way from the cutting of lag wood, and that it is now time for nationhood from the start of the people’s United Party. Seventy-five years ago, George Price had a singular purpose to achieve for his and future generations’ independence. And from this space then known as Battlefield Park, he proclaimed in the late sixties that we were independence bound.”

 

The work of George Cadle Price, known as Belize’s “Father of the Nation”, was also acknowledged by Leader of the Opposition, Tracy Taegar-Panton. Panton reflected on Price’s revolutionary movement to free Belizeans from oppression.

 

Tracy Taegar-Panton, Leader of the Opposition

“It is here that the movement of Belize’s political independence took root under the capable stewardship of the right, honorable. George Cadle Price, the father of our independent Belize, a man whose dedication and service to Belize has inspired those who have taken that solemn oath to conscientiously, impartially and to the best of our abilities to do right by all manner of people without fair or favor, malice or ill will the unshakeable conviction to put country before self.”

 

Formed on September twenty-ninth, 1950, the People’s United Party began as an anti-colonial party. George Price, the party’s first leader played a major role in negotiating Belize’s self-governance and eventual Independence.

 

Prime Minister John Briceño

“For us in the People’s United Party. It was and always will be about nation building. Now it is from our seventy-fifth anniversary, we can look back at the many national achievements by our great party, together with the Belizean people. From successfully obtaining universal adult suffrage in 1954 to self-government, to 1964. From the internalization of Belize’s right to self-determination in international for to the birth of our nation on the twenty-first September.”

 

Phillip Goldson was a founding member of both of Belize’s major political parties: the United Democratic Party and the People’s United Party. He was a pioneer of Belize’s nationalist movement and led the charge in reforming Belize’s education system.

 

Tracy Taegar-Panton, Leader of the Opposition

“ They understood that this is a sacred responsibility to share a beliefs where we can achieve our highest aspirations, where our political discourse is best had when it is void of partisan rhetoric that adds no value or goodwill for that matter to the work of nation building when our national priorities reflect the concerns and the real needs of the people.”

 

As Belize looks forward to many more years of Independence, the fight to uphold the country’s sovereignty continues and the need for unity persists. Britney Gordon for News Five.