Is history repeating itself in Belize’s public transportation sector? Minister of Transport, Doctor Louis Zabaneh, says he’s on a mission to modernize the industry, but not everyone’s on board. Queen Square Area Representative Godwin Haylock is raising red flags, comparing the proposal to the failed Novelo’s Bus monopoly of the past. Haylock argues that the last time a government promised a streamlined, monopolized system, it collapsed in short order. So, is this a bold new vision or déjà vu on wheels?
Godwin Haylock, Area Representative, Queen Square
“But all the fairytale dreams and benefits of a better transportation industry under a monopoly went down the drain in less than three years. By 2006 it was over. And just like humpty dumpty had a great fall, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put the bus industry back together again. Now the ministry of transport is back to the fairytale solution again. They want to monopolize the public bus routes, this time through private public partnership. But the bus operators I talk to out there, you know what they are feeling, they have this gut feeling that this proposal is like Novelos 2.0. only this time the government wants to be the partner in control of the monopoly. I will repeat, everyone remembers that the PUP government were the facilitators of the worst buy out and the worst bus monopoly in Belize’s history. Today it feels like dejavu, a feeling like we have all experience this bus monopoly before. This time around instead of DFC lending, it could be our social security taking on this huge risk.”
