“Welcome to the Club”: PSU Defends Union Senator Against Attack Ad

Is the Briceño administration using public funds to attack its critics?

That is the pointed question coming from Public Service Union President Dean Flowers, who is defending Union Senator Glenfield Dennison after an advertisement targeting the senator began circulating on social media this week.

Flowers says the ad is part of a pattern he has experienced himself and accuses the government of using its financial resources to target public officers who speak out against it. 

“Firstly, I would have to say to Senator Dennison, ‘Welcome to the club,’” Flowers said. “Nobody stones an empty mango tree. And so when you see these attacks, it is because you’re doing something right.” 

The advertisement targeting Dennison surfaced after the senator publicly challenged Prime Minister John Briceño over whether government officials can truly relate to the financial pressures facing ordinary Belizeans. 

Flowers said, “When you have a government who has access to $1.9 billion, using those funds to attack a public officer, who is pretty much immaterial in the larger scope of things. And so for me, it doesn’t even open up old wounds for me because this is what we do. We tell the truth and we try to inform and educate the Belizean people.” 

Dennison had argued that there is a difference between visiting communities where people are struggling and actually living with those financial pressures. 

Flowers said the response does not change the substance of Dennison’s criticism and urged the senator not to be deterred. 

“The misleading ads have to end. It’s just for a little bit while that they’ll do it,” Flowers said. “But truth and our job continues from now in perpetuity… That is just noise and only idiots and fools support those ads and add commentary to them.”