The heat from last week Wednesday’s House meeting continues to permeate the televised newscasts and radio shows. The special sitting of the House was apparently convened to introduce a motion in the House records to embarrass the current Leader of the Opposition and the former Prime Minister. But instead of the chastisement of the P.U.P. taking the headlines, it has been the denouncement of the U.D.P.’s Mesopotamia Area Representative Michael Finnegan that has grabbed the attention of the public. Finnegan took offense to a statement by P.U.P. Rural Central’s Dolores Balderamos Garcia about the macebearer Brian “Yellow Man” Audinette. Though Finnegan said he would not apologize to Balderamos Garcia, he read a statement on KREM’s WUB Show this morning and circulated it later to the media. Finnegan apologizes to everyone, except Balderamos Garcia.
Via Phone: Michael Finnegan (Courtesy WUB, KremTV)
Via phone:Michael Finnegan
“I apologize to the general public and the citizens of this country. Secondly I need to apologize to the speaker of the house because things went so fast the speaker was in no way to control what was done. And thirdly I want to apologize to members on my side of the house and members on the other side of the house. I will give no other interview, no newspaper or no television station. This medium is where I use to bring this to finality and I hope that what the member from Belize Rural Central did and said about yellowman. That she saw him urinating in the confines of the National Assembly and drinking liquor in the confines of the National Assembly which I think was totally not true. I hope that she apologize to yellowman.”
News of Finnegan’s apology reached the desk of the Special Envoy for Women and Children, Kim Simplis Barrow. Barrow said that she welcomed the words of apology offered by Hon. Michael Finnegan this morning. She also pointed out the inaction by the Speaker of the House Michael Peyrefitte. She said, (quote) “I call on the Speaker that he will, in the future, be protective of the rights of all members, but especially the rights of the lone female member of the House of Representatives, not to be subjected to offensive language or gestures.” (Unquote) She went on to express her hope that all members of the House would demonstrate mutual respect to their colleagues. This evening, the Women Issues Network of Belize (WIN-Belize) says that it is very disturbed by the turn of events and that the remarks by Finnegan cut to the core of every woman. WIN-Belize points out to the government’s endorsement of women in politics saying that although there is a move to prepare women for political leadership, the institutionalized masculinity of politics remains the same. We’ll have more on this later on in the newscast.
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