Amid the feisty debate over the Education and Training Bill and related pedagogical matters at the House Sitting two Friday’s ago, there’s one critical point we hope was not lost with respect to another piece of legislation that was on the agenda.

That other piece of legislation was the Seventh Constitutional Amendment Bill, which had come back to the House for

The point which we hope has not been lost is that this is a government that consults, listens and heeds the expressed concerns and desires of the Belizean people. It was the second time since this administration took office just over two years ago that it had promptly withdrawn portions of a proposed piece of legislation once the process of public consultation showed the people being overwhelmingly opposed to it. The first time was the case of the proposed Preventive Detention amendment in 2008.

Starkly different, indeed, from the modus operandi of the last administration which in 2007, for example, in the face of the most strident opposition from the masses, remained intransigent in its intention to pass that infamous motion to nationalize the UHS private debt. It was only when it was physically forced into submission with riot breaking out at the foot of the National Assembly that the government at that time finally backed down from what was clearly one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation ever to come before the House of Representatives.

Under the current administration, even those who vehemently opposed the proposed Preventive Detention amendment and the proposed Dual Citizens for Public Office amendment, and who quarreled with the government for proposing such amendments, could not help but publicly applaud the process of consultation itself. And, in both instances, the government’s prompt capitulation to the expressed wishes of the masses is proof positive that with this administration public consultation is a worthwhile exercise, not a charade.

Never in the history of this country has the process of public consultation on legislative matters of national importance been so extensive and so meaningful. Indeed, under this administration, our democracy is deepening, and the people are back in charge. That’s the way it is, and the way it was meant to be!