IT IS to be hoped that the Caribbean Community Secretariat is monitoring developments in Belize, a member state of the Community, whose constitutionally elected government is under serious threat of destabilisation, according to credible reports.

All advocates of human rights and democratic governance should appreciate that the turmoil in one CARICOM state must be the concern of all family members of the Community.

This is true of Haiti as it must now be for Belize where the Prime Minister, Said Musa, in a nation-wide broadcast on Thursday night catalogued incidents of arson, sabotage of electricity and telecommunications services and a range of illegal activities designed, he claimed, to force his government out of office.

According to reports out of the capital, Belmopan, what started a week ago as an industrial relations dispute over workers acquisition of shares in Belize Telecommunications Limited (BLT), has degenerated into an open confrontation, with trade unions lining up behind the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) against the People’s United Party (PUP) administration.

Whatever the true nature of the dispute, and the level of grievance of the BTL workers, it is simply not right to learn of trade union representatives openly declaring that they would “force the Prime Minister and his government to resign”, rather than engage in peaceful dialogue.

There have been too many instances and reasons within CARICOM why this kind of politics must be strongly opposed - unless we are going to make a farce of electoral democracy and endanger the rule of law.

Right now, Haiti continues to be mired in political crisis that threatens the conduct of new and free and fair elections.

The Organisation of American States (OAS) has been forced to send a fact-finding mission to Ecuador in the wake of the political crisis that last week resulted in forcing from office the country’s third elected President in eight years.

Both the OAS and CARICOM have an obligation also to pay close attention to the civil unrest in Belize before they are left to simply conduct a political post mortem for academic interest.

We would also expect Prime Minister Musa to provide an objective assessment of the situation for the guidance of his CARICOM colleagues, while his opponents also exercise a similar initiative rather than engaging in acts that could further aggravate an already very serious situation.