Said Wilbert Musa (born March 19, 1944) is a Belizean lawyer and politician. He was the Prime Minister of
BelizeBelize , is a country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, composed of many cultures and speaking many languages. Although Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language...
from August 28, 1998 to February 8 2008.
Said Musa was born in San Ignacio of
PalestinianThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine...
descent. He was the fourth of eight children by Hamid and Aurora Musa.
As a boy, Musa attended Saint Andrew's Primary School in San Ignacio. He then attended high school at St.
Said Wilbert Musa (born March 19, 1944) is a Belizean lawyer and politician. He was the Prime Minister of
BelizeBelize , is a country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, composed of many cultures and speaking many languages. Although Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official language...
from August 28, 1998 to February 8 2008.
Early life and education
Said Musa was born in San Ignacio of
PalestinianThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine...
descent. He was the fourth of eight children by Hamid and Aurora Musa.
As a boy, Musa attended Saint Andrew's Primary School in San Ignacio. He then attended high school at St. Michael's College in Belize City and later
St. John's College Sixth FormSt. John's College is the common name of five educational institutions under the same management in Belize City, Belize. The five institutions are:* St. John's College High School, Belize...
. He then studied
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
at the
University of ManchesterThe University of Manchester is a "red brick" civic university located in Manchester, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration...
in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, receiving an Honours Degree in Law in 1966. He returned to Belize the following year, serving as crown counsel and then going into private practice.
Political career
Musa joined the
People's United PartyThe People's United Party is one of two major political parties in Belize, and currently the main opposition party. It is a Christian Democratic party; the current Party Leader is John Briceño....
(PUP) under
George Cadle PriceGeorge Cadle Price was the first Prime Minister of Belize and is considered alongside Monrad Metzgen as one of the principal architects of that country's independence. Born in Belize City, he entered politics in 1947 with his election to the Belize City Council...
. He ran for Parliament for the first time in 1974 in the Fort George constituency and was narrowly defeated by
Dean LindoDean Lindo is a Belizean lawyer and politician. He was one of the founding members of the United Democratic Party of Belize and was its leader from 1974 to 1979....
, losing by 46 votes. He was, however, successful in the 1979 election, winning the Fort George seat and defeating Lindo by a margin of 71 votes. He served as Attorney General and Minister for Economic Development from 1979 to 1984. In the first years of independence, Musa served on the committee that wrote the Belizean Constitution.
Musa defended Belize's large national debt, mostly incurred in the 1980's, by saying
Keynesian economicsKeynesian economics is a macroeconomic theory based on the ideas of 20th-century British economist John Maynard Keynes...
was being used: "The economy was in a deep recession, the country was broke (due to hurricanes) and we had to get the private sector moving again. We started a major expansionary program ... to pay for the program we took on a lot of debt."
In the 1984 election, Musa was defeated by Lindo, losing by a margin of 57 votes, but he regained his seat in the 1989 election, defeating Lindo by 449 votes; he has won the Fort George constituency in every election since. Musa was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Education from 1989 to 1993. He took over the leadership of the PUP in 1996 and led the party to a landslide victory in
electionsElections in Belize are the duly held elections held at various levels of government in the nation of Belize.- The Legislature :Dissolving the National Assembly is the prerogative of the Governor General of Belize, currently Sir Colville Young...
in
1998A legislative election was held in Belize on 27 August 1998. Belizeans elected 29 members to the House of Representatives for a term of five years.- Background :...
and
2003A legislative election was held in Belize on 5 March 2003. Belizeans elected 29 members to the House of Representatives for a term of five years.The ruling People's United Party won the largest share of seats in the election.- Background :...
.
Musa led Belize to significant growth over his near-decade long term in office, but his popularity declined during his last years in office due to increasing perceptions of corruption among his Cabinet and within his party.
Outside of Belize, Musa chaired several regional organizations, including CARICOM.
Musa again led the PUP into the
electionA legislative election was held in the nation of Belize on February 7, 2008. Beginning with this election, Belizeans elected to the House of Representatives 31 members instead of 29...
held on February 7 2008, but this time the PUP suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the UDP, winning only six out of 31 seats. Musa himself was re-elected in the Fort George constituency. UDP leader
Dean BarrowDean Oliver Barrow is a Belizean politician and the Prime Minister of Belize. He is also the leader of the United Democratic Party. An attorney by trade, he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1998 and was then Leader of the Opposition until the UDP won...
succeeded Musa as Prime Minister on February 8.
Musa said on the day of the 2008 election that he intended for it to be his last election. After the PUP's defeat, he congratulated Barrow. He considered the opposition's focus on allegations of corruption and negativity from the media to be primary factors in the defeat.
On February 13 2008, Musa announced that he was stepping down as party leader so that the PUP could "renew itself from the top." The PUP held a convention on March 30 2008 to select his successor, and
Johnny BriceñoJuan Antonio Briceño, otherwise known as "John" or "Johnny" , is a Belizean politician. He was Deputy Prime Minister from 1998 to 2007, and since 2008 he has been the leader of the People's United Party ....
was elected as PUP leader.
Musa has since found himself at the centre of more controversy when Prime Minister
Dean BarrowDean Oliver Barrow is a Belizean politician and the Prime Minister of Belize. He is also the leader of the United Democratic Party. An attorney by trade, he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1998 and was then Leader of the Opposition until the UDP won...
revealed that Musa and his former Minister of Housing Ralph Fonseca had secretly diverted public funds (10 million USD from the Venezuelan Government and 10 million USD from Taiwan in the form of gifts for housing improvement and reconstruction and upgrading the healthcare in Belize) to pay off the controversial debt incurred by the private hospital Universal Health Services (U.H.S.). Musa maintains that the payoff will improve the quality of health care in Belize despite magnanimous public opposition and the fact that the institution has no government involvement (see
Keynesian economicsKeynesian economics is a macroeconomic theory based on the ideas of 20th-century British economist John Maynard Keynes...
). It is widely believed that the U.H.S. has been in the possession of cronies of Musa's party. Still, even now that the Government has paid the debt for the formerly private institution, it still cannot claim ownership to a single share. The owners of the hospital are yet to be publicly revealed.
Prime Minister
Dean BarrowDean Oliver Barrow is a Belizean politician and the Prime Minister of Belize. He is also the leader of the United Democratic Party. An attorney by trade, he served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 1998 and was then Leader of the Opposition until the UDP won...
has committed his government to a thorough investigation into the matter. Musa has not since given any public statements, save for a single pre-recorded statement in which he revealed that parts of unaccounted monies gifted to Belize had been diverted to the Belize Bank (owned by British businessman and billionaire Lord
Michael AshcroftMichael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, KCMG is an international businessman, philanthropist and politician. He was made a life peer in 2000, and is a Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party...
). In late 2008, The Director of Public Prosecutions directed that separate charges of theft be directed against Musa and his Housing Minister,
Ralph FonsecaRalph Henry Fonseca is a Belizean politician and a member of the People's United Party.- Political history :In 1984, he became a candidate for the House of Representatives in Queen's Square, running against attorney and city councillor Dean Barrow...
. In February 2009, the Magistrate's Court ruled that the case be committed to the Supreme Court. Subsequent legal proceedings have resulted in the decision to commit him to the Supreme Court being overturned (by Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh) after a request for judicial review was granted and decided upon.
Family
Musa is married to Joan Musa. His son Yasser is a respected artist, poet and entertainer in Belize and headed its arts council, the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) under the PUP administration in addition to serving as chief of public relations for the PUP. Another son, Kareem, recently returned to Belize with a law degree and has taken on a number of prominent cases recently.
He also has two other sons, Mark Musa (a doctor in England) and Said Musa Jr.(a graduate of
USFThe University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, and is a public research university located in Tampa, Florida, USA, with an autonomous campus in St. Petersburg, and branch centers in Sarasota and Lakeland...
with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration). One of Musa's illegitimate children, Henry Usher served as the Secretary General of the P.U.P. for the later part of the Musa-led P.U.P.
External links