by Bilal Morris

Dr. Eddie Laing was the late Belizean scholar who wrote the bylaws for the formation of the Consortium for Belizean Development in 1985 in Los Angeles, California.

The Harvard University law professor who taught the present American president, Barack Obama in law school, rose to become a skillful scholar of international law that Belize was fortunate to have been able to tap into in terms of consultancy on issues relating to Belize’s bordering dispute with Guatemala, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and many other constitutional law matters affecting the Belizean diaspora, as well as matters of significance in the Belize constitution.

It would have been a blessing to have had him develop a constitutional amendment in terms of resurrecting the Seventh Amendment that the Barrow administration appears to be having serious misgivings in regards to placing the Belizean diaspora to its rightful place for Belize’s development.

It was the dream of Minister Philip Goldson who became Belize’s Minister of Social Government in the 1984-1989 Esquivel administration who relied on the goodwill and scholarship of Dr. Laing to construct a foreign policy for the government of the day to harness the potential of the Belizean diaspora through the body called the Consortium for Belizean Development.

Belizean Legends honor this brilliant Belizean mind and the contribution that he made to Belize and Belizeans. May his memory and his work continue to guide Belize towards a brighter future.