Said Wilbert Musa (born March 19, 1944) is a Belizean lawyer and politician, and has been Prime Minister of Belize since August 28, 1998.
Said Musa was born in San Ignacio of Palestinian 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 Form. He then studied law at the University of Manchester in England, 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
He joined the People's United Party (PUP) under George Cadle Price and was elected to the first independent Belizean National Assembly in 1979 from Fort George constituency. He served as Attorney General and Minister for Economic Development from 1979 to 1984 and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Education from 1989 to 1993. In the first years of independence, Musa served on the committee that wrote the Belizean Constitution. Said Musa took over leadership of the PUP in 1996 and led the party to victory in elections in 1998 and 2003.
Musa has led the nation of Belize to significant growth over his near-decade long term in office, but his popularity has declined severely in recent years due to increasing perceptions of corruption among his Cabinet and within his party. Most recently such charges included attempts to use public funds to buy a local tertiary care hospital unable to pay its debts. Outside of Belize, Musa has chaired several regional organizations including CARICOM.
Family
Musa is married to Joan Musa. Son Yasser is a respected artist, poet and entertainer in Belize and currently heads its arts council, the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) 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 USF with a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration). |
