What happened in Curaçao’s Parliament on Thursday (see related story) is obviously completely unacceptable. If elected representatives can’t even debate without becoming violent, what can be expected from the people they are supposed to represent?
Mind you, it’s by no means the first scuffle or fight ever in legislatures and something similar actually happened in Aruba not too long ago. It is in any case a bad development for democracy that must definitely not be followed on the other islands.
Of course, there are some contributing factors that should be noted. One is that members may remain in office while suspects in a criminal investigation and even after being convicted if they file an appeal.
Things are a bit different in St. Maarten because pre-trial custody leads to automatic suspension, but here too persons suspected of wrongdoings and with a conviction have not only been able to stay in Parliament, but take part in elections to be voted back into office.
A second issue is that a parliamentarian who did not earn his or her own seat outright can easily break with the party, keep the seat he/she occupies on its behalf and can then join with others to form a new coalition and bring about changes in government.
This problem is difficult to tackle, because the parliamentary system is based on a free individual mandate whereby legislators can’t be made to toe the party line. Last year’s snap election in St. Maarten was actually postponed for electoral reforms to deal mainly with this matter, but these never materialised.
Then there’s the possibility that a Council of Ministers forced to resign due to lack of legislative support can still dissolve Parliament and call early elections by national decree, despite the existence of a new legislative majority willing to form another government. This possibility was clearly intended for crisis situations without resolution, yet was used twice in Curaçao and once in St. Maarten when arguably such gridlock did not really exist.
However, none of the aforementioned is a valid excuse to physically attack one another, setting a very poor example in the process. The voters deserve better from their politicians.
