THE HAGUE--St. Maarten Prime Minister William Marlin kicked off his visit to The Hague with a meet-and-greet on Sunday with St. Maarteners living in the Netherlands. He talked about the developments in St. Maarten and explained his Government’s plans.
Marlin’s first visit to the Netherlands since his appointment as Prime Minister is mostly of an introductory nature. Meetings are scheduled this week with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk and Council of State Vice-President Piet-Hein Donner.
The relations between Philipsburg and The Hague will be the general theme, but Marlin announced that he also would be seeking support from the Dutch Government for specific issues such as the his Government’s plans for electoral reform.
The support of the Dutch Government and the other countries in the Dutch Kingdom is needed to amend St. Maarten’s Constitution to facilitate the projected electoral reform which will address matters such as ship-jumping and the role of political parties.
“Changing the Constitution in nine months is challenging. One of the reasons why I am here is because we need support from everyone in the Kingdom to achieve this,” Marlin told the audience at Sunday’s meet-and-greet held at St. Maarten Minister Plenipotentiary’s Cabinet in The Hague.
Marlin announced that he also would be seeking the Dutch Government’s support to set up polling stations in the Netherlands to enable St. Maarteners living there to cast their votes in the St. Maarten elections. He expressed the hope that the Dutch Government would assist with this endeavour so polling stations could be arranged for the upcoming elections in September.
During the meet-and-greet, which was attended by more than 50 persons, Marlin addressed the recent political developments in St. Maarten and the frequent changes of government.
“We have had five governments and three prime ministers in five years. If we continue at this rate we will soon run out of prime ministers and ministers,” he said. The frequent changes of government are “unwanted” as they are bad for the country’s stability and discourage investors.
Changing the electoral system will bring “historic change,” said Marlin. The electoral reform will bring change to the current system of preferential votes, a system which he said “breaks down the party’s fabric” because it “creates fertile ground” for candidates to participate in elections for personal gain. “Loyalty to the party doesn’t prevail, the candidates’ own interest comes first, resulting in ship-jumping,” he said.
Under the proposed new electoral system, only political parties would be able to form a government, not individual representatives in Parliament. Marlin admitted that this system would not have made it possible to form the current government, which has the support of individual Members of Parliament Silvio Matser and Maurice Lake.
Marlin explained that the electoral reform also would bring change to the display of campaign material shortly before and during Election Day. All paraphernalia would have to be removed shortly before Election Day and displays like campaign billboards also would not be allowed outside the polling stations, as this “intimidated voters.” Also, elections will be held on Mondays instead of Fridays to accommodate Seventh-Day Adventists.
Marlin addressed the priorities of the current Government as well. He mentioned moving into the Administration Building on the Pondfill; the waste-to-energy plant to solve the issue of the sanitary landfill (the dump), which has reached its maximum capacity for many years; improvement of the infrastructure, particularly Front and Back Streets, before the summer; expansion of St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC); and setting up a Youth Employment Fund to address the increased youth unemployment.
Government finances are extremely tight and the financial supervision very strict, especially with the financial instruction issued by the Kingdom Government, said Marlin. The country’s finances have been marred by deficits, overspending and insufficient tax collection since 2010. As a result, debts have been created.
New Minister of Finance Richard Gibson has taken on the difficult task of improving the finances. Marlin said that within Government, Gibson was being called “Mr. No,” as ministries are continuously being told that funding is not available for their projects.
Marlin said this Government did not work with the ministries’ wish lists. Instead, each ministry was allotted a defined sum with which it had to make it work. The 2016 budget on which Government has been focusing will be balanced and will incorporate sound financial management. “We are heading in the positive direction,” he said.
Following Marlin’s lengthy address, the people attending the meet-and-greet had the opportunity to speak privately with the Prime Minister. Many made use of that possibility to ask Marlin questions and to share their concerns.
