PHILIPSBURG--The country now has the legal parameters for its Integrity Chamber following the recommendations in at least four integrity reports and many hours of debate in Parliament.
The national ordinance to establish an Integrity Chamber was passed by 10 votes to four. The four MPs of opposition National Alliance (NA) – William Marlin, Silveria Jacobs, George Pantophlet and Christophe Emmanuel – voted against the ordinance.
Voting for the ordinance were MPs Theo Heyliger, Franklin Meyers, Johan Leonard, Tamara Leonard, Dr. Lloyd Richardson and Maurice Lake of United People’s (UP) party; MP Sarah Wescot-Williams (Democratic Party); United St. Maarten Party (USP) leader MP Frans Richardson; and independent MPs Cornelius de Weever and Leona Marlin-Romeo.
It remains to be seen whether the adoption of the ordinance, some six weeks after the deadline to which government agreed with the Dutch Kingdom Government, will be sufficient to halt a pending kingdom instruction that will facilitate the installation of an Integrity Chamber here by the government seated in The Hague.
Government was informed on July 10 of the Dutch Government’s plan to issue a revised instruction following the missed June 30 deadline. The “confidential” draft instruction was shared with Parliament by Justice Minister Dennis Richardson.
NA leader MP Marlin said his party could not support the “wishy-washy way” government had handled the establishment of the law and the rush to pass the ordinance to avoid a kingdom instructions. “This looks like we are outing some bush fire,” he said. He made it clear when he spoke in the plenary session of Parliament on Monday afternoon that NA would not support the ordinance when it came to a vote.
Jacobs and Pantophlet motivated their stance by pointing out that the country had numerous laws covering integrity matters. Those laws should be enforced better by Government to bring about better compliance, they said.
Emmanuel said the Dutch Government wanted to control St. Maarten and the establishment of the Chamber “opens the door for them.”
The passing of the ordinance was the result of a tactic suggested by DP leader MP Wescot-Williams in a faction leaders meeting held prior to the resumption of the plenary session that had been adjourned in late June.
UP deputy leader MP Franklin Meyers told Parliament Wescot-Williams had recommended that the ordinance be passed and desired changes could be made later. Agreeing with that route, Meyers withdrew UP’s 15 points of change and instead put forward one new one calling for all three members of the Integrity Chamber to be appointed via national decree.
The original ordinance called for the chairman of the Chamber to be appointed by kingdom decree. That change was agreed to by the same vote count that passed the ordinance.
Wescot-Williams said of the then-draft ordinance that it was “not the best” she had ever seen. “But, we have to start somewhere. ... If we are to make a case, we need to have done our homework. We need to finish our story.” If, following the adoption of the ordinance, the Dutch Government attempted to push through its version of the Chamber, that action could be seen “as a misuse of power by a bigger partner” in the kingdom.
Independent MP Cornelius de Weever said that in light of Dutch aggression, St. Maarten’s people “need to remind them we are a nation not a plantation.”
Motivating her vote, UP parliamentarian Tamara Leonard minced no words about why she supported the implementation of the Chamber. She said unethical behaviour in the past had put a bad light on Parliament and the country, giving as specific example now-former MP Louie Laveist (NA) sitting in Parliament although convicted of a crime.
She went further by squarely pointing at her own party and fellow MP Silvio Matser who has been convicted in a tax-related case, but is still in appeal. Matser was not in the meeting.
At the resumption of the meeting on Monday afternoon, Minister Richardson, who was present in Parliament with Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, called on MPs “not to surrender” the country’s autonomy “without a fight.” If the Dutch Government decides to push through with its version of the Integrity Chamber by “transgressing” on St. Maarten’s autonomy and ignoring the rule of law “that would be the moment we have to decide if to roll over and die, or stand up and fight,” he said.
Richardson heads to the Netherlands on Saturday to solicit the position of the Council of State, the kingdom’s highest advisory body, on the pending instruction about the Integrity Chamber that is on the agenda of the Kingdom Council of Ministers meeting in the week of September 5.
He also will speak to Council Vice Chairman Piet Hein Donner about the advice for a kingdom instruction related to the 2015 budget called for by the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT and the annulment of an instruction from The Hague to the Attorney-General of St. Maarten and Curaçao.
During the course of the meeting several MPs voiced their discontent with negative statements made by Dutch Police Chief Bouman about the country and its Police Force.
