Dear Editor,
The future of St. Maarten depends on one thing: Putting our people first, while we build a strong foundation from the bottom up.
Now is the time for government, parliament, the business community, civil society, and every citizen to work together. Without politics. Without division. But with one focus:
The welfare and wellbeing of our country and our people.
Presented is a simple, clear five-point plan that everyone can understand – rich or poor, employed or unemployed, young or old.
5-point plan for St. Maarten
Point 1 – Take care of our people. We must ensure better healthcare, more jobs with fair wages, and a lower cost of living. We need affordable housing and real support for our elderly, disabled, homeless, mentally challenged and unemployed. No one should be left behind.
Point 2 – Grow our economy. We must support local business and tourism, while diversifying our economy in other areas. We must find creative and ambitious ways to reduce our national debt. We must attract the right investors who hire St. Maarten people. We must make our capital, Philipsburg, beautiful and safe, day and night, while developing it into an economic, commercial, and small business economic powerhouse, not only for our island, north and south, but for our neighbouring islands, the Caribbean region, and the rest of the world as well. We must fix our traffic, expand our road network infrastructure, and solve the GEBE crisis to bring down our utilities cost.
Point 3 – Build a cleaner, safer island. We must improve garbage collection, sewage, totally eradicating our sanitary landfill once and for all, increase street lighting, sidewalks, pedestrian pathways, as well as develop parks and recreational areas within our neighbourhoods for our families and children. We must clean our beaches and protect our environment. We must plan smarter for each district and make our communities safer, while combatting crime and illegality.
Point 4 – Invest in our future. We must improve education, vocational education, higher learning, job training, as well as job creation that will work hand in hand with our local economic development. We must invest in our youth, sports, and culture. We must ensure dignity through proper pensions for our elderly. Our children deserve a better St. Maarten.
Point 5 – Work together as one. Our government, our ministers, and our entire parliament must work in cohesion in the best interest of our country and people. We must demand fair and equal treatment in the Kingdom of the Netherlands through diplomacy and wise strategic win win dialogue and agreements. It cannot be a one size fits all Dutch Kingdom, as we are all very much different and diversified as separate countries and entities within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. We must reduce our national debt, while putting the mechanism and structure in place that would guarantee that we spend wisely as well. This will take all hands on board. We must together present one master plan for our country, rather than everyone championing their own individual causes and ideologies.
Our message will become one of hope, that works. When our families have food on the table, jobs, lower bills, proper housing, good healthcare, and safe streets, our entire nation grows. And poverty will automatically go down, while opportunity goes up.
Our call to action. Let us together put St. Maarten/St. Martin first. Let us together stop dividing, stop complaining, and together start working and solving.
One people, one objective, one vision, one direction, one purpose, one country, one future.
Achken Roberto Richardson
