Dear Editor,
What can we say is our political legacy since 10-10-’10? Yes the political legacy of Sint Maarten. One would think that with all of those tens our elected officials would be inspired to shoot for the ten. It is barely fifteen years now and already our political leaders have succeeded in setting a record in throwing down governments. I believe that anybody who makes a special effort to accomplish whatever, would like for this to reflect their legacy. I am still having a hard time trying to find local politicians past and present who were not instrumental in the fall of one or more of our governments.
It has reached so far that a member of Parliament is from beforehand letting everyone know that he is ready to throw down the government again. My reaction to that is "Did he look in the mirror? Believe it or not, for a while now I have been feeling out people who are willing to advocate for a law to be able to punish members of Parliament who “throw down the government”. There is a reason behind every law and the law governing “non-confidence” is exactly that.
Politicians are not elected to get personal towards each other, showing immaturity. They are primarily elected to create policies for the betterment of life in the country. I believe that from 10-10-’10 onward it is the people of Sint Maarten who should submit a vote of non-confidence against the politicians of Sint Maarten who have been and are in government.
When I was a recruit one of the first things that was told to us in class “Verbeter de wereld, begin met jezelf” (If you want to better the world. you should begin with yourself). Maybe there’s something I don’t understand. If I threaten with a vote of non-confidence, who will I rely on to go along with my proposals?
What I have realized about life is that people who get thing for nothing do not know how to appreciate it. I have the tendency to put our politicians in government in that category, because up to now I would like for any one of them to show me what they have done to justify their salary. But then again, when there is no minimum education required to be able to be elected as member of Parliament, what is there to be expected?
Russell A. Simmons
