Dear Editor,
Governance in modern society requires an understanding of the complexity of that society. Legislators need to either have an understanding of a particular area of knowledge or they should be able to identify parties whose advice has the best knowledge base and who are the most trustworthy.
No parliamentarian can have a full knowledge of every area of legislation.
Some areas are more difficult than others and some are of a nature that it is essential to rely on specialists and the main function of a legislator is to select the best information for the country.
Medicine is on the extreme end of the spectrum. In the area of public health the specialist from whom information should be requested is one who has not only done the six-year general medicine course which is followed by a two-year course in one of the many specializations within public health.
When we hear parliamentarians in St. Maarten expressing views on the very specialized area of virus infection and immunology without any reference to research they have done, then one should be concerned about the quality of their input into the very expensive parliament deliberations and the quality of their decisions.
Robbie Ferron
