Dear Editor,
“No, Ronald, you never get used to it.” That is what Roy Marlin, an important politician in St. Maarten who recently passed away, said when I visited the island for the first time. I asked him how it could happen that politicians from St. Maarten and the Netherlands get along so badly with each other. He said that it didn’t help that Dutch people are so direct.
I found that remarkable, because our countries have been together for centuries. Shouldn’t we be used to each other after so many years? According to Marlin, that wasn’t the case. Criticism and harsh words, though very common in the Netherlands, in Sint Maarten one would never get used to it.
Roy Marlin recently passed away and with his death the Kingdom lost a good and wise man. Still, I will never stop criticising. I will also do so next week, when parliamentarians from St. Maarten, Aruba, Curaçao and the Netherlands come together in the House of Representatives to discuss the problems in the Kingdom, in the setting of the so-called IPKO.
A sensitive topic is corruption. I wonder how I should discuss this next week, with parliamentarian Chanel Brownbill, who has been sentenced to a prison sentence for tax fraud, or with Frans Richardson, who is suspected of fraud and buying votes. Or with Theo Heyliger, the leader of the largest party in St. Maarten, who is suspected of contacts with Mafia boss Francesco Corallo, who previously bribed Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte on Curaçao – Schotte also received a prison sentence, but is still in parliament.
The St. Maarten parliament only has 15 members, but the list of suspects is much longer. Franklin Meyers wanted to be Prime Minister, but did not get through the screening, probably because of ties with gambling boss Corallo. Rolando Brison faced problems with embezzling, while Christophe Emmanuel committed fraud with issuing of land.
I know, it sounds hard and direct, but I don’t know another way to put it. The list is not even complete yet. The counter-argument is that there are also politicians in the Netherlands who are suspected of fraud and corruption. But those people are usually forced to resign by their own party. On St. Maarten, these people remain in parliament. Even if politicians are convicted, they often return to the electoral list of a party, like Maria Buncamper, who has been convicted of tax fraud, or Silvio Matser, who has been convicted of election fraud.
A few years ago, I asked a Member of Parliament from St. Maarten, Patrick Illidge, who was suspected of being bribed by a brothel owner, to leave the IPKO meeting about integrity. I understand that most politicians who have been suspected of a crime won’t come to the Netherlands now, but how can we ever have a serious debate about integrity?
Soon the hurricane season begins for St. Maarten and the island’s population lives in fear. Last year, Hurricane Irma destroyed the island and there’s still much damage that needs to be repaired. The Netherlands gave emergency aid and the population of our country raised money. In addition, the Dutch government cleared 550 million euros for reconstruction. It is not easy to explain to Dutch citizens why we invest so much money in St. Maarten, certainly not if we keep receiving reports about corruption. It also doesn’t help if members of the St. Maarten government complain that the help we give is not enough and brutally blame the Netherlands for their own failures.
Recently, the Law Enforcement Council released a devastating report in which the actions of the St. Maarten government during last year's disaster were addressed. “The Country St. Maarten has demonstrated that it was completely unprepared for a disaster of this calibre,” it was concluded. The Council and many others found that “the consequences for the legal order, the wellbeing of the people and the damage to the economy were many times greater than if the necessary preparations and (timely) decisions had taken place.”
The people on St. Maarten need homes, jobs and roads after the devastating hurricane. But the population of the island also needs politicians who are honest about their own failure.
I know, I am very direct: but how is this possible if half of the parliament is suspected of fraud and corruption?
Ronald van Raak
Member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament for the Socialist Party (SP)
