Dear Editor,
The law must take its course has become a cliché, a pseudonym within the bounds of our community, for the better part of the past six years, the so-called “catfish” investigation has played cat-and-mouse games. It conveniently surfaces at strategic moments, seems to serve some purpose that it is meant for and vanishes into some storage shelf until its resurfaces again. Stop holding our country and our progress to ransom.
Time and again this strategy is rerun with many community leaders, if an investigation begins on some solid grounds, then I would like to know, why an investigation stalls for lengthy periods of time and at times seems to be moving like a racing car. Although Law must take its course, however, justice must be swift and just. Our people’s minds are depraved with this negativity and a sense of losing faith in the system.
What message are we sending to the outside world? Sint Maarten – the laughing stock of the Caribbean? The country where not to invest? A corrupt nation? An unreal Island?
I pray that justice must take its course, justice for our leaders for they must not be subjected to such senseless character assassination, Justice for the people of Sint Maarten, for the general population, is the one at the receiving end.
Post Irma, just when we are barely standing on our feet, just when the negotiations with the World Bank are in the final stages, when the airport issue is finally being resolved, housing programs taking shape, dump issue ongoing, hotels reopening, cruise lines showing confidence, tourism returning, and I can go on and on.
Just when, who do you think is at this receiving end? It is all of us; it doesn’t matter whether you are black, white, blue or rather any other shade of the spectrum. We all need continuity in the government, we cannot afford to lose focus on bringing back jobs, bringing back schools, healthcare, environment and above, all harmony within the communities.
MP Theodore Heyliger has been a community leader since 1995; as long as I have known him, he is prudent, a true visionary and time and again the people’s chosen leader. His perspective solutions may at times be seen as extreme by some, but in reality, they are ‘out of the box’ and bang on effective.
I urge the good office of the Prosecutor to see the case with the merit it deserves and not by the impressions and perceptions that are blown out of proportion by those with hidden dark agendas and desires.
I stand up against any and all forms of victimization in politics, such decadence and demeaning of democracy must not engulf our sweet Sint Maarten Land. I stand with Theo. Let our leaders lead!
Sidharth Bijlani
Member of Parliament
