Dear Editor,
People talk about fixing St. Maarten as if the problems started yesterday, but the reality is much deeper than that.
You have roughly 15,000–20,000 legal voters carrying the financial burden of a population estimated between 60,000–70,000 people. That imbalance alone creates enormous pressure on public services, healthcare, infrastructure, education, and the tax base. Any country facing those numbers would struggle to remain financially stable.
Since 2010, St. Maarten has gone through approximately 10–12 different governments. No country can build long-term policy, economic stability, or institutional trust with constant political turnover. Every new coalition changes direction, appointments, priorities, and policies before previous plans can even take effect.
This is not about race or discrimination. It is about governance, accountability, and structural instability.
Corruption, political favouritism, and family-based interests have become so normalised in policymaking that public trust continues to erode. The hole has become so deep over the past 16 years that no single government can realistically fix it overnight, whether they are genuinely trying or not.
What is even more frustrating is that many members of the current opposition – now loudly criticising failure – were themselves part of previous governments and coalitions that helped create the very conditions they now condemn. Accountability cannot only apply to the government of today while ignoring those who held power throughout the years these problems were building.
Real change requires long-term stability, institutional reform, consistent policy, and leaders willing to put the country above personal or political interests. Without that, the cycle simply repeats itself.
But on another note, the people of St. Maarten also have a responsibility in this.
I saw the recent article discussing the garbage problem at the landfill, but more importantly, look at the garbage covering our streets. We constantly promote ourselves as a “top destination,” yet tourists walk through Front Street, Simpson Bay, and other major areas surrounded by plastic waste, overflowing bins, and litter scattered along sidewalks and roads.
Many businesses and patrons simply sweep garbage into the street as if it disappears once it leaves their doorstep. It does not. It becomes everybody’s problem and becomes part of the image visitors take home with them.
At some point, we need to stop bragging about how great we are while ignoring the basics. Keeping the island clean should not even be a debate. Pride in a country is not just slogans, flags, or social media posts – it is maintaining the environment we expect tourists and residents to enjoy every day.
Maybe if we started with basic responsibility and cleanliness, visitors might at least forget about the traffic.
Garth Steyn
