My Fellow Citizens,
St. Maarten needs a fresh start.
Since we have obtained our status as a country within the Dutch Kingdom on October 10, 2010, some very turbulent years have been experienced. Within a five-year span, we have endured five different governments with no improvement of performance from any of them.
While campaigning for the achievement of this new country status, the leaders of the country promised the people of St. Maarten that the quality of life would be much better than what they were experiencing in the former Netherlands Antilles. However, to date all indications are that the only persons who have benefited from this new country status are the politicians who were elected to office and those who were appointed as ministers. The salaries of these politicians are the highest within the region and higher than many other countries out of this region.
It is fair to say that as a young democracy, St. Maarten can claim the title for the most changes of government within a five year period in the Guinness book of records. Besides all this, the whole debacle around the vote of no confidence and the national decree to dissolve parliament has made us the laughing stock of the Caribbean region. It is unheard of that a government receives a vote of no confidence and turns around to issue a national decree sending home the very same parliamentarians who appointed them as ministers.
There are many who are screaming for changes within our constitution and it is my opinion that we must elect mature members to parliament, members who will put country above self.
During the radio program People Voice a caller stated “our constitution was made for adults and not for children.’’ This is a clear indication once again that those elected members since St. Maarten became a country within the Dutch Kingdom never took their oaths to work on improving the quality of the lives of the people seriously. Instead, their focus has been on themselves, their inner circle and that of their families.
Through the course of that five year period, the best attendance record they can present is the collection of their salaries at the end of each month from which none of them have ever reported absent. It is therefore very important for you as citizens of this country to take time out to review their attendance records for the year 2015 which should be available to you in January 2016.
Additionally, you should make it your business to also review their contribution in parliament, whether it is in the form of presenting motions or proposals that would have improved the quality of your life.
Taking just these two factors into consideration, most of them would not be re-elected to parliament of St. Maarten September 26, 2016 as their contribution amounted to zero.
Our emphasis should not be on the next election but on the next generation, our future leaders and all the citizens of this young nation.
We are a very resilient people and as such we cannot and will not give up hope for this New Year 2016. With the same speed that the national decree was signed to change the snap-election that was slated for February 9, 2016, and changed to September 26, 2016, we expect the commercial rates that NV GEBE is charging our school boards to change to residential rates.
How can education be a top priority on any government agenda while they are preventing school boards from being able to provide our children with state of the art computer centres and our parents from being able to get a reduction in the school fees based on the savings to be derived from the difference in the rates?
Isn’t it about time for NV GEBE to invest in solar panels in order to be better able to assist the schools in getting a reduction of their monthly utility consumption and thus generating another form of saving which can be used as an investment for the betterment of our education system?
Isn’t it time that the government together with the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) invest in the land acquired Over the Bank next to the Vineyard Building to build low-income houses for rent and for sale to our teachers, nurses, policemen and other young professionals?
If we can finance a security contract in the amount of US $2.2 million at the harbour without it going on bid and if our port can acquire a loan in the amount of US $10 million from the Social Security Insurance (SZV) to settle an out of court claim without receiving anything in exchange, then we should be able to build low-income houses for rent or sale to our residents, thereby reducing the cost of living.
This will also lead to the creation of the much-needed jobs within the construction industry. It is a known fact that 40 per cent of one’s salary either goes into your rent or your mortgage which is much higher than most rentals within the region.
St. Maarten needs a fresh start.
The amendments to the labour laws pertaining to the abuse of the short term contracts have been stuck between parliament and the higher councils over the last four years with no interest from parliament to finalize those changes that would be beneficial to the ordinary citizens of this country.
In December of 2013, a motion was unanimously passed in parliament for the government to conduct a study on the minimum wages. Up to this date, neither parliament nor the government have seen it fit to conduct or follow up on this study as they would not benefit in any way from the outcome of this study.
The bottom line is that we must come up with a living wage that is beneficial to the ordinary people as the cost of living is constantly rising.
The OSPP has proposed a loan guarantee program that would allow our young people the opportunity to start their own business. Small business is the back bone of every economy and it creates many jobs. Even though the country was plagued by the
ship-jumpers over the last five years, none of the governments saw it fit to address electoral reforms.
The Marcel Gumbs Cabinet needed it to motivate their decree to dissolve parliament and call snap-election; the Marlin Cabinet needed it as a reason to motivate the extension of the election to a later date. It is clear to see that things would have continued as business as usual if not for these recent developments to dissolve parliament.
This New Year 2016 is an election year and we must make the playing field more level for all the political parties. The electoral council has its role to play but there must be some more far-reaching changes within our electoral laws and as the OSPP, we will be submitting some changes that we have envisioned for the betterment of St. Maarten elections, hoping that the government and parliament would consider those proposals and not ignore them as they have done with many others submitted before.
There is no doubt that St. Maarten needs a fresh start to make good on the many promises that were made during the campaign for the status that we are enjoying today.
We need to focus on more social programs within our communities. We must activate and fund all the community councils to implement social, sports and cultural programs within our communities.
The 13 million guilders to be spent on the expansion of the prison would have been better spent on preventative programs as opposed to building more prison cells to incarcerate our people.
The expansion of our medical centre is a must as we are spending millions of guilders referring our patients to other countries. There have been enough studies done on this issue and we don’t need more. What we need is action. We boast about over one million cruise passengers calling on St. Maarten on a yearly basis but yet we don’t have a program in place to convert a percentage of these cruise passengers to hotel guests that would stay at least four to five days.
The OSPP is up to the challenge and we will continue to submit our proposals and questions to parliament and to the government now and after you send us to parliament on September 26, 2016. Our goal is to make St. Maarten a better place for all of us to live happily – residents and tourists alike.
On behalf of the OSPP family and my family we want to wish you a very healthy and prosperous New Year 2016. May the good Lord continue to bless this young nation St. Maarten as better days are ahead for all those who trust and believe in Him.
Lenny F. Priest
Leader of One St. Maarten People Party (OSPP)
