Dear Editor,
Please allow me some space in your newspaper to address the Honourable Minister Emil Lee.
Minister Lee, St. Martin was certainly not built in one day but by many years of hard work and sacrifices of generations before that have passed or are still alive and should now be retiring, making room for a younger generation to take over.
Unfortunately we do not know why Saint Martiners who have worked on the Dutch side are left un-provided for, so therefore some of us that are still able have to remain in the work force and are still struggling to make ends meet.
After working for 40 odd years we are left pension-less or severely cut in our pension because we depended on a social security system that let us down. It might have been an administrative oversight of the legislators in the Dutch Kingdom and/or from the Dutch Social Security System, but we feel that it is our human right to an equal treatment in the Dutch Kingdom with others who have laboured to develop the economies in the Dutch Kingdom.
We have paid our wage-tax and all our social premiums. We got our doctor card as employee working for companies on the Dutch side. Now that we want to collect our AOV our social pension we are being rejected, denied or severely cut, with the argument that we are not registered in the Civil registry and/or the Tax department of Country St. Maarten.
We feel that we who have contributed to the development of St. Maarten are being discriminated against just because we are residing on the French side.
We honestly hope that your Ministry would take up this matter and correct this injustice
in order to repair this human rights violation to our senior citizens permitting them to retire honourably and by so doing create more employment for our young people.
Thanks in advance Honourable minister for your kind intervention.
Raymond Helligar
