Dear Editor,
Any person who is quick to receive and accept praise should also accept the responsibility for things that go wrong during his or her watch. In a recent report of the US state department, St. Maarten was singled out for being one of the few countries in the region to receive a top rating for its efforts in the fight against human trafficking. The ink was barely dry on the notice, when politicians on the island started to pound their collective chest hogging the commendation for the achievement.
That, however, could be considered a good thing, since we have the so-called European motherland declaring us lawless, corrupt and in bed with the underworld. Strangely enough, government (executive/legislature) had no comment, or refuses to return calls about the ruling of the constitutional court on the proposed integrity chamber law. We had nothing to say about the second chamber’s motion that the Dutch gaming authority be made the supervising body for the gambling sector on the island.
Even after the minister of finance requested with clear reasoning why the draft should have been withdrawn, our misleaders remained silent, or as one writer put it mum. The “president” of parliament in an address to the press stated that the kingdom government is basically the Dutch government. They don’t seek a vote here, we don’t form part of their parliament and as they put it we can’t depend on their taxpayers to get us out of debt.
So maybe the super eight and the genius seven can explain to us, if we balance our own budget without their assistance raise our own revenues why in God’s good name we still have them dictating how we spend our own funds. The “president of parliament “ claims that being put on the UN list of non-self-governing territories is regression clinging to the narrative that we are equal to the Dutch saviours in their kingdom.
The islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire and St. Eustatius have all gone to the UN and presented their case of ill-treatment and overreach by the Dutch Government. In celebrating the recently held “Dia di Bandera”, a group of MPs in Curaçao declared their intention to lead their people to independence. For they reasoned that if we don’t get anything but insults and dictatorial imposition from the Dutch, what would we need them for. Our government, I must conclude, didn’t or refuse to hear that.
The “Prime minister” in the council of ministers recently stated that we are four countries in the kingdom only when the Dutch get what they want. According to him, nothing will ever be done to accommodate the overseas countries as could be seen from their stance on the ill-advised political reform proposal. The second chamber is again posturing to have another instruction placed on us to establish this utopian integrity chamber, a law created for St. Maarten, only which the Constitutional court ruled robbed people of their day in court and the right against self-incrimination.
This government is clearly aware of the path to put a halt to all these injustices and power plays by the Dutch. But their campaign donors and their many foreign advisors won’t hear of it, so we resigned to settling for the abusive and disrespectful behaviour of the all- knowing second chamber. With all that is playing around us today, it is amazing to hear that our leaders have nothing to say or go into hiding. We are left to conclude that if it is true that “silence is golden, we surely hit the mother lode.
Elton Jones
