Dear Editor,
I can hear him saying “by the time Russell react to this in the paper those who fall for it already vote for me and that’s all I need. So here I go again. I was advocating and still am to get rid of the old politicians and put in new capable young people. Why? Because the old ones have not done anything for us after so many years and they have graduated from telling the people what they want to hear to dodging you, hiding behind dark glass, pretending to be speaking on the phone and even lying.
I am reacting right away to what candidate Theo Heyliger did on Saturday evening so that no one would think that it is because of the results of the elections. The intention is for it to be on your desk before the results of the elections.
From the time I was born I never know anyone born in the Dutch kingdom not to have a nationality. So when I read that Theo Heyliger said that it is ridiculous to have people without a nationality, knowing that he knows that that is not the case in the Dutch kingdom he is openly manipulating the people and that is ridiculous on his part.
Mincing words and making believe as if that is news to him. Does he really think that he can fool all of the people all of the time? Every woman who brought forth a child here on St. Maarten, especially of late knows where and how to go about registering the birth of that child and also, the procedures by immigration. And if candidate Theo Heyliger is insinuating that he does not know that then he is being manipulative.
He is not a leader because he has competent people who are working in that department who are on his party’s list as fellow candidates. The law is already so that once you are born on St. Maarten you can get permanent residence and even a Dutch passport. There are different conditions.
Neither Theo Heyliger nor any party leader can give anyone permanent residency on St. Maarten without going through the procedures. It has always been the practice of women who were here without permission to get pregnant and hide their pregnancy, have the child born here or on the French side of the island because of the immigration status and benefits.
Theo Heyliger, who has been part of Government the years of his political life, knows better than anyone else that this is an ongoing pain in the butt of the Immigration Department, because via his surrogates efforts were made to see who could get a passport or the same permanent residency that he is fooling the people about.
All of this in order to be able to manipulate the people to vote for him. A fox may lose its teeth but never its nature. De wet op de Nederlanderschap (the law governing the Dutch Nationality) is a kingdom matter and anything that is liable to affect that law has to be okayed by the kingdom, not Parliament.
I have written about this in the past, because of the then complaints from children who were living on the Dutch side, born on the French side, could not speak a word of French and in so doing could not get work on the French side, blaming the Dutch side for not taking care of them. Candidate Theo Heyliger knows this and is like I said being manipulative about it.
I wrote that those parents should be candid with their children and let their children know what their children’s immigration status is, so that they will not be caught up in this nationality fight. This will protect them against foxy politicians, making use of their presumed vulnerability for the politician’s political gain. Are these the same people who are supposed to be taking care of the people?
It is not now when it is crucial for votes, that candidate Theo Heyliger should be thinking it is ridiculous, he knew it from the time he got into Government, many years ago. Because of the Masbangu case I do not know what to make of candidate Theo Heyliger saying that he is packing his bag to move back into that seat.
When I’m under the assumption that the people are being manipulated, it could be in more than one way. Here I am praising one candidate for fighting to determine who is a St. Maartener in order that they can be first in their country and candidate Theo Heyliger is publicly inviting everybody to come and make children in St. Maarten in order for them to get permanent residency. In a case like this should not there also be more reactions?
Russell A. Simmons
