Dear Editor,
Please allow me some space in your newspaper to address the members of the Territorial Council of St. Martin.
I am appealing to your faculty to reason and if you can no longer do so in the interest of our country, permit us to advise you. The ill that is eating away your honourable assembly resulting in its total implosion, has reached the proportions of an epidemic in its most insidious aspect, that is, it is actually spreading. Each thinks that he/she is capable of solving the problem by running as a candidate or a substitute in the upcoming senatorial elections. This is just an illusion.
Those who have preceded you in the politic life of our island know exactly what you are suffering from. But when one suffers from an ill, treatment must be sought. The elected candidates are incapable of solving the problem or bringing back the situation to some form of normalcy, as they claim. You have lost the sense of what it is to be an elected representative. Your mission is to serve St. Martin and its population, who is in dire need of your attention.
You must admit it, – and the general public is quite aware of it now – you are in reality getting even with one another, and that is blatant. You cannot hide anything any longer. So ...permit us to guide you. The only members of the Territorial Council, who are capable of saving the situation, are those who are not running. We are asking those who are seeking their revenge to stop. St. Martiners are ashamed of the "masquerade": the young ones, the old ones, and the less young ones. They are finally getting it. You are not running this country. You only have titles and a disproportionate ambition, out of the ordinary. Never seen in our country! Incredible but true!
Here is the only honourable solution for you and for us who are looking at you, before the general political suicide of September 28, 2014. There is only one candidate who is not involved in this personal or partisan revengeful task. There is only one candidate who is professionally qualified to exercise the duties of lawmaker. There is only one candidate whose focus is primarily on St. Martin, who is not first and foremost a party politician, who is not a dealer and who will not cut deals in Paris with any party or group whatsoever. There is only one candidate who has no other ambition than to defend the interests of our island and its people as a lifetime struggle. There is only one candidate who has been "vetted" successively by the American and French institutions of Law, the only candidate who will be free to choose the working group ready to take into account the specific reality of our island. Finally and most importantly, there is only one candidate who will take up this Senate function with honesty, integrity, and competence and who will not hide from the population the various obstacles encountered during the term of office. You must not hesitate to vote for such a candidate. Everything will not be perfect. But the cycle must be broken to avoid the imminent political disaster. And only you can do so.
Afterwards, you will handle the implosion of the majority group of the Territorial Council. There too, there is only one honourable solution ... but that is another page.
Daniella Jeffry
