Dear Editor,
I have come to realize that my letters to you, which you published, have had some kind of an impact on the readers, because every time there is a lull in the flow of articles people who meet me want to know the reason. Their remarks are sometimes sarcastic as well, as if I am abandoning them. The latest comment was, "What yo' write about Theo again, that they didn't like?" I told them it was not I who decided to let the Members of Parliament run the government via the opinion pages of the newspapers.
I was standing in a place of business when someone said to me what has gradually become normal: "UP is not in there anymore, so you not writing anything anymore?" I was not going to start that kind of conversation in that business, so I invited him outside to listen to what I had to say. He was joined by two other people, and I explained that gentleman that I had written to the Editor expressing that I do not think that any Member of Parliament should be afforded the opportunity to address him/herself via the opinion page of the newspaper, because I believe that every responsible citizen of a community should do the responsible thing.
Promptly after that there were three letters from three different Members of Parliament printed in the opinion pages. So I drew my conclusion from that. But concerning those letters, if I were a politician who is going to write a letter to the Editor of any newspaper I definitely know that I would have someone critique it first, before submitting it. All three of those letters needed going over before sending.
But then again with certain people it is not what should not be done; it is I do not care what is done. MP Rodolphe Samuel wanted to know if it is so difficult to choose someone from the Management board of St.Maarten Telecommunication Holding Company NV to be the CEO of the NV, but he is talking about the help desk (for Internet I assume) not being on Sint Maarten.
What does he really want to know? Why is there no help desk on Sint Maarten if no CEO can be found? I would prefer a help desk here, because that could provide four or more jobs, whereas a CEO would be giving someone in the NV a promotion and no guarantee that anyone would be employed. Beside that, there are several other local companies of which Curaçao does the answering when one phones for help from here. WIB is one.
Now my question is: Is this really the competence of the Editor of a newspaper to answer questions like those coming from a Member of Parliament? I tried to analyze it in several ways to see if it might be rhetorical, but it seems genuinely emotional, and to me embarrassing.
Since I'm at it, permit me to mention this. Even though I have known that civics is taught in the schools, because I noticed that very few people here know their civil rights, I repeatedly mentioned this over the years. Not even our people in government know the basics of our civil code and rights. As has become the custom now, it took someone who is not afraid to make use of their rights to freedom of expression to bring that forward. But I can understand for them, because I also would not go in the sea if I cannot swim. This tells me something of their party leaders.
This is exactly what I have been stating, whether openly or in between the lines. Our people in government do not care about what is good for the citizens of the country, and will not make any effort to better it. We drastically need electoral reform and one of the requirements to be in government should be that one should at the least be legally in possession of a legal diploma or equivalent thereof of the level of the compulsory education of the country. If higher education could be demanded for any candidate Member of Parliament that would be even better.
By the way, the arrangement of the equipment permitted to be used for all public transportation, (busses, taxis, etc.), should be found in the ordinance governing public transportation. These are some of the issues that were brought forward many years ago, but were not attended to because a former commissioner of public transportation refused to keep meetings with the members of the Government Control Unit. We later learned why, but nothing has been done to correct this situation.
I hope that now that Zika is the new craze, someone would be more considerate and do the right thing. There are so many laws on the books that are not implemented, which could help curb a lot of infractions. We do not need to re-invent the wheel. Members of Parliament need to do their jobs.
Russell A. Simmons
