Dear Editor,
The extension of the 2025 budget debate was nothing short of a circus. It is evident that the younger they are, the less poised and intellectual they portray themselves to be. No matter how much they try to conceal their intentions, their comments and behaviours, always reveal who they are. This conduct underscores the saying, “The leopard doesn’t change its spots.” All that these Members of Parliament need is the right timing and situation to display their selfish desires.
Surely, there is a huge disparity between earning a degree and having the ability to apply that knowledge towards personal and professional development. After three days of fiery commentary, I’m still trying to figure out the real purpose for the continuation of the revised budget. I was expecting to hear meaningful discussions on the amendments that were induced into the budget by Members of Parliament and Justice Minister Nathalie Tackling.
What happened to that discourse? The public was waiting to hear the discussions on the various modifications and how these changes would enhance the justice ministry and parliament. Instead, the population was blindsided with tons of senseless questions and motions that these MPs could not even present with conviction. But again, what was their true intention? Based on what has transpired, it is clear that their aim is to topple the government, one way or the other.
These are the same officials who professed that they are there to work with the ministers. But these 3 days of deliberations did not indicate that willingness. Their behaviour was a cry of desperation to return to the executive branch, because they have unfinished business to take care of. So, by the hook or the crook, they have to get back in there. Furthermore, this budget debate was as if the majority of these MPs were carrying out a directive from the man with the golden key.
This is why I’ve pleaded repeatedly that we need a new breed of prosecutors and national detectives – law enforcement who could do their job effectively. As I said before, if they were doing their job, half of parliament would not be sitting there today. MPs who mean well do not threaten their colleagues in the executive branch via motions. They dialogue with them, to further understand the challenges that they are faced with, and then offer assistance where necessary.
It was amazing to see how the issues about ankle bracelets, early release and the rights of prisoners dominated the debate. It was as if the justice minister or the entire council or the rest of the population handcuffed the prisoners and threw them in prison. It is they who made the choice to be locked up. What about us, who abide by the laws of the land? What about human rights for all of us; the victims whom they have hurt? Who is looking out for our rights, Members of Parliament?
I wished that MP Ottley and MP Lacroes would exert that same “passion” for women who are victims of domestic abuse; children of sexual abuse; victims of robberies; murders; and how can I forget the bikers? Where is the “passion” for them – those whose lives are being cut short because of the lack of direction? What about them, MP Ottley? Are they just good for taking over the streets during election time, when you scour the neighbourhoods to look for votes?
MP Frankie Myers, you are restraining my comments right now. But sometimes it is better to watch and let things play out. However, I’ll make a few brief remarks. MP Myers, I know that you are aware that you are torn between your nephews and the justice minister. Guaranteed, they don’t feel the same way. Blood is thicker than water. So, we all know why MP Ottley is adamant that the minister deals with the matters of ankle bracelet, early release and human rights for inmates.
MP Frankie Myers, I don’t think that you are defending Minister Tackling enough. You want her to do an exceptional job, but you are not paying attention to the change of dynamics in parliament. They want to get rid of you, because if they do, they get rid of the minister also. MP Myers, you are in their way. Definitely, if you were not part of this coalition, the government would have fallen already.
Prime Minister Luc Mercelina, you need to dive head-on into political reform, post-haste. It's time to return to the original format of selecting persons with integrity to serve in the legislative branch, rather than continuing with this current status that is destroying the country, election after election.
Joslyn Morton
Dear Editor,
Some weeks ago, I wrote about clean audits and dirty truths, how pristine financials didn’t stop collapses at GEBE, TelEm, or the Port of St. Maarten. This is part two. ENNIA shows what happens when red flags are ignored, truth-tellers are fired, and oversight arrives too late.
In 2017, KPMG, then ENNIA’s auditor, flagged inflated assets, shady intercompany deals, and one outrageous sum: Mullet Bay, booked at NAf. 770 million. Independent appraisers valued it closer to NAf. 90 million. This wasn’t blind optimism. It was a smoke-and-mirrors stunt used to justify over NAf. 700 million in dividend payouts to Parman International, which is owned by Hushang Ansary.
When KPMG raised the alarm, ENNIA didn’t correct its course. They fired KPMG. In came Baker Tilly Dutch Caribbean. Their auditors, Victor Bergisch and Eric Vesseur, signed off on the numbers that kept the illusion alive.
By then, the myth had taken root. Even as cracks appeared, defenders clung to the belief that Mullet Bay’s beachfront location and future potential somehow justified the inflated numbers. However, speculation is not an accounting principle, and wishful thinking is not a vision. It’s fiction. And that lie became the foundation for dividends that should never have been paid, especially not with money meant for pensioners.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Curaçao (CBCS) and St. Maarten had been raising internal warnings since 2015. But their hands were tied. The law did not allow them to act until the collapse became unavoidable. Emergency supervision wasn’t a bold preventive move. It was damage control. “We did not come to this measure lightly,” said the CBCS in 2018, as it stepped in to protect NAf. 1.2 billion in commitments to policyholders.
The Court of First Instance 2023 ruling confirmed that inflated valuations of Mullet Bay enabled illegal dividend payments at ENNIA. By 2025, four accountants had been suspended by the Dutch Accountantskamer (the disciplinary board for accountants in the Netherlands) for approving those numbers: Bergisch and Vesseur of Baker Tilly Dutch Caribbean and Rokx and Pupping of Mazars. The disciplinary actions cited their failure to challenge the valuations and apply professional skepticism.
This wasn’t an isolated mistake. It exposed a system where warnings were ignored and accountability arrived too late, a failure not just of individuals, but of the very safeguards meant to protect the public interest. Auditors rely on management’s honesty and depend on supervisory boards to act. But when truth-tellers are fired and boards rubber-stamp financial fantasies, the process stops being oversight and becomes theater.
These failures reflect deeper, long-standing habits and pressures in our system. When weak supervision becomes the norm and speaking up is discouraged, it is easier for problems to be ignored. Add a central bank with delayed enforcement powers, and one gets a perfect storm. One that cost thousands of ENNIA policyholders their peace of mind and nearly their pensions.
Once again, the public is left asking: at what cost to the taxpayer?
If we do not fix the system, we will continue to relive the same failures. St. Maarten cannot afford to wait for the next disaster. Strengthening the General Audit Chamber is an essential first step to ensure that local oversight is robust and independent. However, local reforms alone are insufficient. Audit oversight in the Dutch Caribbean is divided, with each island setting its own standards and enforcement policies. This patchwork approach allows firms to exploit the gaps between jurisdictions.
To truly protect the public interest, we need a region-wide authority built with input from each island’s Audit Chamber, empowered to review audits, enforce standards, and hold firms accountable. Establishing such a body would require collaboration between island governments, agreement on shared standards, and sustainable funding, steps that demand political will and regional cooperation. Only then can fragmented supervision be transformed into a shared shield.
So long as these gaps remain, so will the risks. Without real reform, the pattern will hold: truth-tellers will be sidelined, and those meant to protect us will either look away or arrive after the heist. We are not preventing collapse; we are rehearsing it. This time, it was illegal dividend payouts. Next time, it could be your savings, your healthcare, or your future.
Silence isn’t neutral. It’s expensive.
Angelique Remy-Chittick
Financial Strategist and Consultant
Financial.ish
Dear Editor,
What can we say is our political legacy since 10-10-’10? Yes the political legacy of Sint Maarten. One would think that with all of those tens our elected officials would be inspired to shoot for the ten. It is barely fifteen years now and already our political leaders have succeeded in setting a record in throwing down governments. I believe that anybody who makes a special effort to accomplish whatever, would like for this to reflect their legacy. I am still having a hard time trying to find local politicians past and present who were not instrumental in the fall of one or more of our governments.
It has reached so far that a member of Parliament is from beforehand letting everyone know that he is ready to throw down the government again. My reaction to that is "Did he look in the mirror? Believe it or not, for a while now I have been feeling out people who are willing to advocate for a law to be able to punish members of Parliament who “throw down the government”. There is a reason behind every law and the law governing “non-confidence” is exactly that.
Politicians are not elected to get personal towards each other, showing immaturity. They are primarily elected to create policies for the betterment of life in the country. I believe that from 10-10-’10 onward it is the people of Sint Maarten who should submit a vote of non-confidence against the politicians of Sint Maarten who have been and are in government.
When I was a recruit one of the first things that was told to us in class “Verbeter de wereld, begin met jezelf” (If you want to better the world. you should begin with yourself). Maybe there’s something I don’t understand. If I threaten with a vote of non-confidence, who will I rely on to go along with my proposals?
What I have realized about life is that people who get thing for nothing do not know how to appreciate it. I have the tendency to put our politicians in government in that category, because up to now I would like for any one of them to show me what they have done to justify their salary. But then again, when there is no minimum education required to be able to be elected as member of Parliament, what is there to be expected?
Russell A. Simmons
Dear Editor,
If there is no order this causes disorder. I think that nowadays that is the direction we are heading in. Too often of late I have to ask myself where did it begin?
I am at any time willing to calmly and preferably individualĺy talk to anybody who is willing to accept what I will explain concerning their behavior in traffic and hopefully come to consensus that their behavior in traffic is not according to the traffic laws.
Some might ask why wouldn’t I go on the radio and explain it. Even though I’m aware that unity is strength, I’ll go along with “one, one full the bucket”.
But it is not only people on motorcycles. I stand corrected but I believe that confusion is contagious. Why am I stating this? When I drive from the Longwall Road via the Little Bay road up to the beginning of the Welgelegen Road, on paper I do not know where I am.
So here we go. Where is Belair and where is Cay Hill? Where is the St. Maarten Medical Center located? Is it eventually the intention to rename the Raoul Illigde Ball Park? Where does the Little Bay road end and where does Welgelegen road begin? Not letting Minister Gumbs off the hook, but I do not believe that he was there when this all began.
To put an exclamation point on what I want to illustrate, will somebody explain to us why is there a traffic sign obliging drivers to stop (8) and one cautioning drivers to yield (7) at the same T-junction?(Cannegiterstreet Windward Island Bank.) Please help me to untie this knot.
Russell A. Simmons
Dear Editor,
From 1994 up to now the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Punishment has released devastating reports concerning the detention situation in Point Blanche prison. Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits torture and inhuman and degrading punishment. This prohibition is applicable on the subhuman detention conditions in Point Blanche which for decades constitutes a flagrant violation of basic human rights.
Sint Maarten already has internationally a dubious reputation concerning this matter and has a recent history of 458 detainees per 100,000 inhabitants, making the top 10 list of the highest detention rate in the world (World Prison Population list tenth edition). Not something to be proud of. The world average is 144. The situation has only worsened after the hurricane damage, with less cells.
The jail is constantly full. There are weekly if not daily fights. People are even being locked up in the infirmary.
Politicians over the last 30 years have done nothing to alleviate the situation. In Sint Maarten there is only attention for structural repression and efforts to maintain the status quo. Reports and sentences have not helped. It’s a structural problem of a dubious inhuman mentality. The next level will be that (more) killings will follow within the walls, that is inevitable in a situation like this.
We went through all this in Curaçao. There is only one structural solution for this problem just like in Curaçao. Leave with ankle band. We had the same problems for years, until in 2005 we introduced a ministerial decree. The benefits are numerous. Politicians with a repressive mind will come up with false arguments. With us it is a permanent solution that we will never abandon.
We have the same penal code as Sint Maarten with the same article and fall under the same Court of First Instance and under the same Superior Common Court of Justice. In Curaçao all governments, Parliament, the public prosecutors’ office, the prison authorities and both courts have accepted this solution as valuable for more than 20 years. All the arguments that are now being used in Sint Maarten need to go in the wastepaper basket, none of them is valid. We have the same laws and the same courts.
Besides that, Article 3 is a so called ‘self-execution’ article that goes above local laws and politicians. Every member state must simply comply, irrespective of what they think locally. Arguments that the ankle band is no alternative for detention is political nonsense. In many countries just like Curaçao it has proved to be the solution for overpopulation. Arguments like it’s only for a short time are also intended to mislead. It’s the most honest solution. Everybody gets the same percentage amount of 15% reduction on their sentence, that can reach up to a max of 18 months for the long stayers.
Before the introduction of the ankle band, we had introduced all kinds of random reductions. From the introduction of the ankle band with leave we do not have the problems anymore and the prison is controllable. The prisoner generally behaves within the walls, because otherwise he will lose his leave. Conditions can be put on the leave so people can be guided on the right track during the leave. There is guidance from the probation officer if needed. Judges have accepted this modality for more than 20 years in Curaçao. If it is unlawful or not according to the law or treaty, they would never have done that under the old and the new law.
So please do not listen to those who can only think in punishment terms, because it is people like that that have caused the actual inhuman suffering that already got Sint Maarten condemned in international human rights courts, which condemnation brought international shame on the whole Kingdom, because violation of Articles 2 (right to life) and Article 3 belong to the most heinous crimes against humanity.
For those of you who can only think in terms of violation of other people’s basic human rights I have the following message. Empathy for the basic human rights of every human being without exception is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength and a sign of belonging to the ranks of developed countries. The benefits surpass the costs by far. The alternative is more international condemnation and more crime within or outside the walls.
Eldon “Peppie” Sulvaran
