Dear Editor,
I did not have to open the paper on Thursday last to read about the 11 million harbor fraud case. I will not pull any punches and just go along and explain my point of view how people in the government of our kingdom go about fraud.
In my opinion over the years people in the governments of both Holland, Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles ( I do not know about Indonesia) have committed fraud, whether proven or not. There is a difference, however, how the different perpetrators have gone about it.
Some of the suspects have taken and stopped to wait and see if anything will be noticed and then they would take again. If they happened to be discovered to have committed fraud, one would read that a certain Minister has tendered his resignation because of rumors of spousal abuse (or some other behavior not becoming a Minister of government). And gradually those accusations die a natural death.
Ironically, primarily in Holland this has been the picture that we have gotten over the years. The same Holland whose RST is mandated to investigate similar cases also in the rest of the kingdom.
Because of the amount of arrests, investigations and especially court cases involving fraud by our people in government, I wanted to know the difference and this is what I have come up with. Our people take and take and take and take until they are caught and instead of trying to dob their tails they are arrogant about it. They go to court, lose, appeal and if necessary go all the way to the high courts. Because of not being convicted they continue governing, which interferes and disrupts a whole lot of the procedures.
All of this in my opinion is the recipe to be accused of corruption. Mind you, fraud was committed by all, but some chose to wisely and humbly bow out and we never hear anything else about it. Our people choose to be arrogant about it and end up with a criminal record.
Russell A. Simmons
Dear Editor,
We will not be vacationing again in St. Maarten anytime soon.
The number one reason is the dump burning. The smell and toxic flames are so bad where we stay, we cannot sit outside. Why would anyone vacation where they are subjected to smelly toxic smoke from the dump? Too many years have passed and nothing has improved. The government was taken to court; still it burns.
Also, sewage runs off on many roads, especially near the roundabout by Belair; it floods the road every morning.
St. Maarten, your children are exposed to these toxic fumes from the dump. Tourists will tell others and soon no one will want to come to St. Maarten. When the cruise ships stop coming and tourists stop coming, what’s going to support your island? Who will have jobs? It’s long past time to do something!
We and many of our friends will not return until the dump stops burning.
Name withheld at author’s request.
Dear Editor,
The report in your newspaper on tax reform discussions in parliament indicated that the view of the present government is to stick to the Turnover Tax model and to avoid working in the direction of a value added tax (VAT or Dutch BTW).
Middle Region, Sucker Garden and the rest of people from the Eastern side of the island demanded a date be given from you when exactly bus drivers will start running through Middle Region and Sucker Garden.
Middle Region people aren’t pleased by bus drivers passing through Middle Region during the repairing of Dutch Quarter sewage.
As long as government can give the people a date bus drivers will start running through MIddle Region and Sucker Garden daily, it can make things safer for those traveling on a bus passing through Middle Region with a destination towards Dutch Quarter or Philipsburg.
In the past Middle Region people tried to take transport ministers to court for lack of buses running in their district, but these Ministers were able to get away because government did keep falling so often.
Now, because of the Dutch Quarter sewage project, can bring the bus drivers right into Middle Region, and roads can be blocked and this will be the people’s rights if Middle Region people choose to do so.
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
Several weeks now since I notified GEBE about several lights at Middle Region main road that are not lighting.
Many streetlights at the west entrance of Middle Region main road still are not lighting.
We, the people of Middle Region, would like GEBE to fix these lights for us soon.
Cuthbert Bannis
