Dear Editor,

With much interest I have read the articles in the media about the budget cuts the Bonaire government has been forced to make in order to present a by-law-required balanced budget.

One of the measures they took was to cut the subsidies for NGOs. In particular a reduction of 13 per cent of the subsidy to the FCB, the Bonaire Housing Foundation, has led to questions to state-secretary Raymond Knops in the Second Chamber by Mrs. Joba v.d. Berg (CDA) and Mrs. Antje Diertens (D66). This reduction will result in an increase of rent per tenant of an average US $115, even for some tenants running up to no less than $302. Mr. Knops expressed his concerns about this development and is of the opinion that all parties involved have to find a solution to the problem, as he is well aware of the importance of affordable housing in Bonaire.

Kind of remarkable here is that the members of parliament, the state-secretary, and apparently also the executive council of Bonaire are not coming to the conclusion that this sad situation is the symptom of a structurally insufficient budget at the disposal of not only the government of Bonaire, but all three BES islands, to adequately and responsibly carry out their tasks.

This has been signaled in the Spies Evaluation Report and also by Ideeversa in their 2015 report on the free allowance. This last report, as the evaluation report, is compiled on the request of the Ministry of Kingdom Relations. The report concludes that for all three islands the free allowance, which is the money they receive from the ministry, is about 25 per cent too less. For Bonaire this amounts to 9.9 million, for Statia 3.2 million and for Saba 2 million per year. Having this in mind, one may wonder if not the state-secretary should be the most important party who should bring the solution to this structural problem.

Further Mr. Knops points out that housing policy is the responsibility of the island government. This may be the case, but as far as I know there is not one municipality in The Netherlands that is subsidizing house rent. The latter (huursubisidie) is a responsibility of the national government. Isn’t it about time that, in view of equality, the national government is also taking on this responsibility for the three Caribbean Netherlands islands?

Also in light of the discussion on poverty alleviation on our three islands this latest development in Bonaire is not really a step forward but clearly a further deterioration. It is clear that with this steep increase in rent for “affordable” housing, the lower income groups are the ones getting hurt. It is a strong signal that as soon as possible something needs to be done about the financial situation of the governments of all three public entities. Their financial means need to be adequate to carry out their responsibilities. To achieve this the state-secretary must carry out the recommendations in the Spies and Ideeversa reports.

Koos Sneek

Democratic Party St. Eustatius

Dear Editor,

It is very sad to hear that after some plus years a company like St. Maarten Cable TV is no longer in existence due to very poor management. The people of St. Maarten were interrupted of their Cable/Internet services after the passing of Hurricane Irma, and up until this present day about 75 per cent of us do not know if services would be given back or we would be refunded for our money that was already given to the company for services.

Besides WTN, another Cable TV company, there are no more providers. It leaves us the customers to think what next can we do to get some sort of entertainment in our homes. We have the elderly that only focus on some local talk shows like The Oral Gibbs Show and The Beverly Hyman Show just to name a few. It is a shame to see that a company like St. Maarten Cable TV closed their doors and put their well-experienced employees out of work – some I guess that were employed for years with the company, following some of the radio programmes about the closing down of Cable TV, and the now new partial ownership apparently is TelEm.

One tends to wonder why are these workers not working? Listening to the fight that the union is having in trying to get these workers back to work, it sounds like some monopoly games are being played with the livelihood of these workers. Knowing that TelEm Group is a partially government-owned company, I guess it is somewhat political. As a partially government-owned company these workers should have been already integrated into the TelEm Group.

What baffles me is hearing the union on a radio programme mentioning that out of the 28 Cable TV workers 10 signed for the layoff plan to be paid out to them and the 18 Cable TV workers did not sign for the layoff plan. On that same radio programme the union mentioned that the Financial Controller Mr. Trevor DaCosta also signed for the layoff plan. That tells me with the little bit of knowledge that I have, he is no longer an employee of CableTV/TelEm Group. TelEm Group is the new owner now.

But as was mentioned on the radio programme by the union, Mr. Trevor DaCosta seemingly was appointed as Managing Director for a company that supposedly is dormant (St. Maarten Cable TV). I guess he was appointed by the CEO Mr. Kendall Dupersoy. (Very interesting). This same Financial Controller that is seemingly Managing Director of the dormant St. Maarten Cable TV/TelEm Group was financial controller for a company that used to bear the name East Caribbean Cellular, whereby the Managing Director was Beulah Jonis, and because the company was poorly managed, that company fell into bankruptcy putting all those workers into unemployment.

With all due respect one is supposed to respect the laws of the land, but listening to the radio programme this Financial Controller/Managing Director has no respect for the laws of the land. On the radio programme the union mentioned that the Labour Department denied Cable TV/TelEm Group dismissal for the 18 workers. But this Mr. Trevor DaCosta sent emails to the 18 employees from his personal e-mail address threatening them that they would be dragged to court to be dismissed by or from a company that is supposed to be dormant, if I do understand correctly. Total disrespect for the laws of the land.

Quite seemingly whatever Mr. Trevor DaCosta touches goes belly up. First it was East Caribbean Cellular. Now St. Maarten Cable TV. Watch out TelEm Group – he is coming for you all! Don’t walk – run.

If the people can remember, the present CEO Mr. Kendall Dupersoy did run on a political slate for an election a few years back. If he did obtain a seat to get elected to govern would we the people of this land be in the same predicament like the St. Maarten Cable TV workers, taking food out of their families’ mouth? (Food for thought).

Name withheld at author's request.

Dear Editor,

Please allow me some space in your paper to address the Honourable Minister of Finance, Michael Ferrier.

Honourable Minister, I recently bought a bank check at a local bank. The amount of the check was US $ 110 and the charges were; License Fee US $ 1.12 and COMM CC US $ 62.50.

My questions are:

Is there a legal basis for this COMM CC?

Is this something that Government has or should have to approve?

Is the goal to Build Back Stronger or Build Bank Stronger?

Clifton R. Wilson

Dear Editor,

Citizens on both side of the island have increased their confidence there will be a stable coalition government for a full term 2018 to 2022.

But this prediction can more become a reality if is only two parties positive join to govern.

If three parties join to form a coalition government on a small Island like St Maarten it will totally decrease the people’s confidence.

District representatives are the best way to go if there are six parties. You can only vote for one of six representations only in your district.

The system in St Maarten if there's 100 candidates in total you have a choice to vote for any one within the 100 candidates.

Now we saw Parliamentarians are lovers of article 33, Ministers are lovers of article 59, leaving voters worried.

Read my lips: as long this coming government lasts a full term in office we can see great changes politically.

Theo’s party winning the elections since 10/10/10 but the local Parliamentarians fight against him. Some of these old laws need to get out off the table. (Thanks to the UD supporters did great).

Cuthbert Bannis