Dear Editor,
Why even bother at this time to write about the qualifications of a parliamentarian, when the next parliamentary election is all the way in 2020? Sadly, this has been the mentality in the past that has led us to vote for persons, based on friendship, family ties and family tradition, instead of looking at the qualifications, qualities and experience of the candidates.
One of the reasons we have not paid much attention to the qualifications of parliamentarians, is because during election time, our politicians campaign as if they were running to become ministers in government. However, they failed to point out the difference and the separation between parliament and government. To summarize, the people elect the parliamentarians, and the parliamentarians in turn appoint the ministers. Therefore, if we want a good Council of Ministers, we must vote for noble, qualified parliamentarians, who would ensure that we get a good government.
Besides the four criteria for parliamentarians listed in the Constitution, parties, as well as the people should hold candidates to a high standard. Article 49 of our Constitution states that to “be eligible for membership of Parliament, a person must be a resident of Sint Maarten, a Dutch national, have attained the age of eighteen years, and must not have been disqualified from voting”. As far as the age is concerned, a person can be on a party’s slate at age 17; as long as he/she turns 18 by the time the oath has to be taken.
Based on the Constitution, anyone with the Dutch nationality can become a parliamentarian in Sint Maarten. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the constitutions of neighbouring countries like St Kitts and Nevis, the Commonwealth of Dominica and the Territory of Anguilla clearly stipulate that to be elected, persons must be connected to the country or territory by birth or descent. If such a criterion were applied in Sint Maarten, many persons would not be eligible to become members of parliament, including myself, as well as several of our current MPs. Revising the nationality article will require a constitutional amendment, which needs the approval of the other countries of the kingdom.
The criterion “must not have been disqualified from voting” relates to the final verdict of a court of law. In other words, once the court case of a prospective parliamentarian is still in appeal he/she has all rights to join a party or to establish a party. The prospective parliamentarian also has the right to campaign, to be elected, to take the oath of office and to function as a member of parliament until he/she receives the final guilty verdict.
This is the reason MP Silvio Matser is still functioning as a Member of Parliament. Even though the Court in First Instance, as well as the Joint Court of Justice found him guilty of tax evasion, he has appealed the case at the High Court in The Hague and consequently has the right to function as a parliamentarian until he receives the final judgement from the latter court. We may not agree with the law, but we must abide by it.
In addition to the constitutional criteria mentioned earlier, it is important that we also evaluate prospective parliamentarians based on several other qualifications, such as love for Sint Maarten, Dutch language skills and integrity. If persons have a love for Sint Maarten, it will show in their involvement in the community. They will be engaged, in one way or another, in trying to better the society. Their motive for getting in politics would be for the sake and the good of the people, and not for personal gain. They should ascribe to, and live by, the principles of integrity, transparency, accountability, and love for the country.
How many of the 125 candidates who took part in the 2016 elections are still visible and active today? Even many of them, who have been elected to parliament, often do not see the need to represent us as we expect them to. One parliamentarian has not attended parliamentary meetings in months. At times, several of our parliamentarians have refused to attend meetings. Not too long ago, the minority faction in parliament even declined to represent us at a high-level kingdom meeting. This is really not the kind of representation we expect from our parliamentarians!
As far as Dutch language skills are concerned, it is important that prospective parliamentarians have at least a working knowledge of the Dutch language. It is interesting to note that the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Dominica includes a language qualification stating that to be qualified to be elected, a person must be able to speak and read the English language. Admittedly, Sint Maarten’s constitutional and judicial systems are very much embedded in the Dutch system. It is obvious that Dutch supersedes the English language, when we read the disclaimer at the bottom of each page of a translated law: “No rights can be derived from the English translation”.
The SMCP believes that if voters take the additional qualifications into serious consideration when electing parliamentarians, Sint Maarten would have a stronger, better qualified, integrity-based parliament, which in turn would appoint ministers to the Council of Ministers, based on their professional, experiential and ethical qualifications.
Wycliffe Smith
Leader of the Sint Maarten Christian Party
There are not enough words for me to use to describe what Roger Snow has meant to me and my family. There are not enough ways for me to express gratitude to the man who literally saved my life. I say this without any reservation or hesitation. Roger Snow saved my life.
To Mary, Gordon, Hanneke, Dickie, Jelmer, Paul, Steven, Junior and the rest of the family I extend deepest condolences on behalf of my family. I am truly sorry that I am away at this time but please know that Roger meant the world to me and I will miss him dearly. It was not easy the last few years watching illness deprive us of the Roger we knew. He can now rest on.
I met Roger in January of 1995 when I was at a crossroad in my life, totally unsure what to do with my future. I was jobless, spiraling into depression and a feeling of complete failure was drowning me. By God’s will an opportunity opened in the night layout department at the then infant Daily Herald. Not expecting much, I viewed it as another temporary job that I would soon leave. As history would attest, however, I didn’t leave soon at all. In fact, I’m still there in some shape or form, 22 years later.
I stuck around because Roger Snow, this impressive, compassionate, witty, unselfish human being made it his business to make me understand and appreciate that my life had worth. He didn’t care what my background was, he only cared that I remain constructively active by involving myself in all aspects of newspaper operations, and with his assistance and influence become a solid citizen and contributor in my community.
He afforded me the opportunity serve as layout artist, graphic artist, night editor and journalist at The Daily Herald. He founded Teen Times, not me, I only had the privilege to guide and develop what he called “Herald’s contribution to the youth of St. Maarten.” From Teen Times to serving on more than 10 community and cultural organizations, to starting my own PR company and all the accolades in between … it all started with Roger Snow. Had he not saved me and given me a chance, none of that would have been possible and God knows where I would have been today.
He was a giant of a man in stature and character. But make no mistake, he was not always a gentle giant and with good reason. There were times he dished out some tough love. Some very tough love. He never sugarcoated anything for me as I was typically extremely stubborn and headstrong. He would often yell “Mike! You are wrong! Get over yourself!” and then proceed to give me the verbal dressing down that I deserved.
One of our “discussions” became so heated in our little office on Front Street, I started to cry. A grown man, I broke down in front of another grown man like a baby. I wasn’t crying because I was hurt or insulted or upset. Tears ran because I wanted so much to impress that man. I hated letting him down. In typical Roger style, he never let you stay down, he found a way to lift you back up.
You know a person has influenced your life positively when you can remember almost everything he has ever told you. Roger’s words have stuck with me throughout my life and I still live by them. He often shared those words while taking a puff on his pipe on our office porch in Philipsburg when electricity went and we didn’t have a generator, or when we were waiting on film to develop, or when we took a break from laying out the paper together which we often did side-by-side. Even in those dark days after Hurricane Luis when we finished work at 7:00 in the morning and he had to drive all of us home.
He cared about my family and my activities. He cared about my general knowledge and saw to it that I was educated in the ways of journalism, human nature, politics, life. He was steadfast in his belief that the newspaper plays a vital role in the community and never allowed me to forget for whom and why we produce The Daily Herald.
Many people have asked me over the years why I’ve stayed loyal or maintained a strong link with The Daily Herald. My answer has never changed: because Roger Snow saved my life. I remained loyal to him, to a friend and mentor.
I will miss my friend and mentor dearly.
Mike Granger
Dear Editor,
An alternative suggestion for the associated problems with the jet blast and the entrance to Beacon Hill, is to build the previously discussed boardwalk. Properly designed, it could eliminate or substantially reduce the on again off again tidal wave of sand that virtually closes off the only entrance to Beacon Hill; provide the Jet Blasters with a safe distance to enjoy their experience, with the only danger being blown into the ocean; create a safe walkway for pedestrians versus their current balancing act on the low concrete curb or roadway; allow benches for enjoying the sunset and plane arrivals; and still provide a beach which could be protected from erosion with the addition of a floating breakwater.
This is not an original idea, as I believe Mr. Rudy Engel and others have brought it up to various Ministers over the years, but with the most recent tragic and avoidable accident that occurred recently time is of the essence to come up with a viable solution to a problem that won't go away on its own.
Bill Olliver
Dear Editor,
On the occasion of the passing of Mr. Roger Snow, please accept my most sincere regrets and condolences; you and to all of those who work at The Daily Herald. As I wrote in my little book a while back, “Saint Martin ─the entire island─ owes an ocean of gratitude to Mary Hellmund and to Roger Snow. This by reason of the singular role this industrious and enlightened couple played in journalism on the island for roughly one quarter of a century.” That was writing-speaking as if that role was in that past alone, but we (you and I, and a lot of others) know that it is in our present, and shall be with us in our future ─ forever!
Gérard M. Hunt
Dear Editor,
Firstly, my deepest condolences to the family of the lady that tragically lost her life last week attempting to “surf the jet blast.” It is hoped that their loss will serve as a reminder to all who have ventured and to those who undoubtedly will venture to participate in this dangerous “sport,” that this can be deadly! Standing on the actual beach sand west of the road according to me will give you the same “rush” and if you get “blown,” you will fall on sand. In a worst case scenario, you may get blown into the Caribbean Sea. So all you Jet Blast Surfers that cannot swim, wear a water life jacket before attempting the jet blast thrill.
I am not a lawyer (obviously) and certainly not an “ambulance chaser,” but for the life of me I cannot understand how anybody else except the adult that engages in the “sport” is responsible for such an accident, taking into consideration all the signs and precautions put in place by the SXM Airport PJIA. Laws should be anchored in our legal framework, but must also be based on common sense, you would think.
Lawyer Kock argues for the removal of concrete blocks that divide the road at the location. This divider was placed on that road back in 2000 when on my request the then Executive Council, of which I was a member at that time, approved a workable and simple plan to prevent selfish airplane/sunset gazers to park on that road, reducing the only access in and out of the busy Beacon Hill community down to a one lane stretch, causing massive traffic jams and creating serious hazards to landing aircraft, as well as for the inhabitants of Beacon Hill in case of a medical emergency, fire or other calamity.
The divider worked and traffic on that piece of road has since then flowed reasonably well, except for when the occasional taxi driver “trolls” the stretch for passengers they hope need to “go back to their cruise ships.” So a divider there is a must. Now, of course I can agree with maybe replacing the concrete divider with say, plastic tubes fitted on rubber bases that cause a division between the two sides of the road, but are flexible to move when something or someone slams into them.
However, knowing how things often work on our beloved island, I guarantee you that such plastic dividing posts will be broken off in less than six months (not all at once), but just like the short white ones on the side of the Route National from the Cole Bay border to St. James, they will disappear, causing the pre-2000 traffic jams in and out of Beacon Hill to resume with greater vigour!
My suggestion for the problem: Let’s consider re-routing all the traffic in and out of Beacon Hill along the south fence of the airport, up past Mary’s Boon Hotel and onto the Airport Road; then extending the east west airport fences (both sides of the airport property) all the way to the beach edge west of the present road leading to the Alegria front gate. Allowing for foot traffic on the entire beach, the Jet Blast Surfers will still be able to hold on to the fence, but this fence will now be on the western side of the present road, and those “blown” will end up on sand or in the sea (hopefully with a life jacket on).
Alternatively, before we consider any other tunnel (with all due respect to our Prime Minister’s plan), let’s find the funds to build the most simple viaduct (á la Montserrat new airport access road) and channel regular vehicular traffic underground, plane/sunset gazers onto the beach on foot and fence off the present Beacon Hill Road with a locked gate on either side (North and South), so emergency vehicles can still get in and out of Beacon Hill if need be.
One thing for sure, the spectacular SXM Airport landings are greatly contributing to our Tourism product and that show should go on, albeit that we have a collective responsibility as Government and Private Sector to do all we can to protect us from us.
Michael J. Ferrier
