Dear Editor,
I admit to writing this with some trepidation and the proverbial shaking hands. I read in this newspaper some weeks ago and now confirmed yesterday about the “Asset Seizure Squad” and, if what I read is accurate, it is the scariest thing since the Nazis looted Europe. As I read the article yesterday, it would appear on its face that the Public Prosecutor can, with neither legal probable cause as determined by a judicial review nor any sort of due process, show up at your door, seize your house and belongings and then say “Prove to us (not the courts) just US that this stuff is really yours and that you bought it all with money that we approve of.”
And so would begin the chase. First you get a lawyer with a big retainer and a US $400 per hour rate. Then you start the dance. Because, according to the paper, this is not a judicial procedure and because, ostensibly you are merely a suspect because someone didn’t like your looks yet have been charged with no crime nor have any case to answer, who is the legal authority that says after you have been bankrupted with legal fees, “Ok... we believe you,... here is your house and car back?”
I am a serious law and order guy. I am all for convicting criminals and stripping them of their ill-gotten gains and hanging them up by their toes in the public square. I think the level of “quality of life” crime on this island is out of control and the mini criminals that get off with suspended sentences all the time should all be doing hard time. But having said that, turning the prosecutor’s office into what effectively now becomes a third world gestapo-esque arm of government that can come to your house in the middle of the night with no warrant issued after review by a judge and based on some rules ( not laws ) that are arbitrary and have neither been debated nor approved by the legislature, kick down your door and confiscate your personal property, is insane. In the real world, how hard would it be to do this all in a civilized fashion?
You think Citizen X is a criminal engaged in such activity that will warrant asset forfeiture? Great. Take your Proof ,... not your guesses, innuendos, here say, rumour and gossip.... but your hard Proof and stand in front of a court with real Judges and next to the guy whose stuff you are trying to grab and make your case. Give him a chance to defend himself without having to go thru bankruptcy to do it. Convince the judge that will hold you to an honest legal standard and get a legal court order to grab the stuff. That is what civilized societies do. In the name of all that is moral and right, don’t let those that describe St. Maarten as a “Banana Republic” be proven correct. Be tough on crime but be honest and fair in the way you do it.
Steven Johnson
Dear Editor,
In the past week the much talked about and heralded screening is again in the news. And our foreign provided justice system is used to promoting a system that at the end of the day won’t stand up to the test of a true democratic society. We have seen with quite some consternation that our election was set aside by instructions from the Dutch deciding who can form part of the council of ministers, in effect disregarding the vote of those with the right to elect their own representatives whether we agree or not.
After eight years at the PJIA, the director was removed because she had to be subjected to a screening after serving without any complaints. In some ways so designed because they know that with the unjust court case resulting from a prejudiced investigation launched eight years ago at the tourist office it would be impossible to pass the screening.
Then we learn of the director of the central bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten who held the position for almost thirty years and now must do a screening which of course he won’t pass for he too is being investigated. A respected inspector Thode has also felt the ferocity of the unfair and biased system after serving years at the coast guard and the government, and the court will have us believe that heading a high department in fraud and blue collar crime doesn’t afford one any consideration from screening.
We can only ask or reason what country secrets these good persons could learn of or divulge now that they couldn’t in the past eight or twenty years. And, if it is government’s intention to remove people from any office why they just don’t make them an offer to resign instead of creating all this negative press and destroying people’s character and professional identity.
Our government in its attempt to be truly transparent has yet to let us know what this screening entails for we hear of people failing without the possibility of facing their accuser(s) in court. Something isn’t kosher when a minister one time fails and passes the same screening afterwards. It goes to show that if people are allowed to defend themselves the madness will cease. We are left puzzled when we see what happened at Cadastre INS and even the National Detective department where one or more were disqualified for alleged irregularities and after 10-10-10- were again put at the same department.
And a question that figures highly is: Who is this person at VDSM, where is he from, and what does he know about St. Maarten, its customs and people? We are left to conclude that in an effort to be acceptable to what the European colonial master wants we are willing to criminalize and victimize our people as is clear in the recently implemented Afpak team of which we are so proud while arguing that the integrity chamber that proposed the same thing denying citizens their right to an impartial court is inhumane.
As we have tried to illustrate in previous articles we can’t build a country solely on the backs of outside input and impositions while exiling and excluding our own at all cause. The screening is too secretive, the conditions or prerequisites and who sets them are not clear and people should be offered an opportunity to challenge it. No one should get the impression that because we are a young country certain institutions like the prosecutor’s office and the VDSM among others are above the law.
Elton Jones
Dear Editor,
For several weeks now, one seat in parliament has remained obviously empty. When the President of Parliament, at the beginning of public meetings, or of Central Committee meetings, asks if there are any notifications, not one parliamentarian, not even the USP faction leader reports on the absence of MP Silvio Matser. In my opinion, only sickness can justify the continuous absence of a member of parliament. Therefore, if MP Matser is sick, then the right thing for him or his faction leader to do would be to notify parliament of such, and to occasionally offer updates regarding his recovery. I am sure that, with this information, the people would also make sure to include him in their prayers.
Parliamentarians are directly elected to parliament by the people to represent all of the people according to article 44 of the Constitution. Therefore, the people should be concerned when someone, whom they elected and who accepted the seat does not represent them for an extended period of time. If an MP is unable to represent the people, then he or she should surrender his or her seat to the next person on the electoral list. This is the ethical thing to do.
What is most disconcerting is the fact that the first picture on Parliament’s website is a photograph of parliament in session with an empty seat that just springs out at you. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture on the website is telling the people of Sint Maarten that parliament has no clue as to when MP Matser would be present in parliament, and not being able to wait any longer for him to show up, parliament has gone ahead and posted the picture with the empty seat.
Actually, if the current coalition in parliament takes no action on a matter such as this, then a parliamentarian can continue to be absent for the entire four years of his or her term, once he or she remains in the country. According to article 49, “membership of parliament lapses through an uninterrupted stay outside the country of more than eight months”. One can see how easy it would be to circumvent this article, and remain outside of the country for the greater part of a four-year term.
Besides having membership on two other parliamentary committees, MP Matser is currently also representing the people on the Ad Hoc Committee for the Preparation of the Construction of a New Building for Parliament. He has served on this committee for the last three years. The first year he was a member of the committee and the second year he was appointed vice chairman of the committee. Currently he serves as the chairman of this committee. Apparently, this committee, like most of the other parliamentary committees, is only a paper committee. This committee should have already come with plans for a new Parliament Building.
The lease on the Parliament building, which costs US $96.000 per month will expire in September 2017 and government has no other choice but to renew the lease agreement. The question is if a new lease agreement will be negotiated, or if the old one which included the repairs and renovation of the building will simply be copied and signed again? It would be a good idea, if at the signing of the lease agreement the Ad Hoc Committee for the Preparation of the Construction of a New Building for Parliament could present the plans and budget for the new Parliament building. However, given the prolonged absence of the chairperson MP Matser, one cannot expect much output from the Committee, unless the vice chairperson MP Drs. Rodolphe Samuel takes over in the absence of MP Matser.
SMCP is calling on the current coalition in Parliament to look into the matter of the empty seat in parliament, and do something about it. We are surprised that the minority or opposition in parliament has not yet raised any questions concerning this matter.
Wycliffe Smith
Leader of the Sint Maarten Christian Party
(Curaçao Chronicle)
“Sorry, my attention is distracted,” I wrote, “there is a stark naked person on the bench in front of the house.” Oh, well, I thought, no fuss! It’s the way, it is. This is Amsterdam!
After only a few minutes, the nudist was now in full front of a rapidly growing crowd of by-passers and tourists, all with eagerly extended iPhones. Clearly, this person was not only a nudist but also an exhibitionist; he, or she, loved the attention.
When a second and a third nudist showed up, it started to look like a manifestation. Good gracious, I thought, soon the cold will trigger their bladders, and they will ring my doorbell, asking to use the toilet. “No,” I would say, “use the canal.”
At that consideration, I was interrupted by other urgent matters and forced to delay my eye-witness account until the morning.
The next morning, I had some doubts whether I could or would tell you the outcome of the Nudist-Exhibitionists manifestation in front of my house. You see, it may shock you as it shocked me.
They say that God’s punishment is instant, but by being a nudist, no sin was committed. And God’s punishment without sins committed would be outrageous.
What comes immediately to anyone’s mind is February 1534, of course, the height of the Munster crisis.
Jan of Leyden had conquered Munster, crowned himself to King, and proclaimed that all citizens should go naked in anticipation of the arrival of God’s Kingdom. The New Heaven on Earth would not have fancy, fashion retail stores.
A group of seven men and four women, all Anabaptists and devout followers of Jan, burned their clothes in an upper room in Amsterdam and ran naked onto the street claiming to be preaching the “naked truth.” By shedding their clothes, the Amsterdam nudists had overcome sin, the original sin of Adam and Eve, they said.
Protestants’ endless appetite for theological squabbling confused the Civil Guard, the Lord Mayor, and the local Judges: it was hard to know which ethics applied, and which truth prevailed. So, with some regularity, the City Elders called on the Waterlanders to bring separated brethren back on one track. Waterlanders had to uphold a fearsome reputation that they could force brothers to remain brothers, no matter what the argument.
But back to the incident at the Keizersgracht: The nudist-exhibitionists fell off the canal wall and landed in murky waters. The draft at that spot was one of shallow waters; no more than three feet. The poor fellow yelled and screamed so loud that all believed that he, or was it a she, had broken a leg. So, a second naked person jumped into the devil’s drab to rescue the unfortunate victim by giving him a leg-up.
Possibly, I thought for a moment; they could be descendants of those seven of 1534. That stout cold-blooded behaviour is how real Amsterdam, Christian brothers-and-sisters come out of the woodworks, or rather the mud.
Soon, an ambulance arrived, and the naked persons were all taken away to hospital after a grandiose rescue operation by the fire brigade. The crowd applauded for minutes, furnishing the drum beat for a cacophony of sirens of the departing rescue vehicles.
What is bred in the bone will come out is the flesh, even after 500 years.
Jacob Gelt Dekker
Dear Editor,
Allow me to express some thoughts that might be of use to the many sixth graders, who will be taking the FBE exam during the course of next week. First and foremost, the bulk of this journey towards being successful depends on you the student. No matter what the circumstance may be, tell yourself that you can do it. Having confidence in yourself is a must, because you need to depend on you to help you through each segment of the exam.
Once you have the assurance that you can get a good score, this will help you to apply the language rules and math formulas in a more effective manner. General Knowledge is all around you. Some of it is common sense, but this subject requires some time to review your notes that you have acquired during the school year. You still have a couple of days to catch up.
For all of the subject matter, it is very important that you take a moment to get the gist of the material before you go through it thoroughly. Understanding the text is one of the most critical aspects of the exam. When you do not understand the passage, this is what makes multiple choice questions appear to be tricky or confusing.
As a student, your task is to always read the passage for the purpose of understanding it. When you comprehend what you have read selecting the right answer becomes very easy. Likewise, pay close attention to the instructions, as they are designed to test how focused and attentive you are.
With such an important development of our community, it would be a noble gesture and a collaborative effort, if employers could be flexible with parents of these exam students. Allow them some time off so that they could be there to assist their children during this period; especially parents who are working in the night. Those who work in the day can have the last two hours free. After all, these children are our brilliant minds, just waiting for the opportunity to steer this country forward. But, they can only be successful if the parents are there for them now.
To all the awesome sixth graders, the exam is your ticket to be the future leaders of this land. Be prepared, as this accomplishment is right there in the palm of your hands!
Joslyn Morton
