Dear Editor,
Last week Wednesday, the Central Committee of Parliament, once again, invited the Independence for St. Martin Foundation (ISMF) to give a presentation regarding holding a referendum to determine whether the people of St. Maarten desire to become independent or not. This is the fourth time that the ISMF was in Parliament presenting its case. The first presentation was held in March 2016. Hereafter, the Central Committee reconvened, in September 2016, to give the ISMF the opportunity to answer questions that the MPs had posed in the first round in March. The Chairlady of the Central Committee then advised ISMF to submit a petition, requesting Parliament to convene a consultative referendum at the earliest possible date. In January 2017, the ISMF submitted said petition which was debated in March 2017 during a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee of Petitions. After deliberating whether the petition met the necessary criteria, the Committee of Petitions eventually decided to send the petition to the Central Committee of Parliament for further handling.
In her role as Chairperson of the Central Committee and as a member of the Committee of Petitions, MP Sarah Wescot-Williams, made it very clear that to be able to convene a referendum, Parliament must approve a national ordinance regulating referenda. She mentioned that, there are only two ways by which such a national ordinance can be presented to Parliament. Either, it is initiated by one or more Members of Parliament, or it is proposed by government to Parliament.
Prior to last week’s meeting with the ISMF, Members of Parliament had three occasions to deliberate the matter of holding a referendum. Hence, one would have expected that, when the Central Committee met last Wednesday, Members of Parliament would have been able to discuss and deliberate strategically on the way forward as far as holding a referendum is concerned. After all, the Central Committee should be the body that gathers pertinent information and then submits its recommendations to Parliament, so that the necessary preparations can be made for a public meeting of Parliament where binding decisions are taken.
The ISMF’s petition was simply requesting Parliament to hold a consultative referendum within this term of office, thus, no later than 2020. However, instead of dealing with the topic at hand, our honourable MPs, once again, felt the need to deviate from the subject and to grandstand and give lip service to the topic of independence.
They should have known by now, that, for a referendum to be convened, the first thing that must happen is the drafting of a national ordinance. The draft then will need to be reviewed by the Council of Advice before it can be presented to Parliament for approval. The only way for the draft national ordinance to get to Parliament is if the government prepares such a draft, or if one or more parliamentarians take the responsibility to have the ordinance drafted.
In the Central Committee, members of parliament are expected not only to grandstand and to give lip service but also to ask pertinent and critical questions. Questions such as: will Parliament initiate the draft ordinance or will Parliament pass a motion charging the government with the drafting of the national ordinance? What about an awareness-campaign to enlighten the people about the pros and cons and what independence would mean for St. Maarten, so that they can make an informed and intelligent choice? How much will such a campaign cost? How much will the referendum cost? Is their money on the 2017 budget to cover the cost of the awareness campaign? Will Parliament allocate money on the upcoming budgets for the campaign and for the referendum? Do we need a referendum steering committee? What role will the ISMF play in the preparations leading up to the referendum? What is the target date for the referendum? What is the anticipated trajectory leading up to the referendum?
These are the issues, questions and concerns that I expected our parliamentarians to discuss during this meeting with the ISMF. Instead, Members of Parliament strayed from the topic of the referendum and repeated what they had already said about independence. Only MP Rodolphe Samuel came close to raising the critical questions.
Are our Members of Parliament serious about holding a referendum or about St. Maarten becoming an independent country? I do not think so for the following reasons: The first meeting between the Central Committee of Parliament and the ISMF was held in March 2016 yet the parties of the MPs, who now boast about being long-time ardent advocates and supporters of independence, did not include the topics of referendum or independence in their 2016 manifestos. The very comprehensive 2016-2020 governing programme “Stability for Prosperity” of the current Red, White and Blue coalition is also totally silent on the issues of referendum and independence.
During the 2017 budget debate, not one Member of Parliament requested that funds be allocated towards a referendum awareness-campaign or a nation-building campaign or for the planning and organizing of a referendum. Furthermore, during the meetings in the Central Committee with the ISMF not one MP volunteered to accept the responsibility to initiate the required draft national ordinance that would lead to parliament eventually approving the convening of a referendum. Consequently, SMCP concludes that Parliament is not really serious about Sint Maarten convening a referendum or becoming an independent country in the near future.
Wycliffe Smith
Leader of the Sint Maarten Christian Party
The Final act of a Pan man
Playing a last tune on his pan
Caressing his pan
With tender loving hand
Ringing out pan melody
His heart heavy
With melancholy
Playing his heart out
For his mother funeral
Knowing well
That this was his farewell
The last time his hand
Will caress this guitar pan
Just before taking time
Out from the pan
Saying goodbye to his
Guitar pan that he love
To follow his mother
The one that he love even more
Than any other
Caressing his pan
For the very last time
With tender loving hand
Telling his pan softly goodbye
To join his loving mother
In the sky
Goodbye to our Pan Man
Goodbye to our Music Man
Goodbye to a cultural Icon
Goodbye to Neville Chester York
Raymond Helligar
Dear Editor,
It should feel good to know that also in St. Maarten there is support for the plight of the people of Statia in their battle with big bad Holland. It is, however, unfortunate to read that the arguments that are used are rather inaccurate. This is most likely results from the lack of knowledge of the exact circumstances. In a letter to the editor, Mr. Elton Jones mentioned that in anticipation of the evaluation the Dutch pre-emptively tried to have the islands absorbed into their constitution as so-called Kingdom Islands.
(Curaçao Chronicle)
"Here I stand; I can do no other,” is the side script on a red pair of “All Star” knock-offs. It is Luther Year in Germany and everything sells. A candy shop has a special a grand selection of Praline in a deluxe box in shape of a Gutenberg-Luther Bible. Tetzel’s money boxes play a song when souls are released from Purgatory and jump into heaven.
Transparent umbrellas with built-in speakers will provide you with a divine “voice” from above when you go through a storm. And a replica book press à la 1600 is geared up to provide you with your favourite Biblical text. Ah, what would the world be without magic and marketing!
Hardly two weeks ago and 500 years after Luther unchained the Reformation, the Pope canonized three shepherd children in Portugal, who 100 years ago were jailed and threatened with being boiled alive in olive oil when they claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to them. The Fatima children’s reported visions would go on to strengthen the faith of Portugal's persecuted Catholics and make the small farming town of Fatima one of the world's foremost pilgrimage sites, with around 6 million visitors a year. It is one of the best “money bags” of the Church and Luther’s Reformation seems to have had no effect in Portugal.
As long as people are into magical thinking, they will throw their money and support at anything to satisfy their hocus-pocus fancy. Harry Potter, only a hardly disguised resurrection story, became a world success and spooks in all young minds of today.
President Trump, with his Papal Corporate Culture of grand fanfare and who rejects humanism, takes the world for an Abrahamic religious tour along centres of magic, from Mecca, or nearly, to Jerusalem and Rome. His ecumenical religious magic and the Fake News that it produces is not likely to have much success.
Magic is very competitive as any Potter child knows and the problem in the Middle East is not one of religion but one of inequality and horrible poverty. While Princes live in magnificent splendour, the man in the street dies from malnutrition and maltreatment.
ISIS and Al Qaeda had easy recruiting amongst millions of illiterates, not because of religion, but because of poverty. And once again in history, the USA is found on the side of the usurper, not on the side of the suffering masses.
The collective allied power of the new Trump coalition will simply wipe them off the face of the earth, like nasty flies. And the masses will cheer the Trumpists on, like many fascists and magicians before him.
Luther’s Reformation failed miserably.
By Jacob Gelt Dekker
Dear Editor,
I am one of many concerned parents that have a lot of questions since the two letters were given out by the schoolboard of Saba Comprehensive School last month. The seriousness of these letters is quite alarming. It makes me really wonder how the school got into this financial mess in the first place.
Now we are losing good teachers, some teachers have been here for years. One teacher has been here for 12 years. If all our Caribbean teachers have to go and we have the CXC system, the schoolboard can't expect to bring in Dutch teachers from Holland to teach CXC. They don't know the system and English can be a barrier. What will happen to those children in Form 5 for example? They are the ones that will be in the examination class.
If the classes are to be less, I am sure the quality of education will drop, despite what the schoolboard is claiming. I have spoken to different educational professionals, and they are very worried themselves about the direction our secondary education is heading.
There needs to be more stability in the school. Starting with a schoolboard that represents parents, teachers and children, not a schoolboard that is handpicked by the government. There needs to be at least 5 schoolboard members, not only 3 that they have now. There needs to be elections for a schoolboard in my opinion.
The school belongs to all of us, not only a selected few. The teachers in the school have tried their utmost best with all our children. It is not an easy job, but I say thank you for all you do. It is much appreciated!
I have been up there by the school so many of times, and you can feel it is not a happy environment. What changed? What went wrong? Who will take responsibility for all the issues the school is facing? Schoolboard, Principal, Island Government, Dutch Government, who? The parents waited long enough for the schoolboard (SEF) to arrange a meeting, so we had to take it upon ourselves to do it.
There was an urgent letter/notice, signed by 50 parents/guardians, requesting the schoolboard to attend a public meeting to discuss serious issues that are facing/affecting Saba Comprehensive School.
Due to the fact that these issues are very important and crucial, with the time also drawing near for the school to go on summer break, we need to know what is going on.
Even though this meeting is last-minute, we hope that all stakeholders will attend this very important meeting to receive the clarification that is badly needed.
Christalle Klaber
A concerned parent
