(Curaçao Chronicle)

National liberation and socialist change under “working class leadership” was a dream of many islanders but in fact created the biggest problem for Caribbean Island States. Working class leadership’s inability to generate intellectual and ideological alternatives for the opportunistic, anti-intellectual, narco-economies, crippled all islands’ political systems and administrations.

Colonialism would be expunged by “peasant-led insurrections,” Frantz Fanon of Martinique had prophesied in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, but independence movements were far from “peasant-led.” Instead, they were dominated by sections of the middle-class intelligentsia, the bourgeoisie, so hated by Fanon. It was this intelligentsia, not peasants, who quickly formed a new nationalist, “black elite,” replacing European colonials.

Most of the fifteen Caribbean States are electocracies, where only elected individuals can participate in government. Note: An electocracy is a political system where citizens can vote for their government but cannot participate directly in governmental decision-making and where the government does not share any power. Active participation by citizens on all levels of government and sharing of power, as in a democracy, is legally excluded on the islands. Thus a ruling, closed elite of profiteers emerged.

Briefly, hope glimmered on the horizon with the very successful, and aggressive, proselytizing of Evangelicals on the islands. Marching behind the banner of the Born-Again Gospel-faithful, layman’s simplicity would bring “justice for all” and fill the “absence of ideology.”

The Vatican lamented loudly that Gospel based layman’s churches had stolen wandering sheep from their herd, but the Mother Church offered only a grand and lofty Concilium, without any alternatives on the ground. Soon, it became apparent that neither the Vatican nor Evangelicals managed to guide the “wandering sheep” back to the herd.
Populations of poverty fell into indifference and moral and economic apathy. Nothing could ignite productivity. From their perspective, everything was outperformed by the narco industry. Soon they found out that they only formed foot soldiers, ready to be sacrificed and catering to yet another closed elite.

The absence of ideology and intellectual alternatives are not filled by elections every 6-10 months. The next ones in power will have the same problems as the previous. And instead of administrating and seeing to the islands’ urgent needs, they will vie for the most lucrative positions for their friends and families. Favouritism, cronyism, and nepotism have woven a closely-knit fabric that is nearly bulletproof.

The solution is as simple as the question: break the power of the ruling, closed elite. Move the electocracy into a democracy.

By Jacob Gelt Dekker

Dear Editor,

We all welcomed the new minister for TEATT. It was really time there should have a minister in place as citizens of both the French and Dutch sides were very concern as to why it were taking so long to find a minister to fill in this position.

The population also thanked the Opposition for calling on government, reminding them to hurry and find a minister for tourism because tourism is the pillar for this nation.

It shows the Opposition, United People’s Party is performing excellently and internationally, as many other opposition parties perform worldwide in a democratic style.

In the past, St. Maarten did not see the opposition (National Alliance) party in action towards the Democratic Party (DP) when the DP was in power in the past.

Although on to date DP remains the best party that performs the best when they were in

opposition just for shorts times.

Now we are very proud of our representatives, they getting back on track again, both parliamentarians and ministers. Now we are looking for Government to have buses running middle region soon as possible or we will have to go court with the situation for the lack the buses not running in the district of Middle Region.

Cuthbert Bannis

Dear Editor,
Some people wonder why my writings deal mostly with the Parliament of St. Maarten. This is because our Parliament is a new constitutional institution. During the last campaign, leading up to the September 26, 2016, elections, the Sint Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) observed that the majority of the people knew and understood very little about our Parliament and about the role and function of the Parliamentarians they were about to elect. The people generally equated the role of a Parliamentarian with that of a minister. SMCP’S role during the campaign was to constantly inform the people about the role and function of Parliament because, after all, it was a Parliamentary election. We also committed ourselves to continue to inform and educate the people whether we were elected or not.
The other reason for focusing on our Parliament is my belief that change starts at the top. Parliament is the supreme oversight institution in St. Maarten and as such is the leader institution in the country. It sets the tone, the pace and is the face of St. Maarten. I believe that if Parliament is functioning well the rest of government (Council of Ministers and civil service) would also fall in line. I am reminded of the quote by well-known leadership guru, John Maxwell: “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” This means that Parliament, as the leader institution in our society, has the awesome responsibility to set the tone and the pace in terms of good governance. The reason why, the government, the civil service, the economy, the justice system etc. are not functioning as they should, is because our country’s leading institution is not functioning as it should. It is my belief that if the functioning of Parliament improves we will see improvement in every other sector of our society.
We, the people of St. Maarten, must realize that, if Parliament is functioning poorly, we can do something about it. For six years, our Parliament has gotten away with poor governance, because we were too focused on government and on the ministers. We must accept the fact that we cannot do much about the government and the ministers, because we did not put them there. We did not appoint them. The ones who we must hold accountable, for their own functioning as well as for the poor performance and decisions of government and the ministers are the fifteen Parliamentarians that we elected to Parliament. We can demand that they do their jobs. We can demand that they control and supervise the government and the ministers. We can demand that our elected Parliamentarians control the expenditures and revenues of the country better. We can demand that our Parliament passes legislation that would promote the common good and ensure a good quality of life for all the people in this country. And..., if our elected Parliamentarians do not perform to our satisfaction, we can remove them by voting them out of office when the time comes.
We cannot remove the government or a minister. It is the Parliament who hired them and put them there. Therefore, Parliament is the only body that can fire them. So, if we have questions and criticism regarding government, let us voice our concerns to our representatives in Parliament and let them work on our behalf.
I believe that we, the people, have not done a good job at holding our Parliamentarians accountable. We have not set high standards for them to govern by. We have accepted, that it is okay, for our Parliamentarians to receive a very high salary and deliver mediocre to poor work. We have accepted, that it is okay, for Parliamentarians to debate on the floor of Parliament, without having read the documents at hand. We have accepted, that our Parliamentarians can be members of a committee without ever having to meet to discuss issues relevant to that committee. We have accepted, that in six years of Parliamentary existence not one initiative legislation has been approved. We have accepted, that it is okay, for Parliament to pass motions but never to follow up on them. We have accepted, that it is okay, that Parliament does not follow up on the advices submitted by the high councils of state. We have accepted, that it is okay, that Parliament has not yet had a debate concerning good governance as presented in the various integrity reports. On a scale of 1 to 10, Transparency International (TI) has given our Parliament a grade of 2.5, for each of the following items: integrity, executive oversight, transparency and accountability. For TI, our Parliament is considered “weak.” In my grading system, this is definitely a failing grade. Our Parliament has failed and fooled us and it appears that we are okay with it.
We, the people, must realize that our job is to monitor and control Parliament and that the job of Parliament is to monitor and control the government! If government is not performing well then it is Parliament’s job to make sure that government’s functioning improves. If this does not happen then Parliament has the right and the authority to send the government home, via a vote of non-confidence. On the other hand, if our Parliamentarians are not functioning then we, the people, we the voters, have the right and the authority to send them home at the end of their term. If we do what we have to do, we can help turn our weak Parliament into a strong institution?

Wycliffe Smith
Leader of the Sint Maarten Christian Party

Dear Editor,

It is normal and quite usual in the Caribbean to treat visitors and strangers with respect and extend the utmost courtesy. St. Maarten of course is no exception to that norm. So it strikes us as rude and insulting that you would invite someone for a meeting to discuss differences of interpretation on a colonial protocol, and then insult them. I have read in the press and on social media how some people side with the Dutch in this dispute.

One news outlet even suggesting that the pressure of the formation talks contributed to the abrupt and crude behaviour of PM Rutte. I beg to differ, for the entire Dutch political landscape has minced no words in their effort to clarify the balance of power between the Netherlands and the countries in the Caribbean.

Be it the First or Second Chamber, or the Council of Ministers, the point of departure simply is it’s ok for you to consider yourselves as equals, but we are a colonial power and don’t intend to recognize you as equals. The noise about this so-called Integrity Chamber is a clear example of who sticks to agreements or supersedes them by unilateral action. To try and explain I put the Dutch text and a free translation thereof.

Bullet point three of the agreement reads, “daartoe op zo kort mogelijk termijn, doch uiterlijk op 1 Juli 2015, door Nederland een kwartiermaker wordt benoemd die samen met de reeds door St. Maarten benoemde kwartiermaker wordt belast met de instelling en inrichting van de integriteitskamer”. English: To this end on a short as possible period, but ultimately no later than July 1, 2015, the Netherlands will appoint a quartermaster who will be charged with the already appointed quartermaster by St. Maarten with the formation and installation of the Integrity Chamber.

The fact that the Dutch did not live up to the agreement cannot give them the right to come two years after the fact to place their quartermaster with the illegal use of a Kingdom measure of higher supervision or an instruction. This Kingdom can’t survive in modern times with the draconian and dictatorial actions and behaviour of the Netherlands. We can and will no longer accept that our people are less than theirs, and can’t do anything for ourselves unless they lead it.

The argument that they are doing this for the people also doesn’t carry any weight when we see them squashing elections determining who can be part of government, or destroying laws the overseas countries enacted to level the playing field in the labour market. We don’t see their help coming in funds for the eradication of poverty, or the solution to the garbage problem that too would help the people. The Dutch, whatever their new policy is, simply want to place European Dutch civil servants in top positions, who history has shown to be disrespectful with unlimited authority.

We have seen, for instance, during the 1990’s when we were under higher supervision how they failed to train any locals and later on, when they left especially from the police force they took everything they came with. We were left just where we were before they came.

We need long-term structural solutions that must be found locally; we have the human resources and capacity and don’t believe they can do for us what we should do for ourselves. Like with the now infamous debt relief, many promises are not kept unless their people are put in charge. Enough is enough and if it takes closing the country down to illustrate our resolve, then so be it. We have spent much time and money educating our children, and we wish to see them make their contribution.

Elton Jones