Dear Editor,

Too often I hear some politicians stressing on the terminology ‘Born here’ and ‘Son of the soil’ mentioning that those who are born here are the ones to decide where the future of Sint Maarten lies. Well, I really need to remind them that approximately 70% of Sint Maarten’s population consists of migrants.

People who, for whatever good reason, have left their dear homelands. They came here in good faith and with their dreams of making a better life for themselves and their future generations. A right that every human being has, once born somewhere on this earth. They came here to Sint Maarten and made it their home. They are contributing how they can to the economy, our culture and the welfare of this Island.

Democratically, it will always be the majority who decides where the future of a country will be. There is no need to point our fingers to migrants, or people who are ‘not-born- here’. I want to remind those who are in that vibe of excluding people, of something that those people can’t even do anything about. Nobody decides to be born in a particular country. You just are born there, where your mother has given birth to you at that moment in time.

I would like to ask those who are emphasizing on being ‘born here’ to just look back one or two generations before them, and ask the question: ‘Don’t I have or had family members who came out of immigrants?’

Franklin D. Roosevelt, a former US president stated: “Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants.” I really believe that this applies to most of us in the world, and especially in the Americas and the Caribbean. Let’s not go into the remote of creed or birthplace or origin, because it will lead us to unnecessary segregation and a lack of understanding.

Unfortunately, these excluding mechanisms are to be found in so many countries, making it difficult for migrants to merge. We often see the phenomenon of ‘living next to each other (segregation) in peace’, respecting the culture of one another.

I’ve once heard a saying: ‘Tell me how you treat the migrants and the animals in your country, and I can tell you how civilized you are.’

I believe that as a politician you‘d better be someone who can connect people of all kinds of cultural backgrounds, bringing them together to work for and love the country they are living in. Sint Maarten has become their and their children’s home, just like Sint Maarten is your home.

If you really want to build up a country, let’s talk a different language. Let’s talk about making history and heritage of our island, our country’s languages, our culture, being one with respect for other cultures and belief systems. Let’s share our good norms and values such as integrity, respect, etc., as fundamental parts of our nation. Let’s not forget that cultural diversity is an asset to our country.

For decades, most Islands in the Caribbean consist of a multicultural societies, which brought forward so much talented people who brought innovation in the cultures and prosperity in the economies of the countries where they live, as well to their home lands. Sint Maarten is no exception.

Let’s embrace those who came here in good faith and are contributing to our society, putting their shoulders under all the work that needs to be done to take Sint Maarten to a next level of its development. You will see, that because migrants are embraced and treated well, they and their descendants will be thankful for being here, and proud to be a part of this society. They will have room for loyalty, and love Sint Maarten as much as you do.

Loekie Morales

Dear Editor,

My people, my people, come out to vote in great numbers vote for a better future for everyone. September 26, 2016, the voters are the boss to employ 15 candidates in this year’s Parliamentary election, and all government concern is just projects, and l quote why government often leaves the people demands behind.

My god, why our representative have not handled things the people are crying out for – the most our policemen, teachers, doctors, Rasta men, nurses, construction workers, housekeeping workers, civil servants and many more want to own their own home – this is a priority for the people, but parliamentarians must take a brave and strong stand for us to bring the motions to Parliament and get it solved.

The minimum wage is to low; what about our senior citizen needs; the high cost of living on the island of St Maarten; what about the six-month contract that has the voters living in poverty? What about justice for all? What about the small claims court for the small man?

It’s you, the politician representing the people must get this situation done right even every baby can see government is distancing themselves from matters that are best and priorities for the people and the voters.

Middle Region people just remember another government has let you all down by promising the people that buses will run through Middle Region, and on the rest of east side of the island. Another government let us down again. Leona Marlin, Member of Parliament of the UP Party said she has a master plan for buses to run Middle Region and the rest of the areas on the blessed island of St. Maarten, as soon as she was elected this will be one of her priority she will work on.

The leader of UP and MFK has some ways of Nelson Mandela and Rosie Douglas in them which the entire former Netherlands Antilles nations is proud of these both leaders they got a lot of creativity in them.

Cuthbert Bannis

Dear Editor,

St. Maarten Communications Union SMCU delivered a resolution to the Prime Minister, dated August 24, requesting the re-opening of the application for the CEO position of TelEm. We also requested for him to appoint the required new members on the board of directors.

The reason there is a need for new board members is because the articles of incorporation indicate that the board must consist of a maximum of seven, or a minimum of five members, whereas currently there are three members on the board.

The Prime Minister publicized on September 22, that three new board members would be added to the board for the board to be complete, but if three new board members are added to the board, it will be a total of six members (an even number), and not seven as is mentioned in the articles of incorporation.

The Prime Minister is playing a game where he will appoint three members to the board making the total board members six, and since this will not be in order with the articles of incorporation, one of the board members will become the CEO of TelEm and the board will remain with five members.

This would mean that the Prime Minister will not re-open the vacancy of the CEO of TelEm as was requested by the employees of TelEm, and he is trying to keep it a secret till after election.

TelEm has a total of one hundred and thirty-five employees, including the management and seventy-two of those employees requested the prime minister in a resolution sent August 24, to re-open the CEO vacancy, and make the process transparent where the employees working in TelEm could have also gotten the opportunity to apply for the function, based on the qualifications, as well as external candidates.

This is a clear indication of dictatorship of the Prime Minister where he is supposed to be working for the people of St. Maarten, and the people of St. Maarten made a request and it seems like it will not be granted.

The other situation is the merger of TelEm/UTS 60/40. The prime minister publicized the merger of these two companies without even knowing if the employees of these two companies were informed prior to the press release. Anytime there is such delicate information that will be publicized by the Council of Ministers or the Prime Minister, one should first make it his business to make sure the parties that are going to be affected by the situation are informed prior to making such statements.

St. Maarten has twenty-five percent shares in UTS in general; the question is what will happen with those shares, because Curaçao claims that St. Maarten has 12.5 percent.

The Prime Minister also has to inform the people of St. Maarten what will happen with those shares, and why Curaçao is making the claim that St. Maarten has 12.5 percent, while there are documents stating that St. Maarten has 25%. See the website http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0028594/2010-10-10 where information can be found for all the companies that where owned by the central government before 10-10-10. On August 23, 2012, all the shares that were divided in the islands of the former Netherlands Antilles.

Before discussing the merger of the two companies, St. Maarten has to know where it stands with the 25% shares it has in UTS.

The Council of Ministers needs to retract the two telecom licenses that are out there which passed their time to start operating on the island of St. Maarten. These are the things our government has to start doing, and they need to stop playing politics with the people of St. Maarten.

St. Maarten Communication Union

Dear Editor,

I recently received a piece of information that made me even more pessimistic about our island’s future. It made me realise that the way some of our politicians interact with each other is a lot worse than we thought.

There were representatives of a US-based company vacationing here, who informed a particular minister about a solution for the dump situation. I understand the solution would have been provided (almost) free of charge. This solution – some sort of chemical that is used on landfills in the USA and elsewhere – would prevent fires from flaring up on the dump. The representatives only needed to know the size of the site.

The minister in question requested this information from a minister of a party not his own and was told to: ”Go f**k yourself.” This behaviour is nothing less than disgraceful, disrespectful, extremely immature and totally unbefitting a representative of the people. I now wonder how often that phrase is used when the cameras are not rolling and the people are not listening. In order for our island to move forward, our current government needs to be purged of all the dross that’s in there.

This also goes to show that if a potentially successful project/idea/proposal is initiated by a minister or Member of Parliament of an opposing party, it is abruptly rejected. They might even go as far as thwarting the attempts of the minister or MP who is trying his or her best to accomplish something good for the people, who are paying their salaries.

It would be ideal if ministers and Members of Parliament of all parties would work together for the wellbeing of the people, but unfortunately, this seems not be the case. As long as a particular party does not get the credit for a project, it won’t go through. I wonder how often this has happened before. What a sad situation we have in our government.

The adverse effects of the toxic fumes of the dump on the health of the people who live and work in Philipsburg and the immediate surroundings are well known and cannot be refuted. There used to be a holistic Asian doctor here who had a fair number of customers. He told a couple of his customers that St. Maarten is a unique and beautiful island, but he would not remain here long because of the dump. “If only the people of the island knew….” he said. He abruptly left the island sooner than was planned, because his office was broken into and all his medical equipment stolen.

Three days from today we are going to the polls again, that is, those of us who still have a little bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, this time will be different; maybe this time around we will choose the right ones.

Every year or every other year, (in most civilized countries it’s every fourth year) we hear the self-same things over and over and over. They are going to help senior citizens; raise the pension money, fix or build new schools; provide meals for school-children introduce a new (affordable) tax system; increase the minimum wage; improve the infrastructure, fight crime; create jobs; bring our overseas children back home and a lot more.

Even those smooth and persuasive talkers, who have been in government forever and are considered fixtures in the Parliament Building, make these empty promises. It makes one wonder what they have been doing for the last two or three decades.

Some of them are now talking about independence. I can easily come up with a few reasons we should not entertain such a thought. Firstly, we are renowned as a country with a corrupt government. Certainly in the Netherlands, who, I am happy to know, has ways of finding out who the corrupt ones are; the other islands of the Kingdom and thanks to a video that went viral, even countries on the other side of the planet, like New Zealand. If our government is so corrupt now, how much more corrupt will it become when we are independent? Who would be keeping a watchful eye on them? Who would they have to give account to?

Secondly, since we became a country in October 2010, we have not had a stable government. Our representatives have proven to us no less than five times that they are incapable of providing stability.

Thirdly, we all know how very skilful they are when it comes to squandering the people’s tax money. Who will they go to for monetary aid after independence? Will they approach the Netherlands whom they will have rejected? The truth is that Holland would be relieved to get rid of us, because our corruption is tainting the Kingdom’s reputation.

Will they continue to make large loans to refill the government coffers, so they can resume their squandering? They will eventually not be able to repay these loans, then what? Increase the already-heavy tax burden?

There is a wise saying that goes: You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. I’m beginning to think this does not apply to the people of St. Maarten. It’s taking us forever to wake up from our deep slumber. We can’t go on sleeping forever, people. If we don’t want positive change for ourselves, let’s at least do it for our children.

I strongly urge every voter to take time out this weekend to seriously think about these things before you go to your voting booth next week.

Let’s continue to pray that God will bless St. Maarten with a competent,

greed-free, corruption-free and stable government. HE is the only one who can accomplish that.

Clive Hodge