Dear Editor,
The words fraud and corruption are not unique to St. Maarten and we should not be used as the poster child for it. Recently, we read about another VVD’er former alderman of the city Roermond Jos van Rey and former police chief Gerard Bouman, who were convicted of fraud and/or corruption in the Netherlands.
On the floor of Parliament and during the IPKO meetings, I have made it very clear that establishing a kingdom integrity chamber ordinance should be the order of the day. Curaçao and Aruba also have their own integrity challenges, which only illustrates that an integrity chamber is also needed for the entire kingdom. While the kingdom decides to work out the details of the integrity chamber, we in St. Maarten can focus on addressing our own issues and focus on preventive measures rather than punitive.
During the parliamentary debate on the topic of the Integrity Chamber, I mentioned the need to increase compliance within government. That need is now sensed more than before. As I continued to look at integrity from the angle of compliance, some interesting insights came up during my research and talking with those in the field. Our laws are or should be a reflection of our values and norms.
Those laws regulate the various relationships we engage in, and what those involved can expect from each other. When things go wrong, we have court systems in place to address disputes or render judgments as has been seen with the nullification of the Integrity Chamber Ordinance by the Constitutional Court.
Had we stuck by the rules and done things for the right reasons, there wouldn’t have been the need for such a shattering judgement. The more we stick to the rules, the smoother the interactions become and the less burden is placed on judges ultimately, as less disputes would arise. In a practical sense, it means that decisions from ministers, government or other public bodies will be more consistent and sound; citizens would be more aware of their opposing rights and obligations, thus creating an environment wherein corruption becomes easier to expose.
Are we to take integrity seriously, we need to ensure compliance. Compliance is not an external matter, but an internal prerequisite in promoting integrity. Within banking institutions compliance officers are a norm, and we should follow suit and establish or appoint a Compliance Commissioner. As the compliance officers within banking institutions, and borrowing from the Cayman Islands Information Commissioner’s Office, the Compliance Commissioner’s main focus would be to assist the various ministers, governing bodies and other related institutions adhere to the relevant national and international standards, laws and regulations.
The second responsibility of the Compliance Commissioner should be to make recommendations for reform in the area of compliance.
Thirdly, the Compliance Commissioner refers cases where it appears that a criminal offence has been committed to the appropriate authorities. Last, but not least, the Compliance Commissioner should as much as possible publish the requirements of the various laws and the rights of individuals thereunder.
By clearly shifting the primary focus on compliance and not so much on investigations with the sole aim to prosecute offenders, we firstly strive to improve the operations within the various ministries and wider collective sector in a transparent and objective way of measuring performance; the law. When you comply with the law, you are half way home. Add ethical behaviour to that and we are back on track in bringing back the much-needed moral and ethical values to our community.
The Compliance Commissioner can temporarily be appointed through an unanimous motion of Parliament, which I will present as a member, and based on its powers to pose questions and start inquiries, while awaiting the establishment of the Compliance Commissioner Office by national ordinance, ensuring objectivity, independence and securing financing. I will seek political support across party lines for this motion. Let’s get back on track!
Cornelius De Weever
Member of Parliament
Dear Editor,
Freedom of expression and freedom of association are two constitutionally guaranteed rights that should always be protected. One of the above deals with the right of the citizen to gather peacefully and express their thoughts and feelings of events and issues in the larger community be they political, social or economical.
The other has to do with your right to speak out on the existent or perceived ills in our society, especially the right of the press to unabashedly keep the public informed with the most truthful and verifiable information. A word often used by my deceased grandfather was incorrigible and back in my pre-teens the word meant the same to me as the man on the moon for none of the two appealed to my playful mind.
But advance that some fifty plus years and it all comes back to me now. Campaign 2016 has kicked off with the usual meet and greets and canvassing. This in itself is nothing new as we have seen this scenario play out so often over the many campaigns and most recently 2014. So the question would be what makes this a reportable affair.
Since 10-10-10 and before there have been rumblings of vote buying and the influx of bad money into the campaigns. Plural is used to indicate that none of the parties were or are exempt from this phenomenon. The picture changed somewhat after election 10-10-10 as the justice department felt they could prove the roomers playing in society and bring the perpetrators to court.
This of course does not occur without the country taking a beating regionally and internationally led by information spread by the Dutch propaganda machine declaring us all corrupt and Mafioso. Many people were investigated and some had their day in court. Some of these cases are yet incomplete because our judiciary believes its proper business to put people’s lives on hold until they find it necessary to follow up on the cases.
These we have seen with the Buncamper case the Labega case and the case of the VKS and police officers and the UP party among others. Intelligent and well-meaning people would try to keep themselves as far as possible from any appearance of this illegal activity. Reasonable and law abiding politicians would make it a definite “faux pas.” As word has it today our politicians are carrying on as usual and the vote buying and promises of favours have started again.
It would seem from word reaching the writer that deals are also being cut on the land Government supposedly acquired for affordable housing which is today being peddled to supporters and foundations set up by members of Government. By all appearances we like to be in the press for all the wrong reasons; we take pleasure in bringing the country down for purely selfish reasons.
As stated the citizen has a right to disagree with the politician, Government or the judiciary with a degree of respect. However, when any action or activity has been proven to be contrary to the laws of the land al efforts should be made to avoid these. People who do not or would not learn from previous missteps by others or themselves are simply incorrigible. And those who believe they are above the law when seeking public office are simply despots and outlaws.
Elton Jones
Dear Editor,
I congratulate the employees of the Maho Resort, with the favourable outcome of their court injunction against Maho resort and the Board of the WICSU/PSU.
After being informed by a group of employees on June 12, of the pressing situation they were confronted with by both their employer Maho Resort and WICSU/PSU, together with a labour professional, I met with the employees and informed them of their rights as workers and how they should proceed legally.
In addition, through the chairlady of parliament, I formally questioned Minister Emile Lee of VSA on the role of the Labour Department. As reported and confirmed by the management of Maho resorts, both the Labour Mediator, R. Boasman and WICSU/PSU president Solagnier vetted and approved this process of termination.
The decision of the courts in favour of the employees is a clear indication that they were not well represented by their union. The Pelican saga is still fresh on the minds of the people. As a consequence as legislators, employee representatives and Government, all stakeholders should ensure that the rights of the working men and women in this country are safeguarded.
I look forward to the outcome of the developments pertaining to those employees who have signed to terminate their employment with Resort of the World to commence with a new operating company, some of which indicated they did so under duress.
However, I do hope that the management of the Maho group together with the employees can reach to a favourable agreement that benefits all parties. This to ensure that St. Maarten can continue to provide a quality tourism experience for our visitors! As a member of parliament, I have been consistent and true when it came to the rights of the people, regardless to being in opposition or part of a coalition.
Member of Parliament Christophe Emmanuel
Dear Editor,
We have noted with interest that there is now twice the number of political parties registered on island and that ten parties will contest the September 26 election. This is a first in the history of St. Maarten and the leaders of these parties must be commended for wanting to help shape the future of their island. It shows democracy at work.
It also shows that the people of St. Maarten have taken stock and find themselves disenchanted and dissatisfied with the leadership they have been receiving and are sufficiently concerned to want to see a change, and who can blame them? Over the past several years St. Maarten’s ship has been captained by basically the same people and these captains have chattered us into some dangerous waters leaving us very anxious about the future of our island and particularly the future of our children.
We cannot sit back and allow the lack of integrity, the class justice and the blatant greed that has prevailed to continue. It cannot be business as usual – the rich getting richer and the poor becoming poorer with the middle class practically disappearing.
The entry of these new parties into the race is the clearest indictor, to me at least, that the people have asked themselves the hard questions:
“How has my standard of living improved under the current leadership? Are we better or worse off? Can I continue to allow friendship or family ties to dictate that I make an x for a candidate that has openly demonstrated a lack of integrity which allows him/her to put personal profit before country? Can I vote for a person who while doing his or her job I obtained a bus or taxi permit or some other Government permit and must feel committed to him or her? Can I support a party that has caused or benefited from the ship jumpers?”
The fact that today there are ten parties contesting the elections, including the One St. Maarten People Party tells us the answer to the questions.
I have read the report of Transparency International as it concerns integrity or rather the lack thereof in Government and am particularly concerned because despite a lot of lip service being paid there have been no concrete steps taken to remedy the situation. This tells me that our current Government officials are more than happy to maintain the status quo, but we the people of St. Maarten believe it’s time for a change.
We all want to have a steady stable Government in place looking after the best interest of the island and a Government that is not riddled with questionable behaviour, questionable and in some cases suspicious decisions and most of all a Government that does not allow the outside world to label us a banana republic. So we welcome the new parties to the fray and wish them much success.
Lenny Priest, Leader
One St. Maarten People Party (OSPP)
Dear Editor,
This is unbelievable! The mismanagement of GEBE goes beyond party politics. It is affecting us all; the average citizen whose appliances are being damaged, businesses that are being hurt in an already damaged economy, residents that are planning their daily household chores, and even GEBE’s own employees are all affected by the mismanagement from the top.
Not so long ago the current Council of Ministers wanted 30 million guilders from GEBE to balance their budget, which by the way now already has accumulated a huge deficit in the first two quarters of the year. They furthermore told the previous Supervisory Board to take loans for the purchase of new generators, and not to use the money that GEBE has on their account. When the previous Supervisory Board refused to play political games, they were removed. Musical chairs is being played with the CEO, CFO and COO positions ever since.
On social media there was a post that was funny, but sad at the same time. It read: “MP Lake put the new GEBE board in place; his back-to-basics approach is in full effect. We’re back to candlelight!”
While lots of things were running well under the UP-led government, the reality is that this coalition is messing up everything good. We now have a large number of power outages; we’re experiencing major issues with garbage collection and management of the dump, while a new fantasy island is being planned in the middle of our lagoon for a sewage plant.
Enough is enough! My people deserve better! We can no longer continue like this. We need to put our people first by creating an environment where businesses can flourish and where the quality of life for everyone increases.
As a Member of Parliament I will work together with all stakeholders to get St. Maarten out of this darkness and remain committed to finding sound solutions for the problems GEBE is facing.
Franklin Meyers
Member of Parliament/Fraction Leader UP
