Dear Editor,
An informed and frustrated citizen wrote last week that we should cancel emancipation day because he/she learnt that we are allowing the Dutch secret police (Gestapo) to operate on the island without reporting to the minister of justice. The report further states that it is unclear who they are targeting in their investigations or from whom they might have obtained legal authority to use electronic wiretapping and eaves dropping to gather information. We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are an island of laws and not men, and anyone operating outside the laws of the land is simply an outlaw, whether they have the blessing of the Dutch master or not.
I have through the years seen cases thrown out because outside justice organizations were operating in the territories without authority. The contention that a minister has signed an agreement to this effect, and only now parliament has gotten air of it means quite simply someone has dropped the ball. To some in parliament, the jury is still out as to whether we are a colony or not. They cling to the old “Lynch” teaching of giving a slave a big name or a ceremonial position and you can rule them forever.
Nothing fits that teaching more than the pride we see in those being called Prime Minister and President of parliament. It is tantamount to the house slave, who was heard to exclaim to his owner when the plantation was set afire “Massa we house on fire”. And if we follow the many meetings we were honoured to witness with PM Rutte, we would see the sitting arrangement and who speaks. But again, we know how proud this makes us, we take special pride in being used to benefit the master.
The Dutch government has made so many derogatory statements about us over the years, but thought it quite normal to ask us to lobby countries in the Caribbean to get them on the Security Council. Their strategy works so well that our “Prime Minister” tried explaining to the press how great that would be for St. Maarten, even though they tried to destroy our investment climate and seriously injure the already slow economy.
All the constitutional experts, who are worth their salt, will tell you that nowhere on earth they know of a country with four Prime Ministers. And the continued belief that we are equal to self-governing politically emancipated countries is a step too far, especially your colonial master.
Our ancestors fought too hard for the freedoms we now enjoy. I am sure they thought that we would have picked up the mantle to remove the shackles from our minds, after all they succeeded in removing those from our arms and legs. I can assure you that emancipation day is more relevant today for our people, and foremost our young people who must know that nothing was given without struggle and bloodshed, and nothing comes without a price.
If you are truly convinced that things are definitely not the way it should be, your targets should be those fifteen freeloaders in parliament and the seven legislators of varying ilk they support. Our duty and obligation now is not to withdraw our drive to honour our ancestors, but to correct the many colonial spins of history. This is our country and we should not relinquish any authority that is rightfully ours to a foreign power five thousand miles across the Atlantic. It high time we stand our ground and not surrender a single grain of sand that belongs to us. Who knows, history might one day also celebrate our brave actions.
Elton Jones
Dear Editor,
I would appreciate it if you can place this letter in your newspaper, as I believe unreasonable and possibly incorrect behaviour of immigration officers occurred, which are ultimately paid by the people of St. Maarten, and should realize that with responsibility there also comes accountability towards the same community they are serving.
In short this is my recent experience:
My daughter who just graduated from a flight attendant school in Bogota, invited one of her friends to stay with us in St. Maarten for a 1 month holiday. My daughter gave her female friend, a single girl who just celebrated her 21st birthday and has never been outside of her native Colombia, our address in St. Maarten and made sure she had a valid credit card in her possession. Much to our surprise, when she arrived at the St. Maarten airport, the immigration officer would not let her in.
We knew this, as the girlfriend communicated to us directly in the arrival hall via her phone.
We then asked the security guards and the lady at the information booth to help us by contacting the immigration by phone. The security and information desk workers were always very polite and helpful contrary to the immigration officer who I eventually got on the phone: “we cannot give you any information Sir, you will have to check with the airline.”
Needless to say that the airline officials that I visited directly after, told me that there is absolutely nothing they can do in this matter. When contacting the immigration by phone again they now explained to me that the girlfriend did not have “sufficient funds” for legally entering St. Maarten. Obviously her credit card was not regarded as sufficient means of funds. Even when I informed her that I was in the Arrival hall, she was staying with me, I would be responsible for her and could sign any document for that order, she just simply said I needed to get a Guarantee letter in Philipsburg knowing that the offices were already closed.
After another hour of waiting and wasting more time the girlfriend then informed us via my daughters’ phone that they would accept a signed Guarantee letter. I prepared it fast as I live close to the airport, printed it and me and my wife signed it and my wife handed it over to the immigration officer who then said: Oh but it does not have an immigration stamp! This at Thursday evening around 7:00pm when all immigration offices are closed since 4:00pm and the next day being a holiday.
End of story, they sent my daughters girlfriend of 21 years, alone, back to Curaçao, a country unknown to her, without any flight possibility to leave back to Colombia earlier than Saturday! Well done immigration officer, you sure have earned your place as an example of friendliness in St. Maarten.
Paul Ideler
Dear Editor,
I am an avid reader of your esteemed newspaper and would like to request a small space in it to correct a misreported story, and to thank all the good Samaritans of our friendly island.
My name is Navin Malkani; I am a long-time resident of St. Maarten and own a jewellery store on Front Street.
My regular clients and friends, who travel often to St. Maarten, were shopping with me until late Monday evening, and so I offered to drop them to their hotel. On my way to Simpson Bay near the Cole Bay roundabout, whilst I was driving a speeding car came into my lane and hit me at the back of the car, after which my vehicle turned over and I along with the tourists were trapped.
It should be noted that the driver of the speeding car did not flee the scene, and was in fact a senior citizen of St. Maarten. Soon the bystanders and other drivers on the road came to rescue us and within no time we were all out of danger. One of the victims complained of neck pain and she was transported quickly to the St. Maarten Medical Center.
We would like to thank each and every person, including the residents involved in helping us during the times of our distress, and emphasis that the spirit of the Friendly Island does indeed exist, including the spontaneous and professional service from the mobile medical unit, police, fire brigade and the hospital.
Navin Malkani
Dear Editor,
Much is written by Dutch politicians about the state of politics in the islands. We seldom see our press dealing with similar problems in The Netherlands. I just came across a column in the Magazine of the Association of Dutch municipalities, which I translated for our readers in the islands to compare. The column is from January 23, 2015, and is written by André Krouwel, political scientist at Free University and scientific director of Kieskompas.
Dear Editor,
As we fast approach Friday, July 1, I would like to request the Government to please cancel Emancipation Day. Perhaps no one has been paying attention to the news of late when it was uncovered that this current Government, unbeknown to the population, signed an agreement with the Dutch for support in the form of Kingdom Detectives being assigned to St. Maarten.
In principal this was not such a bad idea since our local Police Force is severely short-staffed, but alas the Devil is in the details. Not only are there 75 Dutch detectives on island, they report directly to Holland.
That’s correct, they have no accountability or reporting responsibility to our Ministry of Justice. No one knows what they are doing on island, what and who they are investigating, and what is being reported back to the Netherlands.
This reminds me of the Soviet Union era of the secret police. Instead of transparently enforcing the rule of law and being subjected to public scrutiny as our Police force is, these secret police are specifically intended to operate beyond and above our local law in order to gather intelligence on our local population and use it to target political enemies of the ruling political establishment in Holland.
This is such an egregious violation of our Civil rights and our right to privacy, that Emancipation Day in all fairness should be cancelled.
Despite learning of the secret police, I am even more shocked at the nonchalant attitude of our people. No one on island is immune to the investigative reach of these secret police. They listen to our phone calls, they observe your movements, watch who you interact with, and yes the things that go “bump in the night” are the secret police.
As much as this Government touted transparency and “Back to Basics,” it has instead been a Government shrouded in secrecy and has put our Civil rights back to an era that we thought long behind us.
Happy Emancipation Day!!!
Name withheld at author’s request.
