Self Above Country
By Hilbert Haar
That St. Maarten is its own worst enemy has become clear once more with another series of ship-jumping. First MP Franklin Meyers declared himself independent from the United Democrats and now MPs Luc Mercelina and Chanel Brownbill have followed his example. The lifespan of a government since 10-10-10 is now around fourteen months – and I’ve never heard a politician say that this is ridiculous and irresponsible.
Every country gets the government it deserves but St. Maarten’s makers and shakers are seemingly unable to make up their minds; we’re heading for the ninth government in just nine years.
And what a government it will be. The Today newspaper once posted a cartoon suggesting that the United St. Maarten party change its name into PCCI – Party of Crooks and Criminals International. Small wonder: party leader Frans Richardson has been arrested twice by the anti-corruption task force in the past year and he is now – and I emphasize this – a suspect in criminal investigations into bribery, membership of a criminal organization, vote buying and abuse of power. His party has two others in its ranks with a criminal conviction: Silvio Matser (vote buying and tax fraud) and Maria Buncamper-Molanus (tax fraud).
With MP Chanel Brownbill (a former USp-MP) back on board (at least with the so-called new majority), the criminal profile of the USp is near complete: Brownbill has an 18-month prison sentence for tax fraud to his name. Fifteen months are suspended and the appeal to this verdict is pending.
MP Luc Mercelina, reportedly a member of the Cupecoy shadow government that wants to sell out the port to Global Ports Holding and thereby causing a dramatic drop in cruiseship arrivals next season, may get a shot at becoming minister of Public Health. That could put the National Health Insurance plans on ice, since Mercelina opposed this idea – with rather baseless objections – when Emil Lee was still in office.
The National Alliance, now led by Silveria Jacobs, is taking the lead in the formation of a possible new coalition of nine, but this party has plenty of problems of its own. Under the leadership of former Prime Minister William Marlin it voted against the establishment of the Integrity Chamber and it vehemently opposed the conditions the kingdom attached to funding for the island’s recovery after Hurricane Irma.
Now the National Alliance is suddenly looking forward to “working with our kingdom partners on the basis of mutual respect.” I guess that the party will use the latter part of the previous sentence as an excuse to go to war with the kingdom on many an occasion.
The main question is currently what the governor will do with the political mayhem. The National Alliance has declared it has a majority of nine in parliament but it has not yet tabled a motion of no confidence against the Romeo-Marlin government.
The Council of Ministers has in the meantime voted in favor of invoking article 59 of the constitution. If the governor accepts that decision, parliament will be dissolved, the electorate will be sent to the polls again and the new parliament will be required by law to meet within three months of the decision to let the article 59-initiative prevail over the parliament’s apparent wish to form a new government without elections. It is 2015 all over again.
It cannot come as a surprise that the kingdom is looking with a certain level of disgust at the behavior of local politicians. It has one weapon in its arsenal to strike back: article 43 of the Kingdom Charter.
That article says that every country in the kingdom – the Netherlands, Curacao, Aruba and St. Maarten – is responsible for realizing fundamental human rights and freedoms, legal security and good governance. Guaranteeing these rights is a kingdom responsibility, so if the kingdom concludes that – after nine years of cumbersome politics – good governance in St. Maarten can no longer be guaranteed, it has the authority to step in and take measures.
Surely, the kingdom will not send in the marines to straighten things out, but it could issue a general measure of kingdom administration (Algemene Maatregel van Rijksbestuur) to tell St. Maarten what to do.
It is tempting to label situations like the one we are dealing with now as “interesting times.” I am not going there, because rather than piquing my interest (about what will happen next) the current political shenanigans trigger a feeling of despair.
The now defunct Democratic Party once went to the polls with the slogan Country Above Self. It sounded good and if applied properly it would certainly benefit citizens. However, in the world where our politicians live with their bloated salaries Self Above Country still has the upper hand.
One more thing: remember that the government – with Marcel Gumbs in office as prime minister – wanted to introduce ‘electoral reform’ to put an end to ship jumping? Whatever happened to that idea?
