Advertisement
By Hilbert Haar
Governor Ajamu Baly has delivered a measured response to the criticism directed at him through a legal advice from constitutional expert prof. Arjen van Rijn. He didn’t go off the rails, he did not use swear words and he did not point the finger at anyone. He did not have to.
Based on the governor’s response to the advice that concludes that he overstepped his authority as an attendant to meetings of the Council of Ministers it seems highly likely that Van Rijn did not receive all the information he needed. That information, or rather the lack of it, came from Prime Minister Luc Mercelina.
That triggers the following question. Did our prime minister made an honest mistake? Or did he intentionally mislead Van Rijn to make the governor look bad?
These questions are obviously hard, if not impossible, to answer. However, this is what I know. Politicians lie if it suits them. The governor, who is the representative of the Dutch king, has no reason to lie. As the constitutional head of the government in St. Maarten, he sits in a position above all parties. He does not belong to any political party and he has nothing to win by debiting blatant lies.
PM Mercelina’s position is obviously different. He has a dispute with VSA-Minister
Richinel Brug over the suspension of VSA’s Chef de Cabinet Suëna Laville-Martis. Mercelina suspended her, Brug supported the woman. So what is going on here? You tell me.
I am not familiar with the details of the dispute, but I have a pretty good idea where this is going. Mercelina took disciplinary action against Laville-Martis and now the pime minister wants to establish his authority. Bad idea, especially if you, as I suspect, manipulate a respected constitutional scholar into delivering legal advice that is based on quicksand.
However you look at this, the trust between de Council of Ministers and the governor is shot. A bad situation that asks for a speedy resolution. Question: how do we get there?
If PM Mercelina manages to put his ego aside, getting there seems simple. Let two grown up men set up a meeting and discuss the real facts of the situation. Then, one of the two parties (I’d put my money on the prime minister) will have to fess up and say, hey, I made a mistake, I am truly sorry about it and it won’t happen again. Send the complete set of facts to Van Rijn for a revision of his scholarly advice and then act accordingly.
Let the past be the past and focus on what matters most: solving the real problems of St. Maarten by working closely together. In my opinion, that is how it ought to be. Nobody gets better from a political dog fight.
###
ADVERTISEMENT
