Advertisement
By Hilbert Haar
One thing is for sure: Rolando Brison is not fit to function as a worthy representative of the people. The Court in First Instance sentenced him to 6 months in prison for accepting bribes from businessman Alex Dijkhoffz. For the next five years he is banned from holding a job as a civil servant or to be elected. In other words: his political career is dead as a doornail.
Brison is obviously not the only bad guy in this depressing story. As the good people of Transparency International like to say: it takes two to tango. In this case, Dijkhoffz was Brison’s counterpart, but the indictment the public prosecutor presented in court also sheds an awkward light on two other people: Sunil Gehani and Robbie dos Santos.
One could argue that Brison buckled under the pressure these people put on him. The exchanges with Dijkhoffz are a prime example: the businessman was ready to pay but in exchange he expected results. If those results did not come fast enough he did not shy away from using swearwords in his communication with the former politician.
Another explanation, that I consider highly likely, is that Brison took the bribes to finance his lifestyle. He asked more than once for payment of this, that or the other and the fact that investigators confiscated substances that were most likely drugs does not make Brison look very good.
The sad truth is that Brison is not the only one to fall victim to the temptations of bribery. Others have gone down before him and others will go down after him as well. If you can bribe a prison guard for a mere fifty dollars you can imagine how others go for the money if there are serious amounts on the table. (For accepting a lousy bribe of fifty bucks, the prison guard lost his job, but that is another story).
The question is of course how the community, including the government and the parliament, can protect itself against bribery-practices.
Short answer: that is not possible. Bribery will always be part of this world. Maybe (and hopefully) it is not part of your daily life but I guarantee that after Brison’s conviction we are just waiting for the next guy to go down. It is inevitable, whether we like it or not.
So let’s talk about corruption and how it comes about. In Denmark corruption is amongst the lowest in the world. Question: why is that?
Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer shows that bribes paid to access public benefits are virtually non-existent in Denmark.
This is because the Danes actually trust their politicians. What a wonderful concept that is! The trust in politicians is based on one simple fact: these people deliver and that is something that is, unfortunately, sorely lacking in St. Maarten.
Even more unfortunately: there is no easy fix. People who through some miracle become politicians are suddenly confronted with two challenges. First of all they receive a fat salary but secondly, and more importantly, they are assaulted by citizens who want them to do things. And in a community like ours, where everybody knows everybody, it is hard to say no. It is easier to say: “What’s in it for me bro?”
Sadly, I am rather pessimistic about the chances that corruption and bribery will ever completely disappear from our island.
Just remember this line: power corrupts and total power corrupts completely.
###
ADVERTISEMENT
Related Articles:
The Handcuff Awards
Court sentences former MP Brison to six months in prison
