PHILIPSBURG — A female cruise tourist drowned in Great Bay on Monday, December 30, 2019. The elderly woman came to St. Maarten aboard the Queen Mary II, a transatlantic ocean liner that sailed from Southampton, England. Around one o’clock in the afternoon one of two elderly women who had gone into the water together became unwell. Her friend and travel companion was not able to get her out of the water, she struggled to get to the beach herself. Beach activity vendors went into the sea to help her and get the other woman, who was floating on her back,…
Author: The Publisher
By Hilbert Haar “We have remained for 300 years under the laws and control of the Netherlands despite our efforts to have autonomy.” Please note that I did not write this sentence. It stems from a statement by United People’s party number 4 candidate, Grisha Heyliger. It was published on the web site of 721news under the same headline I am using for this column. In that piece, Heyliger criticizes the role of the governor (“a colonial figure”), she bemoans the fact that St. Maarten does not have its own attorney-general and she labels the screening process for candidate ministers…
Dear Editor, I have always argued that a sound education policy should be based on “a triad of effective teachers, involved parents, and committed students working from a curriculum explicitly designed to mold the whole child (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and culturally). The enterprise of nation-building in St. Martin cannot be carried out by ignoring the St. Martin national identity, which must be grounded in the St. Martin history and culture. ”[i] Listening to the recent discussions (even the campaign rhetoric) about education and language of instruction, I sense that there is consensus that education is the key to not…
PHILIPSBURG — During the Ad Hoc Committee meeting on Electoral Reform on November 7, 2019, the former SMCP Faction Leader, MP Claude ‘Chacho’ Peterson first proposed that “No coalition should be formed with ship jumpers”. During his speech former MP Peterson advocated as a short term solution to ship jumping that all parties should sign a covenant stating that they would not form any government with ship jumpers. Former MP Peterson stated that this would take away the incentive for ship jumpers to go independent and form their own one-man faction, to enjoy the benefits achieved by and afforded to…
By Hilbert Haar The amendments to election-related ordinances proposed by Sint Maarten Christian Party leader Wycliffe Smith seamlessly solve the existing conflicts between these ordinances and the constitution. Article 59 of the constitution remains nevertheless a political hot potato. This article authorizes the Council of Ministers to dissolve the parliament. In recent years this has happened twice after a government received a vote of no confidence from the parliament. If the parliament hits, the government is entitled to strike back. This is how constitutional expert Prof. Arjen van Rijn once characterized this situation. Parliamentarians on the wrong end of the…
PHILIPSBURG – Rather than come up with a comprehensive package for electoral reform, MP Wycliffe Smith, in his role as caretaker prime minister, already suggested amendments to the Election Ordinance and the National Ordinance Registration and Financing Political Parties in November. The objective: To bring those ordinances in line with the Constitution. The proposed amendments are rather simple. Smith, leader of the St. Maarten Christian Party, suggests adding a sub 2 to article 21 of the Election Ordinance (Smith accidentally referred to it as article 19 during a Council of Minister press briefing in November when he was still in…
By Hilbert Haar The National Gazette reads these days as a manual for tax payers on the run. Hundreds of pages in the government’s official publication are dedicated to the listing of companies and private citizens that have outstanding taxes and that are nowhere to be found. In the Gazette publications issued between October 11 and December 20 I counted 1,439 such entries – give or take one or two because after sifting through this mountain of information my eyes started glazing over towards the end. The message that strings all these announcements together is rather unsettling. None of these…
PHILIPSBURG — The St. Maarten Police Force (KPSM) issued a press release on Thursday, December 27, 2019, with reports on several incidents that took place over the Christmas holidays. Man showed up at the Medical Center with a gunshot wound A man is currently at the Sint Maarten Medical Center after being shot by an unknown person on early Thursday morning of December 26th 2019. Central dispatch directed personnel of the detective department to the medical center around 01.00 am to investigate the matter. The victim with the initials M.K L-B could not give an account of what exactly had…
Dear Editor, We all agree that ship jumping is a major problem in Sint Maarten . It seems to me that it is worthwhile to find out why ship jumping does not occur to the same extent in other jurisdictions in which multi party options are available to the voter. One of the obvious reasons is that with a tiny parliament and relatively large number of parties, the effect (and possible benefits to the parliamentary member) are much greater. Statistically the impact of one ship jumper in a parliament of 15 members is much more than one person doing the…
UNION FOR ST MARTIN’S WORKING PEOPLE (ST MARTIN’S MOVEMENT) DEMONSTRATION THURSDAY DECEMBER 12 MAIN DEMANDS NATIONAL PLAN FOR RISK PREVENTION (NPRP) Abolition of the NPRP imposed on the St Martin’s population by the prefectural decree of August 6, 2019 Enhance the 2011 NPRP to allow for an adequate protection of the population Put a stop to the expropriation along the beaches Allow access to their beach property to the residents having owned for 30 years Stop the court proceedings against the residents rebuilding or renovating their houses destroyed during hurricane Irma Reinforce the existing constructions in the vulnerable areas Protect…
