Parliamentary Democracy at its finest

What happened today, Monday, October 17, 2022, in Parliament is Parliamentary Democracy at its finest. A motion to add an agenda point to today’s public meeting of Parliament to have MP Grisha Heyliger-Marten removed as the Parliament’s Chairperson was unceremoniously shot down by 9 members of parliament voting across party lines showing More...

Paper trails and money trails
We don’t understand why the airport is asking employees to provide information about payments made to them while an internal audit – or even a forensic audit – should be able to provide them More...

Commonalities and consequences
It is a sign of the times when we see convicted former Port CEO Mark Mingo after five years of radio silence giving an interview about his conviction in the Court of First Instance on SOS Radio 95.9FM with host More...

Cooperation, cooperation, cooperation
Former Lt. Governor, former APS Chairman of the Board, former member of the Law Enforcement Council, Managing Director of Seven Seas and present member for St. Maarten on the Progress Committee, Franklyn Richards More...

Pressure mounts for Brison to resign. What will Parliament do?
Over the weekend, following the spreading of a recording of MP Rolando Brison making derogatory remarks regarding fellow UP party member and faction leader Grisha Heyliger-Marten, via social media, several parties More...

St. Maarten has money
St. Maarten has money. Lots of money. Yet we are beggars in our own country. Just to give you an example, according to the latest annual report the MOT (Meldpunt Ongebruikelijke Transacties, or Financial Intelligence More...

The at-arm’s-length fallacy
There is a false belief that because government should remain at arm’s length from government-owned companies, the management and the supervisory board members are untouchable. Wrong! If management and/or More...

It’s their money at stake; not ours
One would wonder why Royal Schiphol Group (RSG) is making such a big stink about the airport. But one must remember, Schiphol is synonymous with The Netherlands which is part of the European Union. The $100 million More...

Is ANG 3000 the new minimum wage?
The explanatory notes (memorie van toelichting) of the new law for the admission and expulsion of foreigners describe why a person should have an income of 36,000 ANG to bring in a spouse as follows. “Twee More...