Dutch side gets support from Louis Mussington
MARIGOT—“I am in full agreement with the decision taken by the government of the day and the Council of Ministers to boycott the November 11 event,” leader of the political party Movement for Justice and Prosperity (MJP) Louis Mussington says about the boycott by the Dutch side Council of Ministers and the majority of the parliamentarians of the St. Maarten Day celebrations in French Quarter last Friday.
He believes that it the unilateral decision by the Préfète Anne Laubies to send the Gendarmes over to Oyster Pond without informing her counterparts Governor Eugène Holiday and Prime Minister William Marlin is “unacceptable.”
It is clear and established that until the authorities in Paris and The Hague can establish where the border line falls, the status quo remains, Mussington says.
Construction activities at Captain Oliver’s were the reason for sending in the Gendarmes. “In the interest of unity and the peaceful cooperation between both sides a meeting between the Governor, the Prime Minister, the Préfète and the President of the Collectivite, would have been the best way to deal with the issue.”
“This attempt to show strength and the unilateral decision to go to Oyster Pond and force the owners to stop the construction and arrest them is a clear indication that the Préfète had decided that the Oyster Pond is on French territory and that they are illegally occupying their space,” said Mussington.
“This is what I condemn,” he said, adding that these actions are not “in the spirit of unity” knowing that the people of the island are one. Letters should be sent to The Hague and Paris advising them how to resolve the border dispute.
“To those who feel that the decision taken by the government in Great Bay to boycott the celebrations was wrong, it should be known that in 2011 the representatives on the French Side boycotted the celebrations and chose not to take part when Frantz Gumbs was the President of the Collectivité. These celebrations are about the people and not about the state,” said Mussington.
He noted that in the past when Dr. Hubert Petit was the Mayor of French St. Martin and Dr. Claude Wathey the leader of the government on the Dutch Side both boycotted the celebrations because they felt Curacao and Guadeloupe were controlling the ceremonies at the border; they were the only ones allowed to speak.
Petit and Wathey felt that it was not their event; they went over to a hotel in Oyster Pond and organized what was described as “a people’s event” where the people of both sides of the island celebrated their St. Maarten Day.
