MP Meyers exposes Dutch hypocrisy
PHILISBURG — “They want to show that they can do again what they did to Theo Heyliger’s grandfather years ago. That is the main reason for transporting him to Bonaire,” MP Franklin Meyers (United Democrats) said during Wednesday’s Central Committee meeting about the conditions at the Pointe Blanche prison and the police station.
Meyers made a dramatic presentation in which he exposed “Dutch hypocrisy” when it comes to St. Maarten. “I want to be just like the Dutch,” he said. “I want to tell the world that we are equal partners in the Kingdom but threaten my partners when they do not dance to my music.”
Meyers also compared the Dutch euthanasia practice to the death penalty and claimed that the Dutch had once labeled Nelson Mandela as a terrorist. Referring to the book The Rise and Fall of Apartheid in South Africa he said that “the parallel to St. Maarten is very frightening.
“In 1994 there was a political rally in Madame Estate. That’s where Claude Wathey said: ‘I told you that the Dutch are coming’,” Meyers said. “They have systematically put a program together to infiltrate St. Maarten. We are being oppressed. Our phones are tapped, we’re being followed, we are constantly under scrutiny.”
Meyers painted a gloomy picture of the country’s future. “There is going to come a time when we’ll say: if we cannot have it, nobody can have it. And then all hell is going to break loose. It cannot be that the destiny of the people of the Netherlands is determined by the Netherlands while the destiny of the people of St. Maarten is also determined by the Netherlands. Our destiny has to be determined by the people of St. Maarten.”
Meyers was also critical of financial supervisor Cft: “They were never there to enhance the future of St. Maarten. They were put there to strangle us. We are getting to the point where we will have to say: we are going on our own. We may be corrupt but we are peaceful people. But all they want to do is to show us that what they did to Theo’s grandfather, they can do it again. They only went after Theo because of his political power.”
Meyers also showed his dissatisfaction with the transfer of Heyliger to a prison in Bonaire. “In the Netherlands, when you are corrupt, you have to resign. I cannot see the European Union flying into the Netherlands to arrest someone and flying them to Belgium. But that’s what has been happening here.”
The activities of the anti corruption task force have made politicians nervous and Meyers is no exception. “A couple of months ago I was afraid too. They were gone with my brother and now they’re gone with my leader. My question is who is next?”
But Meyers remains defiant: “If they come and lock me up today I am prepared to go. When my ancestors came to St. Maarten they were locked up too. So to lock me up is to free me.”
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