Man of the Year: Claude ‘Chacho’ Peterson
PHILIPSBURG — While elected politicians wasted their time on lost battles he kept his eye on the ball all the time. He created Facebook government (FBGov) and described the sources for his always accurate information as “schoolchildren.” In doing so, he outperformed fifteen members of Parliament in terms of activity, transparency and focus. Without competition he is StMaartenNews.com’s Man of the Year: Claude Peterson, who prefers to be called “Chacho”.
The former Member of Parliament for the St. Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) took to social media to let his followers know what was happening in that big building on Soualiga Boulevard (and sometimes in the corridors of power in The Hague). With surgical precision he predicted the outcome of the battle between the government and the Dutch State Secretary Drs. Raymond Knops, months before the Parliament did an about-face and before Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs did what was inevitable: sign on to the Kingdom’s conditions for continued liquidity support.
The energy that has gone into Chacho’s efforts must have been out of this world. Hardly a day went by or he had something to report on Facebook. And while he kept firing questions at the government (that went, at least publicly, unanswered) he also encouraged citizens to do the right thing while the COVID-19 virus ravaged the economy: wash your hands, wear your facemask and practice social distancing.
All members of Parliament got caught up in the emotional turmoil when they voted unanimously against the establishment of the Caribbean Reform Entity (CRE), later renamed as Caribbean Development and Reform Entity in July. Peterson already knew that this decision was doomed and that, come hell or high water, the government and the parliament would have to swallow their pride and that Silveria Jacobs, who once famously said that she was not going to go down in history as the Prime Minister who put St. Maarten back in a colony, would have to put her signature on an agreement that will keep the country on the Kingdom’s leash for almost a decade.
It is tempting to say something like: yeah, fine, but was this outcome not rather predictable? We would agree with that up to a point, but the difference is that Chacho spoke his mind while fifteen parliamentarians and seven ministers kept their heads down waiting for a miracle that would never materialize.
And let’s face it: Chacho did the community a huge service by pointing consistently in the right direction. One may well wonder why this man was not elected to Parliament but the answer to that question is rather obvious: Chacho does not play the game. He is transparent and straightforward and maybe those are characteristics that make somebody unfit for the wheeling and dealing that is so much a part and parcel of politics.
Fortunately, there are a few kindred spirits in Parliament these days: the young guns of the Party for Progress – Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson. But as long as they are a minority, all they can do is bring their points of view across on the floor of Parliament.
Claude ‘Chacho’ Peterson does not have that platform, but based on results he does not really need it. His FBGov and his schoolchildren seem to have more power and more common sense than a lot of parliamentarians.
Before Chacho went into the end-of-year party mode and started posting music videos, he fired a final shot at the government on the last day of the year. The post contains a screenshot of a message he received on his cell phone – an invitation to take part in a COVID-19 survey. Claude’s comment: “This CoM is depending on a survey to save us from COVID ten months later. Prime Minister stop sending me this message. You do not have my permission to send spam to my cell.”
Other messages delve into the letter Minister Plenipotentiary René Violenus presented in the Kingdom Council of Ministers and the ‘spin’ Prime Minister Jacobs gave to that incident. Chacho keeps urging the government to make that letter public.
For the sake of transparency that would be a good thing. But because deliberations in the Kingdom Council of Ministers are confidential it is very unlikely that this letter will ever reach the public eye.
Chacho has a point though: making that letter public – even if it is against protocol – would once and for all put an end to the heated discussion about what really went on during that meeting. Withholding that letter suggests that the government has something to hide.
But who knows: maybe one of Chacho’s “schoolchildren” will one day show up with a copy. That would once more confirm the power and the attraction of his FBGov.
That he may continue his good work in the New Year.
