By Hilbert Haar
Remember September 11, 2015? It was not only the fourteenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in the United States. It was also the day Attorney-General Guus Schram addressed the court in Philipsburg on the occasion of the installation of Judge Sander van Rijen.
Schram’s speech triggered angry reactions from Minister Richard Gibson Sr. who came close to leaving the courthouse. Later the government even demanded that Schram step down.
What he said to provoke such an extreme reaction? This: ‘There are many indications that the under- and upper world in St. Maarten are structurally intertwined. This appears from undermining criminality – corruption within the body politic and government, abuse of power, self-enrichment, intimidation, election fraud and untouchable criminal organizations.”
Four years down the road I am not exaggerating when I write that the attorney-general had a point; a valid one. The reaction from politicians in 2015 now resembles that of a child that just got robbed of its favorite toy.
Schram also said at the time that undermining criminality is a multi-headed monster: violent, unscrupulous deep-rooted and exclusively focused on power and financial gain. Maybe his best observation was that these practices are well organized and – worse – more or less accepted by a large part of society. “It undermines the foundation of our constitutional state and democracy.”
Schram’s concerns have resulted in the establishment of the anti-corruption task force TBO (Team Bestrijding Ondermijning) and these guys are now getting the results that validate the former attorney-general’s remarks.
United Democrats leader Theo Heyliger is suspected of taking millions of dollars in bribes over a fifteen-year period. (Former) Windward Roads director Hendrik Jan Boekaar is a suspect in the same investigation. Member of Parliament Frans Richardson, leader of the United St. Maarten party is a suspect in the Aquamarine investigation that focuses on the Bureau Telecommunication and Post where his business partner, director Anthony Carty is enjoying a princely salary that tops the income of the prime minister. Richardson is suspected of taking bribes and abuse of power.
Member of Parliament Chanel Brownbill has been sentenced for tax fraud. USp-candidate Maria Buncamper-Molanus, former Minister of Public Health, has been sentenced for tax fraud as well. Former parliamentarian Silvio Matser has sentences for tax fraud and vote buying to his name. Former MP Patrick Illidge was found guilty of taking bribes from Bada Bing owner Jaap van den Heuvel. Former Tourist Bureau and airport director Regina Labega, suspected of embezzlement at the Tourist Bureau, did not get a certificate of good behavior from the national security service VDSM and had to step down as airport-director.
Nevertheless, both Labega and Buncamper-Molanus have again secured jobs within the civil service where Claudius Buncamper – also sentenced for tax fraud – is allowed to keep his job at the VROMI-ministry.
So yeah, Schram nailed it but politicians obviously did not like what he was saying. Now those same politicians are railing against the TBO, revealing their historical ignorance by comparing actions of TBO-detectives with those of the Gestapo, the secret state police of Hitler’s nazi-regime.
I am not writing – or even thinking – that all politicians are corrupt. But the examples I listed above speak volumes. The convicts and the suspects don’t make their straight colleagues look good.
The reluctance of parliamentarians to go along with proposed law-changes focused on combating money-laundering and the financing of terrorism fits within this context. This has not escaped Governor Drs. Eugène Holiday either. In his address to parliament at the occasion of the opening of the new parliamentary year he said last week: “The question before this parliament is as such a simple one: will you act before this tipping point becomes a breaking point for us and for our children and grandchildren?”
With that remark, the governor referred to the possibility that the Financial Action Task Force will blacklist St. Maarten in October if the country has not amended its legislation by then.
This is, again, typical for the self-centered ignorance of some parliamentarians who pretend that St. Maarten should not bend to external pressure. The governor knows better: “It is imperative for Sint Maarten to maintain good international relations and comply with its international obligations.” And (about the need to amend several laws): “The adaptation of these regulations in our laws are critical, to secure the participation of our economy in international trade and business, and thus to safeguard the viability of our local economy. That is to safeguard our jobs and livelihoods as well as those of our children and their children.”
This is the reality we live in. But I fear that the last corrupt politician has to be six feet under before St. Maarten gets its priorities in this respect straight. That’s one way of saying that it could take a bloody long time for the observations of former Attorney-General Schram to become ancient history.
