fbpx
Published On: Fri, Nov 24th, 2017

Conspiracy

Hilbert HaarBy Hilbert Haar

Prime Minister William Marlin put a brave face on it, but he could not hide the bitterness over the events that led to the fall of his government and his own departure from office.

Marlin has every reason to be bitter but since he has been playing the political game for close to forty years he knows the pitfalls probably better than anyone.

What was the real reason for the fall of the government? If you take a closer look at the events that ensued after Irma created unprecedented chaos, you cannot say with dry eyes that everything that went wrong – and things did go wrong – is the prime minister’s fault.

The hurricane was, as Marlin pointed out, an excuse – we would say: a smoke screen – to send the government packing.

If we take Irma out of the equation, the Marlin-government was putting up a pretty good show. It produced balanced budgets and it also solved the debts previous governments had created since 10-10-10. The draft 2018 budget was for the first time in the country’s history presented to parliament before the September 1 deadline.

So why did this government have to go? We floated a theory about this before and we’ll do it again here: it’s about money – or contracts, if you want. It always is.

We see no need to repeat the details of our theory, but we suggest keeping a keen eye on two things. One: who will get to appoint the next minister of public housing, urban planning, environment and infrastructure. Two: who will get the most attractive contracts for projects from this ministry. Add those things up and you have your answer.

Prime Minister Marlin suspects a conspiracy that goes back all the way to The Hague. We think the truth is to be found much closer to home.