MP Rolando Brison (UPP) has come under fire this weekend after a ‘spliced up’ recording of him went viral. Amazingly, when it comes to St. Maarten’s politics, history has an uncanny ability to repeat itself. It is really ‘deja vu’ all over again. Why do we say that?
It is almost two years ago that MP Rolando Brison announced his resignation from the USP party. The same party that he was supposed to head up into the 2020 January elections as its new party leader ater being annointed as such by the USP’s party leader and founder, Frans Richardson. The same party that was now quick to call for his resignation this weekend in a press release entiteld “United St. Maarten (US) board calls on MP Brison to resign immediately.” A press release disseminated by Michael Granger of MilliMari Media Consultancy.
After this latest ‘faux pas’ where he really put his foot in his mouth, can we expect MP Rolando Brison to do the honourable thing and submit his resignation as President of Parliament and as a member of the UP party and declare himself an Independent Member of Parliament? One can only hope!
Related articles:
MP Rolando Brison to head USP’s list
MP Rolando Brison resigns from USP
USP calls on MP Brison to resign immediately
In November 2019, Rolando Brison announced that he would be running on the UP party slate as the #1 candidate. According to Brison at the time, the move was accepted and approved by the board of the UP party and received the blessings of former party leader and founder Theo Heyliger. Frans Richardson was not so happy at the time.
Related article: Brison to run as #1 with UP, given full leadership
According to rumors, Frans Richardson now wants former Minister of VSA, Pamela Gordon-Carty, to head the party’s list in the election, but that is another story. Informed sourced told StMaartenNews.com today that the UP party board is planning to organize a party congress in November wherein the party will move to remove Rolando Brison as President of Parliament.
We are only aware of one case in St. Maarten’s political history where a member of a political party in St. Maarten who ran on the candidate’s list was expelled from the party. However, it is unheard of that a member of a political party serving in Parliament as a member of parliament (MP) has ever been expelled from a party. In this case, it would be also a first that a president of parliament (PoP) is moved from this position by a party in Parliament.
In an effort to exercise damage control, apparently MP Rolando Brison sent a message to MP Grisha Heyliger, who is also the faction leader of the UP party in Parliament. This message has gone viral on social media and reads as follows:
Good evening all. I just received a spliced/put together audio of an evening where i was in private setting and was told some very disturbing things from within the party, probably to illicit a negative response out of me. Which did happen.
All of us have heated conversations sometimes especially when its reacting to someone that says something to provoke. I think we all have to be careful what we say in “private” because it appears nothing is quite so private whenever anyone is around. I too will be more careful going forward.
Again that recording is totally out of context. Editied and spliced.
Grisha I hope you do not take that personally, we have had heated exchanges before and emotional statements made to and about one another. But i think This deserves a face to face conversation and im open to that anytime.
It is unavoidable that the party leadership of the UP party puts out a statement on the matter. StMaartenNews.com will bring you an update as soon as this happens.
StMaartenNews.com als notes that over the past two years, several prominent members have resigned from the UP party. Besides Cor Merx and Jacques Heemskerk, Luc Mercelina was the latest prominent member to resign from the party, only to announce a couple of weeks later the launch of his own political party (U4SM). Notably, we see Josianne Fleming, a founding member and board position holder of the UP party, now hailed as a founding member of Mercelina’s new party. We definitely expect more developments in this area as more and more people in society are taking issue with the notoriety surrounding the office of the President of Parliament.
Photo caption: The embattled President of Parliament, MP Rolando Brison, possibly here waiving good bye to the presidency of parliament in this file photo that captures the essence of the present turmoil the UP party leader is presently facing. The look on his face speaks volumes. See other photos above as well.
Image caption: Part of the post of MP Rolando Brison wherein he shows his USP resignation letter to the President of Parliament in October 2019. Anno 2021, he may yet be known as the Honourebel Member of Parliament if he now goes Independent.
