Personal Enrichment

By Hilbert Haar

Hoge bomen vangen veel wind or, as the British express it: heavy is the head that wears the crown. This is certainly true for prominent people in our small island community of St. Maarten.

The examples are aplenty: Theo Heyliger, Frans Richardson, Akeem Arrindell and the latest on the list: former port director Mark Mingo.

They all ended up on the wrong side of the law – and subsequently in the Pointe Blanche prison – or they were caught red-handed doing unethical stuff that ruined their reputation.

Why did those people end up on a list of infamous St. Maarteners? Because they put their hands in the cookie jar at the expense of hard working and mostly tax-paying citizens. From that perspective it is near impossible to feel sorry for these people.

They went or will go to prison, they had to sell their comfortable house and they are no longer touring the island in an overpriced car. Yeah, that’s tough, but it is a situation they created themselves.

The question some people might ask is: how do we prevent this from happening again? And the uncomfortable answer is: you won’t. That is because precious stuff like a lot of money or even jewelry will always attract people with nefarious intentions. Corruption is here to stay, not only on our island but elsewhere in the world as well. The difference is that corruption in St. Maarten is more visible and the consequences for those caught practicing it are serious in a small community where everybody knows everybody.

Thinking that these consequences would stop people from breaking the law is a big mistake. The United States has the death penalty and people still continue murdering each other. Breaking the law in St. Maarten does not have such dire consequences and that is something to be grateful for.

I should add here that our citizens for reasons I do not quite understand have a forgiving nature. I am not referring here to murderers but to those who enrich themselves, the so-called white-collar criminals. I even suspect, though I do not know this for sure, that (at least some) people admire this type of crime.

And the reason for this attitude can be for instance the argument that everybody does it. This is obvious an exaggeration because we thankfully have enough honest people on or island. Not everybody is a thief, an embezzler or armed robber.

Another reason could be that some people admire white-collar criminals. And if they do that, the next step is a logical one: if they do it, why should I not try my hand at it as well? Employees have been caught stealing from the companies they work for and they have even been caught stealing from the court.

I think that crime occurs where money, or any other significant advantage, is to be had. This is why corruption will always be there and as long as people choose to ignore this, it will only get worse.

Let’s not forget that most criminals begin with the small stuff. I am ashamed to say here that my older brother used to say: “Koop niet wat Shell u biedt.” (Do not buy what Shell has to offer). He was not ashamed to take company property, no matter how small, home. To my bro this was a joke, something you did because your employer held all the cards anyway. Where is the harm?

But detectives who investigate embezzlement at companies in the Netherlands once explained to me that stealing little things, like a ballpoint or a stapler, only encourages the thief if nobody notices. Next thing you know, they put a little bit of money in their pocket and when nobody notices that either, they steal more – and they continue doing this until they finally get caught.

What is the lesson here? Crime pays, at least for a little while. In St. Maarten it could go on for a long time because the capacity of the prosecutor’ office is limited and crimes against life (murder and manslaughter) have priority. Always.

But in the long run, a lot of criminals (because that is what they are) end up where nobody wants to be: first in a court room where everybody gets to hear what they are accused of, and then, if they are found guilty, in that awful building on the hill, the Pointe Blanche prison.

Given the number of inmates that call Pointe Blanche home, this prospect does not work well as a deterrence for breaking the law. This is because a lot of criminals, be it murderers of embezzlers, seem to think that they are smarter than police officers and public prosecutors.

When reality hits, and this is in particular true for politicians, they scream “political prosecution” which shows that they are unable, or unwilling, to make the distinction between political prosecution and prosecuting a politician. And what about the guy who fatally shot the sympathetic police officer Gamali Benjamin, better knowns as Benji? I do not remember the exact words he said in court before he was sentenced, but it was something like this: “I made one mistake and it is ruining my life.”

I will not express my thoughts about this guy because I want to keep it decent. All I want to say is that this killer stands out as a symbol for other criminals on our once so friendly island: he committed a crime (by planning and executing the robbery of a jewelry store and ending up killing a beloved police officer) and the only thing he thought about was how this had ruined his life.

White-collar criminals like Mark Mingo do not kill people, but they put money in their pocket that does not belong there. That money belongs to the people, or to the port that could have used those funds for instance to buy a scanner to detect the import of drugs and firearms.

I consider such crimes as a way to put the lives of ordinary citizens on the line for one reason only: personal enrichment. And that is despicable.

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