Payroll support program shrouded in mystery
PHILIPSBURG – Based on current regulations, the government will not be able to publish the names of companies that have so far received payroll support. Finance Minister Ardwell Irion said during a press briefing More...
Cost-cutting measures become bone of contention
PHILIPSBURG – In a letter to the Second Chamber dated May 19 State Secretary Raymond Knops wrote that one of the conditions for providing liquidity support to St. Maarten is a “decrease of 12,5 percent of the More...
Gordon-Carty objects to liquidity support conditions
PHILIPSBURG – In a statement issued à titre personnel, former Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor has spoken out against the acceptance of the Dutch conditions for liquidity support, saying More...
Pamela Gordon-Carty: No to unconditional proposal
Dear Editor, As former Minister of VSA of the recent interim cabinet, I’m deeply baffled and at the same time saddened at the direction my country Sint Maarten is being driven into. International human rights More...
Political storm brewing over “unconditional” letter of Minister Plenipotentiary
PHILIPSBURG – There is a political storm brewing over a letter Minister Plenipotentiary René Violenus sent to State Secretary Drs. Raymond Knops on May 20, informing him that St. Maarten has accepted the requirements More...
Dutch parliament backs up conditions for liquidity support
THE HAGUE – Members of the Dutch parliament support the conditions State secretary Drs. Raymond Knops has imposed on Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten for the provision of liquidity support, but some parliamentarians More...
Under duress
By Hilbert Haar Motions are the political banana peel of the political arena. In St. Maarten they seldom result in the desired action expressed in a motion and only in extreme cases (like with a motion of no confidence) More...
An unthinkable scenario
By Hilbert Haar The conditions attached to the provision of continued liquidity support have put the government in a rather awkward position. Demanding a 25 percent salary cut for ministers and parliamentarians More...
Brutal package of conditions leaves government little choice
PHILIPSBURG – The Kingdom Council of Ministers had presented a brutal package of conditions for the release of continued liquidity support. Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs has labeled these conditions as an ‘indecent More...
Time to split up the monetary union of Curacao & St. Maarten?
~ Is it a good time now to take up the 2013 SER advice to split up the monetary union between Curacao and St. Maarten? ~ By Hilbert Haar The conditions the Kingdom wants to impose on Curacao for more liquidity More...
