The continuation of a plenary sitting of Parliament on the status of the harbour and airport as well as the establishment of a Calibrations Department had to be postponed on Thursday morning (see related story) for lack of a quorum. Mind you, this session started in November 2018.
Moreover, two motions of no-confidence that tied in votes had been filed against cabinet members recently in which developments surrounding Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) played a big role. Yet four of the seven opposition members who submitted these were absent.
To be fair, the three who originally requested this meeting attended, while – in addition to detained United Democrats leader Theo Heyliger – three of the remaining seven coalition members were also missing. Although some of the elected representatives unable to be there had notified the chair of such, that was not the case for everyone.
It seems sad that after so much discussion on the proposed funding to rebuild the airport terminal this opportunity to receive updated information and ask crucial questions was lost. After all, the US $15 million bridge loan from the Netherlands for the cash-strapped company was signed only last week and a lot remains to be done before the main reconstruction project for which US $100 million is being made available can start.
On a different note: Today, Friday, is International Women’s Day and the Council of Ministers announced on Thursday it would give female civil servants half a day off. As they make up 60 per cent of government’s workforce by its own estimates, this probably will have an impact on services to the public, which has already been warned some departments may close at 1:00pm.
While the gesture seems sympathetic enough, it does raise certain questions, like the most obvious one: whether employees and citizens in general must not be treated equally regardless of their race, religion or gender. Government answered this by saying November 19 is International Men’s Day and a similar recognition will be decided on when that date approaches .
But the move also puts St. Maarten’s private sector under pressure to do the same without any incentives or arrangements – never mind timely prior notification – to compensate businesses already struggling with post-Hurricane Irma socioeconomic conditions should they want to follow suit. Having said that, nevertheless, congratulations.
