Justice Minister Anna Richardson in Parliament on Thursday.
~ Feels betrayed ~
PHILIPSBURG--Justice Minister Anna Richardson, with the support of the Council of Ministers, has filed an injunction with the Court of First Instance requesting that justice workers be instructed to discontinue their demonstrations and allow discussions about their grievances to be had around the table. The injunction will be heard in court today, Friday, at 1:30pm.
The injunction was filed on Tuesday, June 24, against the police unions NAPB and ABVO, and against NAPB’s Rogerrel Mauricia, as the public leader of the current police protests.
Richardson, who said she felt betrayed by the unions and asserted that the protest actions were violations, said the demonstrations had been causing “quite some disturbance,” and she had to take action in the interest of national security.
“We have been experiencing quite some disturbance with the movements that the members of the NAPB, as well as the ABVO, at this point in time, have chosen to execute in the last few days,” Richardson told Members of Parliament (MPs) during a meeting of the Justice Committee on Thursday.
“We have pictures of officers with placards that say things like, ‘We demand respect or else tourism will suffer’. This particular picture travelled internationally and even has subjected the Minister of TEATT [Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication, Ludmila de Weever – Ed.] to have discussions with Royal Caribbean about the threat to homeporting when we know that the minister has worked very hard to open up opportunities to support our economic growth.”
She said in a press release on Thursday night that through their actions the unions are harming the economic recovery of the country and damaging the country’s image internationally. “Companies that have taken concrete steps to invest in St. Maarten by setting up operations have expressed their serious concerns about the disruptive actions of the very same people that are entrusted to protect and uphold the public order,” it was stated in the release.
The minister told MPs that no request had been received for the demonstrations, hence she had to take action. “It’s not to say that they don’t have my attention. They do. It [permission for demonstration] was never requested beforehand. I did take steps because I have to think about national security, and we have to be able to bring calmness to this situation and work it out together,” she explained.
“A request for an injunction has been submitted to the court to ask the officers to discontinue the demonstrations, and allow us to have these discussions at the table. One of the things that has to be kept in mind when it comes to law enforcement, if you review the [legal position] ‘rechtspositie’, it stipulates that, in particular, officers who are responsible for administering security for your nation cannot execute any type of activity that brings disorderly conduct within your community. They cannot participate in anything that threatens the security of the very nation they have taken an oath to secure.”
She said demonstrating officers had been marching into Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA), the offices of Immigration, Parliament and at Port St. Maarten, and asking their colleagues to down tools and march with them. “We have a letter that the president of NAPB sent to the chief of police indicating that they were on a go-slow. This is not safe for our nation so the injunction for the courts is to give an instruction to law enforcement to be reminded that they have a core responsibility to protect. As such, the instruction is to return to work and as I said this afternoon [Thursday afternoon], we have a meeting scheduled. The discussions will be held then.”
History
Richardson explained that on Tuesday, she met with the unions at the Parliament Building which was mediated by Chairperson of Parliament Rolando Brison. The unions indicated in that meeting that the minister is non-responsive to requests and is uncooperative.
However, Richardson said this is not true. The first letter she received from the unions was received February 16, 2021. A response was sent via email on February 23, and a meeting was held in March. In that meeting a number of questions were presented by the unions. Immigration officers in the meeting said the questions did not reflect their concerns and the minister opened the floor and allowed the Immigration officers to ask questions.
Richardson said communication was then received in March that another meeting request had been made. When the union was asked to provide a copy of its request as none had been found, the union sent a WhatsApp message apologising and indicating that the request was not made correctly and that a request letter was forthcoming. The request was received on March 18, the minister responded on March 23, and the meeting was held on March 29. Richardson said this was the last meeting she held with the unions and the last request for a meeting she had received from them.
“With the actions that are [being] taken in present day, there is no provision of a meeting request presented to this minister of justice that can confirm or support the movements we see today. You know when the minister received a letter? June 22, 2021, this past Tuesday. However, a movement had already started on the 18th,” she said.
“It is my understanding that when you want to have a demonstration, you are supposed to submit a request indicating that you will have the demonstration; provide a list of your members and to that point I say this – I have not received a request and the communications that have been going out to individuals is via a WhatsApp message to come to the meeting – the colleagues must come to the meeting – because the more the greater. The problem with that is that when you are asking colleagues to come out and not members, that is a major violation. It is a major violation to have actions on the public road without a permit to do so. It is a major violation to have demonstrations without the knowledge and authorisations. As a matter of fact, we have not had any deliberations for us to be able to say you have not received the cooperation of the minister, updates from the minister of any kind that can support the reasons for these demonstrations.”
In the meeting last Tuesday, Richardson said a new set of grievances was expressed to her for the first time.
“I sympathise because of the sentiment that I am getting – the only persons, or everyone else has the justice workers at heart with the exception of the minister of justice. How can that possibly be? I am the very person who is running up and down in the hallways of the building, speaking to this minister, trying to get a quorum, trying to get this done, putting the function book committee together … This minister is doing that. From inception, it has been an aggressive approach to the minister and I sympathise because I understand what they are going through, but how is it possible that the very person who is working in the interest of the justice workers is the one that is seen as not?”
Betrayal
In alluding to the betrayal that she feels, the minister said she agreed to have the unions peruse three function books on Thursday afternoon because she was told that they had never had a chance to peruse it, only to find out that they had.
“At this moment, I cannot express it any differently than betrayal. I feel so betrayed. I feel betrayed because I agreed in that discussion on Tuesday to allow the members of NAPB and indirectly ABVO, an opportunity to review the function books of KPSM, Immigration and the prison. The agreement was that the representative officer [Rogerrel] Mauricia would go downstairs and let his members who are protesting and charging and upset with the minister, to let them know that we came under a consensus and … Thursday, June 24, they will have the opportunity to view the function books that they had never seen before. I went downstairs, I apologised and expressed that I now understand that they never got a chance to see, so they couldn’t convey to their members,” she said.
“When I left Parliament and I went to have a discussion with the prime minister, I met the chair of the [Committee of Civil Servants Unions] CCSU Mr. [Rafael] Boasman in the discussions with the prime minister and I shared with them what I experienced and it was then brought to my attention that is not accurate. It is not accurate. [Windward Islands Civil Servants Union/Private Sector Union] WICSU/PSU gave up two seats to members of NAPB to sit and review every single day for the weeks that the minister allocated or gave the extension to review all nine function books from the Ministry of Justice.”
Richardson said from the inception she has endured nothing but an aggressive approach, and when she speaks, she is told that this is not how she should conduct herself. “But yet, are we looking at the way this minister is being approached, when I am doing everything I possibly can to fix this situation, and this is how I am being dealt with?”
Richardson said she is committed, devoted and doing everything she can possibly do with the assistance of the prime minister, finance minister and her staff. “I am hoping that we can eventually put all of this behind us and start to work together as a united front, not looking at the minister as an enemy.”
