PHILIPSBURG--The United Democrats (UD) and Party For Progress (PFP) have requested that an urgent meeting of Parliament be called to discuss “the relations between the Netherlands and St. Maarten.”
UD Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Wescot-Williams said if the request is honoured, the meeting should be held within four days. UD and PFP have requested the presence of Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion in the meeting.
PFP MPs Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson, over the weekend, called on the current coalition to withdraw the petition submitted on March 9, to UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, and the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent. The faction, which had rejected the petition, said it would be sending an official letter to the Chairperson of Parliament Rolando Brison on Monday, calling for the withdrawal of the petition.
Wescot-Williams had cautioned the government that the petition would put St. Maarten’s liquidity support in jeopardy. In reaction to the news that St. Maarten will not be receiving some NAf. 39 million in liquidity support until Parliament clarifies its position on the recently submitted petition to the United Nations (UN), and confirms approval for the Caribbean Entity for Reform and Development COHO, Wescot-Williams said that a blind person could have seen this coming.
