Dear Editor,
In the past few weeks we have been inundated with political and personal interventions from instances as distant as the Dutch Government and as near as our own Minister of Finance, President of Parliament and most recently guest speaker at the Governor’s symposium.
Let’s review these mind challenging and politically testy statements. The latter has offered some views and possibilities to move the economy forward and taking him at face value one must believe that he is frank and in no way attached to the local happenings. But think just for a moment if someone doesn’t reside here and is asked to give a key note address on a particular subject he/she would have to do some research. And with a resume like this good gentleman possesses we can expect that that was done.
However, we should be quite skeptical about his sources of information. For common logic would tell us if we speak to foreign business that use every excuse not to employ locals, the solution will be to make it easier to import foreign labour. If you have a Government that is devoid of ideas on how to tackle the island’s high unemployment rate reportedly at some 12.3 per cent and said to be 27 per cent among the youth, easing the almost non-existent barrier would be a way out. After all pleasing the businessman makes good sense if the next election is your main concern while the next generation only matters when it’s your own offspring and not the masses.
We were elated to finally hear a member of the executive speak openly on the need to include locals in the high position in our private and public sector, thank you Ritchie (Min. Gibson). But the thought has crossed our collective minds that the members of the Council of Ministers don’t meet on these very issues. When you read that in the past year we issued 2700 plus work and residence permits then it’s easy to conclude that while we talk the talk, walking the walk is not permanent on our agenda.
We have spent more than five years trying to present a draft legislation to address the abuse of the short term contract, to date zero zilch. But in usual politic “modus operandi” political reform is of utmost importance for our own longevity even if it’s spent fooling and misleading the people. So we give that precedence, however, that too we completely messed up, for our only intention seems to be giving ourselves as political leaders supreme power over the plebes as in communism and dictatorship. Nice try but because you took the same road of your predecessor to send the draft first to The Hague before Parliament you are doomed to fail. It is uncanny that people who rant and rave conveniently at times about interference from the Dutch seek all their advice and justification from them.
Another statement that I have problems coming to grips with is that of the honourable President of Parliament Mrs. Sarah Wescot Williams that requesting the U.N. to put St. Maarten Back on the list of non-selfgoverning countries is regression or a step backward. It is mostly strange because the meeting was incomplete and much information was not exchanged. However, suffice it to say our belief that we are equal to whom so ever and therefore not a colony is the main reason for these misleading statements. Harriet Tubman of the Underground Railroad fame once wrote, “I have freed ten thousand slaves and God knows I could have saved ten thousand more had they only known they were slaves.”
With emancipation day approaching it might be a good idea to take stock of where we are and the fact that the Dutch can impose their will totally squashing the will of the people in a democratically held election and determine who can be Prime Minister.
And of course there are the instructions and threats of higher supervision. There is also the now tiring repetition of integrity chamber, dispute regulation and their need to know what happens in our N.V.s. A people who have made it clear that their tax payers’ money will not be used to assist in any way, why all the jockeying to dictate what happens here where we spend our own tax payers’ money.
Oh how unfortunate it is that we are colonies but we can’t get our President of Parliament and those that agree with her to see it. Real change and freedom will remain fleeting things.
Elton Jones
