Dear Editor,
Divide and conquer used to be the tool by which the Dutch acquired colonies and controlled them. This principle is well known as is the savvy with which it has been applied through the years. Even long after the Dutch Kingdom agreed in the context of the United Nations to decolonize, colonization and control has continued.
There is no country status, in fact we are still governed by the Kingdom and treated as colonies not equal partners. The divide and conquer principle has now evolved undermining of the people and its society is the new tool .
Under the heading of corruption and the need to clean up the corrupt colonies, such as St. Maarten, the Dutch have found a new way to diminish the autonomy and increase the control.
TBO (which abbreviation stands for “Team Bestrijding Ondermijning”, freely translated “Team to Combat Corruption”) has been launched on St. Maarten. This righteous organization, part of the overall agenda of the Dutch Government, executes investigations in St. Maarten ensuring that the people and society are undermined from the onset.
The interest of the society is not served by the manner in which these investigations are done. These investigations intended to target individuals are aimed at our society to gain control of the country.
From the moment one becomes a subject or person of interest in a TBO investigation your life is changed forever. Innocent until proven guilty is just a phrase without meaning and a principle long removed from our judicial system. “TBO” suspects are mentioned in press releases by full name, so the entire society can assist with the investigation. The banks immediately start the process to eject such person, insurance companies refuse to issue policies, online publications will secure life-long impact, and blogs will help investigators to keep investigations open for years; all so that the undermining can continue for years.
Even if someone is found innocent the damage that was already done cannot be repaired. If persons undermining the society are investigated and prosecuted for their acts, why would these actions by the “TBO” team not fall under the same heading. They are undermining the same way and use and abuse the legal system to do so over many years.
Suspects in criminal cases, were questioned and/or arrested and would have their day in court in a matter of months. Now investigations last years in the public eye, with constant press releases by the investigators and others they use to keep stories alive; with the help of the court, cases are postponed indefinitely to give investigators an indefinite period to slowly work on completing investigations to make the undermining last as long as possible.
With millions of euros these investigators have all the resources they need to do swift and good investigations. That is not the agenda and all because all holding one head (judges and prosecutors) together work to make the investigations draw out as long as possible.
Only in St. Maarten judges can have dinner with prosecutors without having any impact on the case. Only in St. Maarten prosecutors are allowed to lie to the judge and have no consequences for the case. No case gets thrown out in St. Maarten because the prosecutors fails, the Judge is still there to pick it up and make it happen.
It is not that we do not have good lawyers in St. Maarten, they just don’t have a chance in a system rigged to serve one agenda: “The undermining of the people of St. Maarten and St. Maarten”.
L.B. Hill
