Dear Editor,
I have noticed that our people in government as well as those aspiring to enter government continue to make promises.
Promises they have never kept and because of past experience I would dare say promises they never intended to keep. More proof of what they actually did was to mismanage the people’s patrimony, causing several of them to be indicted. I find myself reacting because, because of the circumstances it slowed down, they are right back at the same thing again. Everybody, yes everybody, knows about buying votes, because those who are paid to vote set up others so that they can share with whoever they encouraged. It is nothing that can hide.
It is done blatantly in public view. Voters come out of the polling station, go to the one who has to pay them and hand over the blank ballot. If they are not sure what to do there are others around to pass it on. Still our people in government do not think it is necessary to have election observers. Really. Which means that even though the majority of the population of St. Maarten is aware but does not agree with the concept of vote buying, it will be accused of being vote sellers. That is disrespecting the people and those who do that should be punished on election day. They have not done anything to be proud of.
It has taken nine years and counting to get a simple law on the use of plastic bags to be passed and implemented. I would be ashamed to touch that law after so many years. It has been the same people at the helm, Sarah, William, Frans, Theo and their followers.
It is time to get rid of them. They gave us a constitution full of holes, permitting Holland to continue to do what they want with us and now they want to grandstand. What the people did not know before a whole lot of us know now.
Fact is, by constantly throwing down the government they exhausted their lackeys and now find themselves obliged to enhance the circle. Which means more friends who have a friend. And gradually we all have an idea what is really going on. So we do not want any promises, just give us a stable government. With people who do not have skeletons in their closets People who, like a Commissioner once said about me, people who can say “no” to anybody.
People with integrity like Chacho, people who put country before self.
We don’t want any promises of houses, that and the same pension story that is being made up now could have been in and out of the pipeline a long time ago if only we did not have nine governments in nine years with the same deck of cards.
To be able to control the supermarkets we have to move the Customs and put them under the Ministry where those container movements could be controlled. Just like vote buying.
Because it has worked for the bigger parties, there should not be any “election observers”. I would see the positive side and make use of the opportunity to welcome them and prove that my elections are clean, which would go a long way in getting rid of that stigma about St. Maarten being corrupt. But it seems that is a difficult chance to take also. This is not a question of every four years, this has become a yearly habit.
So, let them keep their promises to themselves. If cost of living continues to rise and we are reaching a stage where there is no middle class, who will the UP be building those 1,000 homes for? Everybody.
Why should I expect that after trying so many years to get them to look at what is happening with the pensioners, that it is going to happen all of a sudden? What they should seriously start thinking about is putting water tanks in the hills above every village. With good filtering and with the help of gravity we will be able to get water to all the homes for next to nothing.
Not to forget that it is long past time for us to go over to solar panels. When I sat and talked about solar panels some young people told me I missed the boat and that there has already been a feasibility study made for placing of solar panels, but according to the schoolchildren those involved in the oil used by GEBE to generate electricity were not ready to entertain that idea.
With all that we have happening with solar energy in all the other islands of the former Netherlands Antilles, including Saba and Statia which are also in the hurricane belt, what explanation will any self-respecting politician give to the people as a reason for not embarking onto solar energy?
If they seriously want to help the people don’t promise them anything that you know that you can avoid with a silly excuse tomorrow. There is no reinventing the wheel necessary. Show the political will and let us get things going for the people. Guarantee us a stable government, come together, forget and avoid the deal-making, which we know causes jail time, and start by embarking on solar energy.
Russell A. Simmons
