Dear Editor,
I have heard a lot of nice talking the last days and weeks by politicians.
About care for the people and roofs on houses and helping those in need. However, I did not hear those words much before election time and now suddenly they popping up!
Do people of Sint Maarten still have faith in politics? That is what I ask them in the talks I have. My observations can be read below.
The (almost) 10 years of being autonomous did not show much progress, so it seems. At least for sure in the perspective of the people I speak, the common people with lower middleclass income or less. People from here, being born here.
Did economic improvement really help them?
More money came in indeed, but to whom did that money go? The common man did not see much increase in his income. However, a lot of the illegal immigrants did.
Illegal immigrants providing cheap labor from abroad, somehow seemingly not touched, being able to earn a good living soon after immigration, partly because not contributing to tax- and health premiums. Therefore making faster money than local people. Local people having to pay their taxes, health insurances and school fees for education of their children. A struggle for life. Feeling sentiments of neglect and abandonment by those who should represent them because why does it seem as if (illegal) immigrants and illegal labor are not touched?
In fact a large group of undocumented people walking along our streets, desperately looking for jobs, a situation encouraging illegal behavior and destabilizing the labor market at the end and therewith potentially our society as a whole. And this is something that is going on for years and years. And we vote and we vote but with no indication that this important issue which touched the common man is really taken seriously.
For example; how many times the last years did Parliament pressure the Minister of Justice and the Minister of VSA on this matter and demanded being accountable on the enforcement of regulations in place?
That is the feeling of several people. And that is what – in the perspective of those people – happened during all those years of governance, causing a feeling that it does not really matter if you vote and which party.
Are politicians really contributing to the quality of life of those being from here? So far they feel being left alone, neglected and abandoned by their own representatives. Can we really expect something from the politics for the people from here? That is a basic question popping up frequently in the talks I have with people.
It is up to the politicians to convince the people that they (the politicians) be reliable, trustworthy, accountable and really will do something concrete for the people. They have lost confidence and are tired of voting without tangible results.
Politicians, tell the people please in what way you concretely and really will contribute to their quality of life. It is about restoration of trust! To convince people that they may have faith in politics because from now you really will step up for points of interest of the people such as labor, immigration, health, housing, education. If you do not succeed in gaining trust, those people will feel to have no reason to vote. A bad thing in a democracy.
Geert van der Leest
