Dear Editor,
I can remember growing up the old people used to say “Confession is good for the soul”. So at times when messing with my siblings I would tell them that confession is good for the soul and that they should tell our mother what really happened. One day when my father overheard me talking to one of my brothers, he called me and said to me, “Get the Bible, look in James and see what it says about confession and let me know.” After a while I found an explanation of confession in James chapter 5 from verse 7 to 20. Later on my father told me that “true confession is good for the soul”.
On reading what was written about the Chairman of Parliament concerning his apology it reminded me of my father’s observation concerning confession. According to the paper, Chairman Brison says that it was done in a moment of frustration. I am not an English professor, and I am not about trying to put words in anybody’s mouth, but if I understand well, frustration occurs as a result of not getting the result one wants. So, can I assume that the Chairman means “it was the result of frustration?”
What I know also is that when one has a lot of not-so-pleasant things on one’s mind it causes frustration and then the following sayings can come into play: “What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals” or “He speaks in his drink, what he thought in his drouth” or “A drunken man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts”.
Mind you I was not there so I cannot say anything about anybody’s condition, nor state of mind. So my question is, if I have all those beautiful thoughts about a person and I am ready to bestow so many accolades on that person, and even go as far as to compare her to my mother, why would the first things that come out of my mouth about her, “in a moment of frustration”, be demeaning and insulting, in the presence of others?
Dear Editor, to that I say, “What the heart thinks the mouth speaks” ( in Dutch, “waar het hart van vol is loopt de mond van over”). So to me it is clear where that letter of apology was compiled.
Politicians have to understand that not because a person voted for them means that that person is gullible. There are several reasons why people vote for a person or a party. For instance, what’s in their manifesto, the party program, party loyalty, the lesser of two evils, etc. And not because they are fools. The people have come to realize that when more people vote, it gives everybody a better chance.
For me this has nothing to do with party preference, it tells me that the one who compiled or okayed that so-called letter of apology qualifies the people of St. Maarten to be fools and that they do not realize what is really happening here. A frustrated person does not write an apology that takes up almost one third of a page of the newspaper. Also, what Chairman Brison did was not an indiscretion.
And even if the Chairman spoke those words in the privacy of his home, there is where he felt safe to be able to insult Mrs. Heyliger in the presence of others.
I have written it before but I will write it again, Everywhere else in the Dutch Kingdom, a whole lot of politicians have been investigated, indicted, even incarcerated for wrongdoing in government. Instead of doing like those people in government in the other countries of the Kingdom, who usually “take a French leave”, we in St. Maarten will fight our case all the way to the high court, knowing that we have a slim to no chance of winning, while all through the process they are washing their dirty linen in public.
So, I am curiously waiting for the next move, because it is the Minister and the Chairman who are in hot water.
I know that there are provisions to deal with this situation The Chairman of the Parliament of St. Maarten still does not realize that “not because something is not wrong, it is the right thing to do”.
This is called “ethics”. He has proven over and over that he has no regard for the position that he is occupying. I believe that he is conflating responsibility with power.
By the way, according to the Chairman, Jurendy took his like a man, so the Chairman should also take his like a man and do the honorable thing. The people of Sint Maarten are fed up with being constantly embarrassed by our people in government.
Russell A. Simmons
