Dear Editor,
A sour, self-proclaimed leader of government (SPLOG) advised the people of Statia in the paper of March 22nd to be careful what they wish for. I do believe that this is a well needed advice. I would like to add an additional advice and that is, also not to simply accept all statements that are presented to you as fact, but to seriously do research and form your own opinion.
He qualifies the elections of a body that is responsible to elect one of the highest institutions of our nation as nonsensical. If one takes this qualification down the hierarchy of the institutions of our country then not much respect will be left over for municipality and island council elections.
I take this opportunity to thank him wholeheartedly for the statistics provided and the comparison with the outcome of the island council elections of 2015. The total number of eligible voters compared to the 2015 island council elections was 23 per cent lower last Wednesday. The number of eligible voters who cast their vote last Wednesday on the DP was only 21 per cent lower than in 2015. And we all know that non-Dutch nationals were excluded from these elections. He calls this a loss of support, while in fact he proves that it is actually a gain. In this largely unknown election for the electoral college, boycotted by all other parties and without simultaneous island council elections held, the DP managed to get percentual more support than even in the last island council elections.
The title the earlier mentioned individual signs his letter with is “Island Council Member”. I guess that everyone is aware that by law the island council of St. Eustatius, he claims to be a member of has been dissolved due to his doings on February 7, 2018. This means that there are since that date no longer island council members. But even when following his irrational line of reasoning, he is no longer an island council member. When he was sworn in in 2015, he was sworn in for a period of four years. This period of four years in the meantime has expired.
My advice to him is not to put himself in the same category as the president of the United States, who will remain with that title until the day he dies. In our democratic system not even the King keeps his title after abdicating the throne.
Koos Sneek
DP Statia
