Dear Editor,
What is a smart way for Sint Maarten to manage its relations with the Dutch Kingdom in such a manner that it best serves the next generations and leads to optimal living standard and minimized vulnerability in the future?
Your answer will be influenced by your view of the vulnerability of St. Maarten. If you consider that our country suffers from doubtful administration and is at risk by having only a one-pillar economy you may consider us to be vulnerable.
If on the other hand you believe that the present challenges are all caused by the Dutch association and that a break of this association would lead to a sudden spiritual regeneration of the populace which would soon after lead to an increase in efficiency, education, productivity and new economic opportunities you are likely to see it differently.
If your ancestors were enslaved you may find that the association with the country responsible for that action is so odious that you wish to sever ties as soon as possible regardless of the consequences.
On the other hand, even if your ancestors were enslaved you may consider that the same country has condemned slavery and that the present population of the country cannot be held responsible for what happened numerous generations back. You may also consider that much is being done in the “mother” country to combat many other forms of slavery and repression.
You may be looking more to the future than to the past and you may have recognized that all nations, particularly very small ones, need to maintain associations that will in various forms make their governance more viable and financially manageable and that limited research has been presented in this respect to date.
If you are a financial investor you are likely to lean towards maintaining the status quo as much as possible because changes in governance lead to economic insecurity, something not unique to St. Maarten.
On the other hand, if you are a young St. Maartener who has been exposed to the consequences of poor governance and administration and you have witnessed more effective scenarios, you may wish to change the present situation at all costs on the basis that anything should be better than the present.
No matter which view you hold, you may well be interested in understanding the costs of change of association and restructuring and noting the disruption and deficits that occurred in the first decade of country St. Maarten and the debt trap that so many similar jurisdictions suffer from.
The St. Maarten population are approaching this important subject from a large variety of angles. The political leaders seem to have mixed and sometimes contradictory positions. Many positions on the subject of kingdom relations appear to be based on convenient politics.
Future decision-making on the subject would be far superior if the public were to have a greater understanding of all the opportunities and risks and a greater awareness of alternatives. This would be aided by political parties holding more consistent positions that were substantiated by in-depth research into future scenarios. The making of these future scenarios is a difficult subject indeed.
Robbie Ferron
