Dear Editor,
It is on several occasions that during the discussions of the Irma recovery funds the possible misappropriation of the of the funds was mentioned.
On Monday, September 10, 2018, however, I read where PM Rutte plainly said that “The funds have been made available under strict conditions, which are very necessary to prevent the money from ending up in the wrong pockets” and “Fortunately there is now a government with the capacity to act. That it is of utmost importance and that the recovery process needed to be fast, prudent, without corruption.”
That is a direct indictment of whichever Prime Minister was in charge and when. Fact is that in the past whenever something similar happened and the people’s reaction was that “the people should not pay for the government’s wrongdoing,” conveniently the reaction from whichever accuser would be “but the people put them there,”
With this in mind I will openly call on PM Rutte to retract his words and openly and publicly apologize to the people of St. Maarten, because he is now clearly implying that the people of St. Maarten are embezzlers by association. Would I be wrong to add “and by extension to Holland.”
PM Rutte should not expect that everyone hearing or reading what he says should readily accept these direct insults. In the past I am suggesting to PM Rutte that if he has a valid reason then he should speak directly to those involved and do not by association implicate the people of St. Maarten.
Formerly when the people of St. Maarten traveled abroad we were welcomed with open arms. Of late all kinds of questions and inquiries are made before being permitted to enter another man’s country. In my opinion it is due to the restrictions and inquiries that Holland has put on the members their own kingdom partners on entering Holland. And now we are openly made out be corrupt. My question is: who has been the head of the house forever?
Talking about forever, let me mention this. I do not know when Premier Rutte was born. I believe in forgiveness, because no one is perfect, but you see when one is confronted and surrounded by certain behavior for years eventually something rubs off. So, if what I am going to mention now seems like “I’ll get you one day” it should not be considered as payback, but the truth.
Several years after the North Sea floods of Holland I noticed that a schoolteacher from the school that I attended on Aruba was wearing one of my father’s pants which I personally had taken to the police station in San Nicolas to be sent to Holland to help with the relief of the disaster caused by that devastating flood. Boys will be boys and I mentioned that to the boys in school. That was a mistake that remained with me for the rest of my life. I was suspended for two days for speaking the truth. At the end of that school year, even being one of the top students in my class, my marks were as it were suppressed and I did not pass my class.
But I believe that something good always happens after every disappointment and so instead of continuing that school I became a police officer, at that time working under the supervision of the same Dutch who could not deal with the truth, and I literally served the community of the Netherland Antilles for 41 years after that.
I do not think that anyone who is being paid by the community should have the audacity to berate that community for the wrongdoings of his or her colleagues. I am not sure if the saying “birds of a feather flock together” is appropriate in this case, but I am sure that it takes one to know one.
I do not think that the Prime Minister Rutte used good diplomacy. I feel personally offended by his remarks.
Russell A. Simmons
