Dear Editor,
In September 2021 Minister Egbert Jurendy Doran wrote a letter to the Ombudsman. It was mind-blowing. The first thought on reading the letter; was there no one around him to simply say “very bad idea.” The fact that he had written this letter, most likely consulted with someone or persons from his team, and then they probably reviewed their handiwork, tapped themselves on the back for how brilliant they were and confidently sent that letter, spoke volumes not just about the young man Doran but also about the state of Government in St. Maarten.
The fallout that followed was quite something, the backlash was swift. Faction leader William Marlin called it a “dark day for St. Maarten,” MP Wescot Williams considered the letter “unacceptable and sexist, undermining the constitutional state.” Parliamentarians from all factions united with one voice – something so rare on this island – to denounce the letter and to demand an apology to the Ombudsman. Doran was fully chastised, eventually issuing an apology and a retraction.
There was one person though whose reaction was slow in coming, the leader of government, Silveria Jacobs. It took the Prime Minister more than a week to make a statement and when she did it was sorely lacking. While members of parliament and persons throughout the community condemned the disrespect not only to the Office of the Ombudsman, but also the sexism and overall offensiveness to the person of the Ombudsman, not once did the Prime Minister publicly condemn Mr. Doran’s statements.
In a press briefing the Prime Minister announced that Mr. Doran had apologized, that he was retracting the letter. She noted that everyone should be able to reflect on decisions they had made and retract those decisions, and apologize if necessary. She reflected on how this should be a learning experience and how no one was too big to apologize. All things that are true. But, boy, was that disappointing.
The Prime Minster is not just the leader of Government, she is the leader of the country, the leader of the people. She is one of the few female leaders not just in the Caribbean region but in the wider world. That week waiting for her to do the right thing, to stand up against disrespect to another woman, to denounce the words and actions of her colleague, and to show women and young girls that she meant it when she spoke of female leadership and female empowerment, was quite a disappointing one. The real Silveria Jacobs stood up and her actions and handling of that mess showed she was not a real one.
No one was asking that she pull support from Doran, as least not then, not yet; people watching were only asking her to do the right thing, call a spade a spade and denounce the blatant sexism and disrespect against a woman in high office, sexism and disrespect not only meant to paint her in a bad light, but to undermine her accomplishments and stain her office.
It must be noted that in the same briefing the Prime Minister railed against persons leaking government documents to the press. She said leaking information threatens everyone’s integrity and she was looking into the legal ramifications of the leaking of documents into the public domain. Jacobs stated, “It is the Government’s responsibility to safeguard the integrity of Government.”
Fast forward to 2023; on November 24 the Prime Minister is standing outside the courthouse having just won her defamation case against Olivier Arrindell, with one of his accusations being that she is a corrupt politician. “I stand for all women of St. Maarten, the disrespect to me was a disrespect to all women in St. Maarten,” Jacobs said. Weeks earlier, after the hearing of her case, Jacobs gave a briefing outside the courthouse. “I am a person of integrity,” she said before going on to deny that she is in anyway responsible for actions of her cabinet’s members that are contrary to the interest of the public.
And herein lies the issue. When I am disrespected, all women are disrespected, and when someone who defames me is shutdown it is a win for all women of St. Maarten. However, just two years prior Jacobs was not able to stand up for one woman in St. Maarten, and somehow Doran’s disrespect to the Ombudsman did not constitute a disrespect to all women.
The more telling, though, is, “I am a person of integrity, not responsible for the corrupt actions of my cabinet. I am the leader, of Government, of the people, but the wrong things done by my cabinet have nothing to do with me.”
When Silveria Jacobs took over the helm of the NA – at the time the party of the people, of the working class – she was to maintain the base of the party while taking it to higher heights. There were some who thought William Marlin dragged his feet and should have given her the leadership earlier, so much they believed in what she could accomplish. Sadly, what Jacobs has shown is that she is lacking the skills for true leadership.
There are many qualities that make a great leader, but some of the key qualities are integrity, self-awareness and courage. Integrity, of course, is a buzz word among St. Maarten politicians, quite some who may know the dictionary definition of the word but cannot apply it to their actions.
In railing against the release of documents pertaining to civil or governmental matters to the press and public, the Prime Minister at no time questioned why civil servants felt the need to do this. She did not acknowledge that most times these leaks painted the Government in a negative light and were meant to highlight a conflict of interest, or sometimes blatant corruption. At no time over the years in Government did the Prime Minister encourage civil servants to stay on the straight and narrow, and help weed out corruption at the highest levels of this country by enacting a robust whistle-blower policy, transformed into a modern whistle-blower protection law, to ensure that lives were not destroyed when persons wanted to do the right thing.
No, what the Prime Minister sought to do was simply punish persons who leaked documents.
And so, it comes as no surprise that after two years of the VROMI [Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure – Ed.] waste collection tender saga, documents have leaked and, boy, do they tell a story, from companies being disqualified to somehow coming back to win the contract, to department employees removing themselves from the evaluation and advise process to eventually all the way out of the country, refusing to be part of the misconduct. And worst of all, Government inexplicably (so far) using taxpayers’ hard-earned money to give out contracts to the least qualified, disqualified, most expensive bidders while dismissing capable, qualified companies with lower bids.
For two years the Ombudsman investigation was stymied, the people were told lies and given a runaround, the opposition MPs who would not let it go were painted in the worst light, and now because of leaked documents, they that have eyes can see exactly how the country running. What will the Prime Minister say now, will she say anything?
An effective leader knows what her people are doing and if she doesn’t she finds out. A good leader keeps her cohorts inline, and when necessary roots out rot for the good of the team, and in this case the good of the country. Mr. Doran has shown that he is a danger to the office of a good and trusted civil servant. He is also showing that he lacks the smarts to not take the most obvious risks to facilitate his and his cronies’ agenda. In an age of information, and with the characterization of the whole political field as corrupt by those who want nothing more than to be proven right, the hubris and the audacity is mind-blowing.
As Silveria Jacobs said in 2021, it is the responsibility of Government to safeguard the integrity of Government! Those were her words. Can she and Mr. Doran defend his position, can the documents be explained away, can there be a defense of no corruption? Will the Prime Minster even try, or as leader of this country will she let us know again that this is not her responsibility? Will we as a people continue to let it slide?
A concerned female voter
Name withheld at author’s request.
