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style="text-align: center;">Bullets remains in Officer Benjamin brain, he is currently in a comatose state at SMMC.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Members of Parliament ran for their lives on Wednesday when a bicycle patrol identified as officer Gamali Benjamin was shot in the vicinity of the Parliament Building in Philipsburg on Wednesday morning. Bystanders said some MP's tried to find cover as they beleive that the gunmen were coming after Members of Parliament. MP Sarah Wescot Williams, MP Theodore Heyliger, MP Franklin Meyers and MP Lloyd Richardson ran for cover in one of the private rooms of parliament SMN News was told Read more

Parliament Meet On Health Care Wednesday

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The Central Committee of Parliament met in public session on Wednesday.

Members of Parliament received a presentation on the National Ordinance on Public Health Care.

The presentation was made by a team from the department of Health headed by Drs. Fenna Arnell.

However members of Parliament had several questions as well as expressed areas of concern within health care. MP the Honorable Leona Romeo-Marlin was particularly concerned about the spread of infectious diseases.

DP leader the honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams in her remarks spoke about the complexities of the ordinance and its importance.

She also noted that the execution and monitoring of the legislation has been placed on a lower level in some cases, even below the legislation itself.

MP the Honorable Janchie Leonard also had various questions particularly in the area of control and enforcement.

As a former Police Officer the MP stated that this forms an integral part of the overall execution of the ordinance Read more

Transparency International Presents Integrity Assessment: “Political Parties Are Weak In Representing Social Interests”

Transparency International’s regional director for the Americas Alejandro Salas and lead researcher Cora de Voit. Photo Today / Leo Brown

GREAT BAY – At 7 p.m. local time last night, Transparency International’s National Integrity System assessment for St. Maarten came online. The company presented the report at the same time at the university on Pond Island. St. Maarten has now come full circle with probing its integrity issues. There are four reports on the table: the Baseline Study Institutional Integrity from the General Audit Chamber, the integrity-reports from the Bob Wit-committee and PricewaterhouseCoopers and now the transparency assessment.

It contains three core recommendations, of which the third one is the most concrete Read more

UPP/De Weever/LMR/USP Coalition fall apart --- Master, and Lake pulls support.

style="text-align: center;">New Coalition Government in the making.

PHILIPSBURG:--- What appeared to be a rumor seemingly became a reality Tuesday night when it was announced on Online radio program that the current coalition government fell apart. According to information reaching SMN News states that Member of Parliament Silvio Matser, and Member of Parliament Maurice Lake has pulled their support from the current coalition and would join the National Alliance, Democratic Party and USP to form the next government Read more

Dp Delivers Blistering Criticism On Governing Program: “If You Cannot Convince Them, Confuse Them”

St. Maarten – Democratic Party MP Sarah Wescot-Williams delivered blistering criticism of the governing program the Council of Ministers sent to the parliament a week and a half ago. The program shows “an inadequate end unprepared government, “contradictions are blaring” and the document is “poorly edited’ are some of the points Wescot-Williams makes in het analysis.

The Democratic Party “recognizes some initiatives as its own” while others “fit the priorities the DP has established for itself.”

As an example of “blaring contradictions,” the opposition-MP refers to remarks about good governance and integrity Read more

Claude Wathey Commemoration: Everybody On The Same Page Again

Family members and representatives of DP and UP gather for a group picture together with Minister Claret Connor. Photo Today / Leo Brown

St. Maarten – After the awkward split in the election year 2014, when the Democratic Party and the United People’s party organized separate wreath laying ceremonies to commemorate the birth date of the late Dr Read more

Sarah disappointed in governing programme

~ Shows govt inadequate, unprepared ~

PHILIPSBURG--Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Wescot-Williams has given the coalition government a thumbs-down for its recently-released governing programme.

Wescot-Williams said on Sunday that her analysis of the document showed that government was “inadequate,” and “unprepared.”

“I cannot but express utter disappointment in the document that should have spelled out government’s vision for the remainder of this governing term,” Wescot-Williams said on Sunday Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---- 89 years later the late Albert Claudius Wathey also known as Claude Wathey was honored with a wreath laying ceremony in front of the Government Administration Building on Friday moring.
Family members of the late politician and supporters flocked by his statue to pay tribute to the “ole man” Erno Labega started out the wreath laying session with some words about the late politician.
Al Wathey laid the first wreath along with Michaela Hodge on the part of University of St Read more

Parliament to co-sign letter on shelving of dispute regulation

PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten Parliament will be a co-signer along with the legislatures of Curaçao and Aruba on a letter to the First and Second Chambers of the Dutch Parliament, seeking that body’s position on the Dutch Government in effect shelving the establishment of a dispute regulation, and a related body for the kingdom.

The letter, drafted by the Curaçao Parliament, came after last month’s Kingdom Conference -a meeting of the countries of the kingdom- saw the Dutch Government putting up a road block on the issue Read more

Transparency International Launches Integrity Report Next Week

St. Maarten – Transparency International will launch St. Maarten’s National Integrity System assessment next week Tuesday at the University of St. Martin.

Alejandro Salas, the regional director for the Americas at Transparency International will speak at this event, as will invited government officials, Transparency International said in a press statement.

The integrity assessment has been long in the making, ever since Kingdom Relations Minister Ronald Plasterk sent the first signals to then Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams in April 2013 that St Read more

Sarah gets 'favourable reaction' to electoral reform proposal

PHILIPSBURG--Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Wescot-Williams said Sunday that her proposal on electoral reform has met with a "favourable reaction" from the Presidium of Parliament and as a result it will be taken up for discussion in the legislature Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- MP Sarah Wescot Williams said in a press release on behalf of the Democratic Party faction of Parliament that she received a favorable response from the presidium of Parliament ( consisting of the Chairperson and his 2 deputies) Read more

The unraveling GEBE saga is symptomatic of a larger problem.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot Williams said she considers the conflict between the Supervisory Board of Directors and the MD/CEO of NV GEBE more of a labor issue or a conflict between employer and employee, the relationship between the Shareholder (the government of St. Maarten) and its company's supervisory board deserves closer scrutiny and should be a concern ti everyone on St Read more

Only 6 Of 22 Motions Since 2012 Yielded Results: Motions Carry The Day – But Only In Parliament

St. Maarten – The motions Members of Parliament submit during the annual budget debate seldom yield results. This newspaper examined 28 motions a host of parliamentarians tabled since 2012. With 22 of them successive government did absolutely nothing. Six of them yielded (some) results.

When governments fail to execute motions, parliament never retaliates. In the Netherlands, a cabinet that refuses or neglects to execute a motion that is carried by a majority in parliament, could lead to a cabinet crisis Read more

Connor Moves To Vromi – New Candidates Pending : Cabinet Reshuffle After The Summer

Minister Claret Connor’s days as the Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs are almost over. Photo contributed

St. Maarten – Minister Claret Connor will be removed from his position at the Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication after the summer and stay in the cabinet as the Minister of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure Read more

Sarah concerned about Connor’s move from Tourism Ministry

PHILIPSBURG--A pending shuffling of portfolios in the Marcel Gumbs Cabinet, particularly the move of current Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) Minister Claret Connor to the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI and the appointment of a new minister in Connor's place, has drawn concern from Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams.

She has termed the pending shuffle as "cabinet shake-up." She based her position on comments made by United People's (UP) party faction leader MP Franklin Meyers recently in a television interview.

Conner's post is tipped to be taken by a minister candidate proposed by coalition member independent MP Leona Marlin-Romeo Read more

Editorial - Reserve judgement

The UP-led coalition submitted its governing programme “Ready to Work for You” on Thursday. Better late than never, considering that it comes almost seven months after the Gumbs cabinet took office.

The question is also to what extent the policy intentions can be achieved in light of the current financial situation, with a looming instruction from the Kingdom Council of Ministers to settle the arrears totalling 189 million guilders to Social and Health Insurance SZV and the general pension fund APS Read more

Shake up in current cabinet – Where does this leave Coalition partner MP Frans Richardson?

>PHILIPSBURG:--- There seems to be an imminent shake up in the current Gumbs cabinet. SMN News wrote various articles mentioning that Minister Claret Connor will be removed from his post as Minister of TEATT and be placed at the Ministry of VROMI. On Wednesday evening the UPP faction leader and deputy leader Franklin Meyers announced that Minister Claret Connor will be moving to the Ministry of VROMI but the UPP deputy leader did not say how soon this will take place Read more

Sarah: Why are changes to the law taking so long?

PHILIPSBURG--How long does it take to make amendments requested by Members of Parliament (MPs) to the draft national ordinance to establish an Integrity Chamber for the country, Democratic Party (DP) leader MP Sarah Wescot-Williams questioned on Wednesday.

Her enquiry follows a statement from Justice Minister Dennis Richardson on Tuesday about the amendments Read more

Jacobs chalks up another win for Chalk Dust at Ram contest

MARIGOT--Francis Jacobs continued his record-breaking run of wins at the fifteenth Annual Ram Beauty Contest in Colombier on Sunday with his prized ram Chalk Dust again winning the prestigious Boer category.

Jacobs, who had several winning entries at the show organised by I Love My Ram Association, has produced winners for seven consecutive years.

"I guess I'm just good at looking after my animals," he said modestly. "I put a lot of hours into it."

With more entries in the Boer class than usual, they were divided into three categories Read more

Lopsided flight

Dear Editor,

I have taken note on the press release by the Board of the UPP, pertaining to the indecisiveness of MP Wescot-Williams.

While my political position was made clear last October, this certainly does not stop me from pointing the lack of readiness with this present government with UPP as the majority.

Today, elections have come and gone, oaths taken and still no governing program detailing government's plan of action for the specific term Read more

Integrity Chamber back on agenda Kingdom Govt

~ VVD demands AMvRB measure for St. Maarten ~

THE HAGUE--The establishing of the St. Maarten Integrity Chamber is back on the agenda of the Kingdom Council of Ministers. The next meeting is on July 10 and a General Measure of the Kingdom Government ("Algemene Maatregel van Rijksbestuur" AMvRB) is a real option.

Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk did not state specifically during a debate in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Thursday that a decision would be taken regarding St Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The board of the United People’s (UP) party has taken note of recent comments made by Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Wescot-Williams.

"We find it ironic that the former Prime Minister and present opposition MP is able to maintain such a high visibility by questioning so much about government while the same MP led government up until December 2014, less than seven months ago," remarked the UP Party Board on Thursday.

The UP Party Board added, "Now is not the time to play with the emotions of the populous especially when our people require us to band together to deal with the challenges the nation is facing Read more

Up Board Calls Out Mp Wescot-Williams On Past Indecisiveness In Three Cabinets Over Four Years

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The board of the United People's (UP) party has taken note of recent comments made by Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Wescot-Williams.

"We find it ironic that the former Prime Minister and present opposition MP is able to maintain such a high visibility by questioning so much about government while the same MP led government up until December 2014, less than seven months ago," remarked the UP Party Board on Thursday.

The UP Party Board added, "Now is not the time to play with the emotions of the populous especially when our people require us to band together to deal with the challenges the nation is facing.

The MP was also given the opportunity to be in government when she joined the coalition, but backed out a few weeks later Read more