SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG:--- On Monday, December 18th, 2017 representatives of the University of St. Martin and the Ministry of Education finally arrived at an agreement and signed the MOU securing the continuity of education for students of the USM. This, after the representatives of the University of St. Martin had not seen it possible to sign the proposed MOU on December 11th, 2017. However, after hearing an interview by the Minister on the topic on December 12th, the University promptly contacted the Department of Education with a willingness to resume talks, which commenced on Wednesday, December 13th.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport was happy to do so and met with the Board of the University of St Maarten Foundation to revisit and discuss the MOU that had been presented to the Board by the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Presenting the candidates to the public via the media gives the people the opportunity to become acquainted with their prospective parliamentarian prior to the upcoming elections. In this article the Leader of the Sint Maarten Christian Party (SMCP), Wycliffe Smith, takes pleasure in introducing Richard A Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

EBENEZER:--- The Parliament of Sint Maarten finally convened last Monday, September 25th, to be updated by the Minister of General Affairs, the Honorable William Marlin, on the passing of hurricane Irma. An update, after two and a half weeks, to the highest representative body in the country, is unacceptable!

It took the Dutch Parliament less than a week (they met on September 12th) to deal with the hurricane situation in Sint Maarten Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

It is important to evaluate our representatives in Parliament on an annual basis and not wait until election time. Therefore, SMCP is developing a parliamentary report card that will indicate how well or how poorly our MPs are doing in the following six areas: attendance, participation, representation, supervision, legislation, and interaction. In the first letter to the editor on this topic, we covered the reason for and the nature of the report card and presented an extensive description of the first benchmark attendance Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- The much anticipated 2nd edition of Where’s Where in St. Maarten (WWSM) was released to the public in an official launch held at the Jubilee Library in Philipsburg on Friday, August 18th. The first copies of “Where’s where in St. Maarten” were offered to the Director of the library, Mrs. Monique Alberts and Assistant Circulation Supervisor, Daniel Helligar. To highlight the community aspect of WWSM, several community leaders spoke at the event such as Rhoda Arrindell, Cassandra Richardson and vice president of the University of St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- At the end of every school year, students are evaluated and promoted or not promoted based on their performance during the year. Conversely, at the end of a parliamentary year, Members of Parliament are not evaluated yet they continue in Parliament without anyone questioning their achievements, their performance or their competency to function as a parliamentarian.

I have observed that in several countries around the world, political and interest groups are developing report cards for parliamentarians Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

I would like to commend Member of Parliament, the Honorable Ardwell Irion, for presenting a proposal to Parliament that would make MPs more accountable and transparent, particularly towards their voters and the public in general. In the next Annual Parliamentary Report, we should be able to see how each MP voted on a law or a motion.

I also concur with MP Irion that Parliament’s website also needs upgrading Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Prior to the election on September 26, 2016, two expressions dominated politics and the news, namely “ship-jumping” and “electoral reform”. Electoral reform was the reason for the fall of the Marcel Gumbs Government in 2015. Electoral reform led to the snap election that was scheduled for February 9, 2016. Electoral reform was also the reason why this election was cancelled, because the honorable Prime Minister William Marlin insisted that his government needed more time to be able to initiate legislative reform in order to address the phenomenon of ship-jumping that was so prevalent among our parliamentarians Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Why even bother at this time to write about the qualifications of a parliamentarian when the next parliamentary election is all the way in 2020? Sadly, this has been the mentality in the past that has led us to vote for persons based, on friendship, family ties, and family tradition, instead of looking at the qualifications, qualities, and experience of the candidates.

One of the reasons why we have not paid much attention to the qualifications of parliamentarians is because, during election time, our politicians campaign as if they were running to become ministers in government Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- On July 1st, Parliament went on a four-week recess and will resume on Monday, July 31st. In December/January upcoming, Parliament will also take a two-week recess. I hope that our MPs are aware of the fact that a parliamentary recess is not a holiday and that they can be called back to work during their recess.

The website of the Dutch Second Chamber or Parliament describes its recess as follows: “during the recess periods, the Second Chamber does not convene. Members of the Chamber can study various files and documents and prepare themselves for the next session of meetings Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Congratulations to His Excellency drs. Eugene Holiday for hosting a timely, well-organized, informative symposium entitled “ICT Governance: Shaping our Future”. The world of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is ever expanding and Sint Maarten needs to get on board before we are left behind. ICT is not only about having faster internet and more computers and smartphones in our society. Rather, it is more about planning, implementing and managing technology in order to promote and enhance the flow of information to and from citizens and to provide efficient service to citizens and to businesses.

Where does Parliament stand in terms of ICT? Very poorly! A few months ago, when reviewing Parliament’s website in terms of the information it provides and how it interacts with the people, it was obvious that in both instances Parliament failed dismally Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Last week, yet another annual report was added to the long list of reports that Parliament has in its possession. The General Audit Chamber, one of the High Councils of State, submitted for the seventh time, its annual report in both the Dutch and English languages. Hence, Members of Parliament, who are not versed in the Dutch language have no excuse about not being able to read or understand the Chamber’s annual report. I would like to commend the Chamber for producing a very good report Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Parliament needs to be transparent with its budget! During budget debates, members of parliament pose numerous questions, some critical, many political, concerning government’s budgeting and spending, but no one raises questions about parliament’s budget and parliament’s spending. The reason for this is because parliament’s budget is camouflaged among the budgets of the High Councils of State. Furthermore, according to the Compatibility Ordinance and the Rules of Order of Parliament the budget of Parliament is drafted by the Secretariat of Parliament, approved by the Presidium and then sent to the Minister of Finance to be included in the national budget Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- In addition to boycotting the establishing of the Integrity Chamber, Parliament appears to also be boycotting the formalization of a code of conduct. Last week, the Chairlady of Parliament had to cancel the meeting of the Central Committee because there was no quorum when the second agenda point, namely a parliamentary code of conduct, was to be discussed. Isn’t it odd that there was a quorum for the first agenda point i.e. the Anti-Poverty Platform, but after a short break, only seven members of parliament remained for the continuation of this meeting! Despite the Chairlady’s request for at least one member to come back inside the meeting hall and despite the official thirty minutes wait to see if any of the MP’s outside of the meeting hall would adhere to her request, the meeting had to be called off, due to a lack of quorum Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Are government and parliament waiting until the next election comes around or until the next ship jumper presents him or herself in parliament to start working on electoral reform again? Any electoral change involving the constitution requires the input and blessing from the Kingdom government which includes the governments of the Netherlands, Aruba, and Curacao. On the other hand, according to our constitution, amendments to election-related ordinances such the Election Ordinance, the National Ordinance Registration and Finances of Political Parties only require “a majority of at least two-thirds of the votes cast by the serving members” (art Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:---  Upcoming Friday, June 1st, Sergio Sno (Author) will be presenting “Tips for Our Youth” to the youth of Sint. Maarten and the general public at the Philipsburg Jubilee Library from 7 pm to 9 pm. This is the very first book written by the author Sergio Sno. However, according to him, it will not be his last. This book was born from his experiences as he worked with young people in his native country Suriname and also here on Sint Maarten. After losing his mother at the age of thirteen, Sergio had to fend for himself Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Central Committee of Parliament will be meeting this week to discuss several issues. One such issue is the verdict pertaining to the Integrity Chamber. Isn’t it ironic, that the Central Committee has only now decided to meet to discuss the verdict handed down by the Constitutional Court in July 2016, detailing its reasons for rescinding the Integrity Chamber law? In January 2017, the parliamentarians listened to a passionate presentation by the Honorable Minister of General Affairs against the appointment of a Dutch quartermaster who, by the way, was one of the conditions in the Integrity Chamber protocol, agreed upon by the Government of Sint Maarten Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Parliament’s role is to supervise government, which includes pointing out failures and offering suggestions but also applauding when government takes the right decision. In fact, psychology tells us that reinforcing good performance has a more powerful and lasting effect than negative criticism. Hence, it is important that parliamentarians also look at the positive things that government has done or is doing and commend them for this. In our society, we tend to only focus on the mistakes, failures and on the bad or negative Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Some people wonder why my writings deal mostly with the Parliament of Sint Maarten. This is because our Parliament is a new constitutional institution. During the last campaign, leading up to the September 26th, 2016 elections, the Sint Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) observed that the majority of the people knew and understood very little about our Parliament and about the role and function of the parliamentarians they were about to elect Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:---Recently, our Prime Minister, the honorable William Marlin, leader of the United Democratic Alliance, which consists of the NA, USP and DP coalition, declared war on the Kingdom Government when he stated that said Government can “send in the troops to implement the Integrity Chamber.” This reaction reminds me of my childhood days Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Sint Maarten Christian Party welcomes the two proposals made by President of Parliament, Sarah Wescot-Williams, to improve the functioning of Parliament. One proposal increases the transparency and accountability of parliamentarians towards the voters and the other proposal improves the communication between parliament and the people Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Through its work, Transparency International (TI), a global organization, hopes to realize a world in which government, business, civil society and the daily lives of people will be free of corruption. Upon a country’s request, TI assesses its weaknesses and strengths with regard to integrity and good governance. Assessments were conducted in the Netherlands in 2012, for Curaçao in 2013 and for Sint Maarten in 2015.

To be able to assess a country’s integrity, TI looks at several pillars such as the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government, the public sector, law enforcement agencies, etc Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- The system of parliamentary committees in the Netherlands is considered the backbone of the Dutch parliament. The review further indicates that two-thirds of the work of parliament take place in the committees. Looking at how the committee system functions, in the parliament of Sint Maarten, we can only sadly conclude that our parliament is not functioning optimally due to the fact that the committees are not functioning. The Annual Report of the Parliamentary Year 2015-2016 of Sint Maarten gives some insight, as to how these committees are functioning Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- One of Parliament’s roles is to supervise the functioning of government. And one of its tools to carry out this supervisory function is the right to ask questions as laid down in article 62 of the Constitution. This entails parliamentarians submitting their queries in writing to the government via the President of Parliament. Article 63 of the Constitution mentions that a Member of Parliament may also invite the ministers to provide information. Article 62 of the Rules of Order of Parliament states that this invitation will be considered by the President of Parliament if it is supported by at least one other member of parliament Read more

---

Candidates in this article: