SXMElections.com

Dear Editor,

My twelve-year-old niece in hearing them speak about what kind of a legacy President Obama will leave, wanted to know more about this; I tried to explain it to her this way. People in their 20s and beyond still refer to me as the police who liked to dance in Carnival. Even though I personally do not consider that part of my legacy it is part of history, which even though not being my intention, also contributed to the attraction of tourism.

Many years ago on stepping into a travel agency in New Haven Connecticut, out of curiosity I asked if they had a brochure or anything on St. Maarten. The lady after looking at me for a few seconds said to me we have something better than that. She went to her office and brought back a picture of Tall Boy and myself taken in front of Julio's Smoke and Booze in Frontstreet, on which she had written the tallest man on St. Maarten and the dancing policeman.

History is a chronicle of events whether good or pleasant, bad or annoying or even morally wrong. A lot of people like to react with "...that is your opinion..." in defence of whatever, but that does not take away the fact. Fact is that there was proof of vote buying and selling and that the UP Party was involved, but the judge decided on not punishing the small man without thoroughly investigating the UP and its leader Theo Heyliger, and even ruled that had the semblance of class justice.

So we can continue with facts which is history - there is a multi-million lawsuit threatening the country of which, if we go back in history, we will see which government official is mainly linked to that situation. Fact is that the name Laville and Illidge have been mentioned in wrong doings while in government, and that neither of them were postulated on either political list this time around. Even though very short lived, but its history can become legacy.

Fact is that there were three governments in St. Maarten of which Mrs. Sarah Wescot- Williams was the Prime Minister. Fact is that during the four years of her "reign" absolutely nothing was done to improve the quality of life on St. Maarten; on the contrary, lawsuits, integrity investigations, indictments, accusation of fraud and the list goes on. Whether or not the prime minister would like that to be part of her legacy, it happened during her tenure and that is history.

Having said that, I HOPE that whichever candidate get nominated and selected or appointed to be MP or Minister will know and accept that the salary and benefits are much more than the average citizen to avoid one from yielding to the temptations of either your colleagues or outsiders, and if I may quote the UP leader, especially the businesses and do what you were elected or appointed to do. Serve the people, make positive policies and do not go down in history as one who, because of greed, jumped ship. No one should ask what I am talking about. It is history and part of the legacy of those who were involved in creating that part of history.

As we know our first elected Parliament and SWW II and III were not anything to brag about, so I am challenging you who will form this upcoming Parliament to be the ones to turn that debacle around so that towards the end of these coming four years you can go out there and campaign on merit, and in doing so contribute towards eliminating the vote buying and other trickery used on election day which has become synonymous to voting in St. Maarten.

When you know that you got elected by paying people to vote for you or your party should you ever feel offended no matter what happens to you? Is it like a student cheating on exams and getting a diploma which he/she does not deserve? Would you encourage your child who is studying to become a doctor to do that? The social media is everywhere nowadays and all kinds of questions are asked. Is that the kind of spotlight we want to put on St. Maarten. 100,000,000 could cause a lot of attraction, but I am not sure what kind.

Because I can be bought I judge people to be equal to me in character. If the judge is of the opinion that not enough was done towards the vote buying and the people in play, would it be fair of me to think that there should also be a thorough investigation into that threatening 100,000,000-dollar lawsuit. Do we want to go down in history as opening the Parliamentary year with a multi-million dollar lawsuit? And, we should not accept "I can make it go away if..."

I was hoping the new government would get at least two things done these coming four years, because all of the parties which signed that intended working accord have campaigned practically on the same issues, but with that kind of lawsuit and the white elephant still not completely resolved.

I am asking the new finance minister to do his/her best, but please do not touch the pensioners or the minimum wagers. We can't take any more blows and the economic department is not doing anything to control prices. When you control the price of bread and you do not control the price of flour and the rest ingredients, the baker makes the bread smaller for the same price. End of election does not mean everything is alright

Those who got something for their vote are already wondering today where the rest going come from.

Russell A. Simmons