SXMElections.com

Elton Jones was the first one to bring it up and UP faction leader Franklin Meyers repeated it in parliament yesterday: Ted Richardson, the former minister of tourism, economic affairs, transport and telecommunication could become the successor of ousted airport director Regina Labega.

While Meyers asked a simple question, Elton Jones did not beat about the bush, expressing his concerns about this candidate in a letter to the editor that we published yesterday.

Richardson’s record as a minister is not exactly stellar. He refused for instance to close down the Border Bar in Oyster Pond after its owner had been sentenced for human trafficking and a host of other offenses against the women who worked in his brothel, arguing that he “also had to think about the economy.”

Richardson also said at the time that there was “uncertainty” about the brothel’s ownership. But if fact he waited with a decision until the sentenced owner had put the establishment in the hands of someone else. That gave the minister the excuse that he could not do anything about the situation.

Later Richardson was present at a meeting with the owners of the Alegria Resort – formerly Caravanserai – where a press release written by Alegria boasted that the minister had found a solution for the timeshare owners who had just been robbed of their rights by the new owner. In fact, there was no solution at all, because the press release simply mimicked what Alegria already had told the (now former) timeshare owners.

It left a bitter taste, also with the St. Maarten Timeshare Association.

Is this then the ideal candidate to manage the airport? That is the 64,000-dollar question. Maybe Minister Arrindell will put the rumor to rest this afternoon. In that case, we have nothing to worry about.