Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PvdA member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Roelof van Laar has suggested a national unity government or broadly-based business cabinet for St. Maarten, while an in-depth inquiry is conducted into vote-buying and the recent elections (see related article). This is seen as a more moderate alternative to an instruction for a criminal investigation as advocated by VVD and SP.
The reality is that the only known case of reported vote-buying by UP in fact already has gone to court. The judge threw it out because only the police officers accused of selling their votes and an intermediary were being tried, but not the party leadership.
However, the Prosecutor's Office announced it would appeal this ruling because it considered the accusation of "class justice" uncalled for, especially having explained that choices needed to be made due to lack of investigative capacity. The other aspect would still be given due attention, it was stated at the time.
The latter indicates the matter is far from over. Rather than ordering a new inquiry, perhaps that's where the focus ought to be for now, by providing the national detectives and prosecution with the assistance requested.
This doesn't mean Van Laar's idea necessarily should be immediately ruled out altogether. Doing so might not be too smart either, taking into account the position taken by other parliamentarians in The Hague and the fact that his party is currently in government with the VVD of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
On the other hand, it most certainly shouldn't be Dutch politicians – kingdom or no kingdom – determining who governs St. Maarten, but its people. Moreover, the crown-appointed governor is overseeing the formation process and should be afforded the space to do so.
Still, if one looks at the local developments since voters went to the polls there was no clear indication of an absolute winner in the sense that one party earned a majority. In that light, finding common ground to support a "neutral" Council of Ministers that can tackle effectively the many problems the country faces, including serious integrity issues, might not be such a bad thing.
As stated earlier, the new UP-led coalition must be respected, of course, but if the general interest calls for a different scenario it may be something that at least could be considered. The experience with, for example, Martin Hassink and Dennis Richardson as non-political cabinet members, incidentally both nominated by UP, is of such a nature many probably wouldn't mind seeing more of that.
