SXMElections.com

Dear Editor,

Wednesday, October 8, the Island Council of Statia passed a motion to hold a referendum preferably before the end of this year. The motion was tabled and passed by four against one vote (DP voted against). The referendum was not a point on the agenda, which, as is the custom, was made available to the public prior to the meeting. Also the motion was not even debated in the meeting

This practice alone already shows that the Council refuses to publicly debate this very important matter. It proofs again that most council members are afraid to express their opinion, not so much on, if, and when a referendum needs to be held, but much more about what constitutional direction our island needs to go.

There is a draft referendum ordinance in existence for more than a year. Only recently the Island Council appeared to have found the time to pass it into law. Something similar happened with the installation of a referendum committee, whereby also the candidates for membership were not scrutinized properly and a new appointment became necessary, causing another unnecessary delay.

Only a few weeks ago, the Island Council realized that a referendum does not happen by itself and that they themselves have to take such a decision and give the referendum committee the instruction to carry out the referendum. The Council did not really study up to now, what options they want on the ballot and until recently they did not realize this was their task as well. They are now seriously running out of time, as Brighter Path and Pro Statia have been pressurizing them for a while already to keep the referendum in November.

So chances are that we will not have a full-fledged referendum with several approved options, but simply a Yes/No question on the present status. Problem is that the Island Council does not want to await the evaluation, so they cannot give a clear picture of what exactly the present status entails. Or maybe they do not want the people to know. It was only last week that Prof. Saleh, as an external expert, in his lecture strongly advised that it is important to await the outcome of the evaluation in order to allow the people the chance to make a well-founded choice.

Between now and the end of the year, it is hardly possible to start a fully-fledged information campaign to explain the pros and cons of all options that may appear on the ballot.

In short, the Democratic Party is of the opinion that holding a referendum, only three months before the Island Council elections and in this manner, is highly irresponsible and clear proof of the incompetence of our present leadership!

Koos Sneek

President Democratic Party

St. Eustatius