Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
Philipsburg, St. Maarten,During the opening session of therecently concludedIPKO meetings held on January 6thand 7th,St. Maarten wasunable to articulateaposition on the decolonization trajectorythat a majorityof Parliament has decided toundertake and so, opines United Democrats (UD) Member of Parliament, Wescot-Williams, the Parliament of Sint Maarten has missed the opportunity to tell the world where it stood on the constitutional future of this country.
Thiswas not surprising because this articulation and defendingthe stanceon decolonization has not been forthcoming on St. Maarten, eitherin the Parliamentor otherwise. Nevertheless, the motion of November 52020, by a majority could have legal consequences for the country, the MP stated.
I have recentlyrequested ameeting of the committee forConstitutionalAffairs andDecolonization of theParliament andI haveaskedquestions to those responsible for executing the decisions ofParliament, including the aforementioned motion. ThePresidiumofParliamentisresponsible to execute the decisions of Parliament. Central to my questions, is the question: What kind oflegalagreements have been established on the basis of the motion regarding decolonization that was passed on November5thof last year?
The Government findsitself in a rather awkward position on this matter. According to the Government, it was pressured into distancing itself fromtalk of decolonization and in particular the issue of decolonization versusthe Charter of the Dutch Kingdom. Wescot-Williams explains.
On the other hand you have anexisting motion of Parliament that not only recognizes but endorses the positionthatthe kingdom charteris an unconstitutionaldocument.
The Governmenthas thus distanceditself fromafoundation, but whoselegal actions have been endorsed by the Parliament of Sint Maarten.
It was baffling to hear the representative of St. Maarten in the IPKO meeting attempt to explain the purpose of the Constitutional and Decolonization Committee of Parliament. No wonder you had members of other delegations who continued to stress the point because St. Maarten could not deliver an articulate position on where it stands on this matter.
If the Government is serious about backing down on the matter of decolonization, they also have to revisita letter from the Prime Minister sometime late last year, in which the Government endorseddecolonization in alengthy letter to Parliament.
Infact,this letterconcludes with the following quote by thePrime Minister:I am of the opinion that finalizing the decolonization can and should be started as soon as possible,it will both benefit international reputation of the kingdom of the Netherlands and therefore Sint Maartenand its sister islands and allow for thesustainable social economic developmentand prosperity of the people of St. Maarten.
With thistypeof a statement one would think that the Prime Ministerwould want to see this whole decolonization as an important part of theveryagreement signed withthe Dutch Government,in whichtheytalk aboutsustainable social economic development.
MP Wescot-Williams is of the opinion, that it therefore behoovestheGovernment to not onlyretrack or distance itself fromthird party positionsregarding decolonizationand regardingtheCharterof theKingdom,butalso to givea clear position on the matter,given what thevery same Governmenthas told parliament. What or who are we to believe?
This is not a matterofthe independence/free mandate [sic]ofParliamentversus the Government. The coalition-government,supported by amajorityin Parliament needs to make it clear to the people of St. Maarten where they stand on this matter. If we sit back again and feel that we actedcleverby distancing ourselves fromthe matter,because it was a condition by the Dutch Government,andyetfeel that below theradar,we are going to continue to do whatwe want, its going to come back to bite us sooner rather than later, the MP concluded.
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