Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
"Only in St. Maarten," some people no doubt were saying after another news-filled Saturday, with word that four candidate minsters did not pass the screening and a –thankfully false – bomb alert that caused chaos at SXM Princess Juliana International Airport precisely during its busiest day and hours of the week.
Regarding the latter one can keep it short. Authorities need to take the incident very seriously and treat it like a major crime, because that's exactly what it was, with the entire island and its tourism economy as the ultimate victims.
If the call made to the police is in any way traceable no time should be lost in trying to find out who is responsible. In addition, as the stranded KLM-plane reportedly was mentioned as the non-existent explosive device's location, the investigation definitely should not exclude its passengers' whereabouts.
Regarding the proposed cabinet members, it is to a certain extent regrettable that the negative findings apparently were leaked out. These people accepted a request to serve their country in good faith and it's neither correct nor fair that their integrity has been brought into question this way for everyone to see.
As for the reasons cited, some of them appear to be of a rather personal nature. Of course, government administrators are public figures who must set the right example, but one can't help but wonder whether all others throughout the kingdom, including the Netherlands, would pass that test.
However, the fact of the matter is that the Dutch side bought this on itself, with all the political scandals over the recent years. Those whose names are now being dragged through the mud may have had nothing to with such, but they also could have anticipated that their entire past would be dug up.
Nevertheless, the current situation is a highly undesirable one, with a caretaker cabinet in place already more than three months after the election, at the start of the high season and with a 2015 budget still requiring amendments that must be in place by the end of January. If it is possible for a UP-led coalition-backed team of approved candidates to go ahead and take office, perhaps joined by current Finance Minister Martin Hassink for now, that probably would be best at this juncture.
