Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
That the Kingdom Council of Ministers took the first step for a general measure of governance to impose an Integrity Chamber on St. Maarten should not come as a complete surprise, taking into account recent statements in this newspaper by Justice Minister Dennis Richardson on the issue. An attempt had been made by Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs to smooth things over a bit during the subsequent visit of Kingdom Relations Minister Ronald Plasterk to the island, but apparently this "bad cop, good cop" routine did not lead to a compromise.
According to Plasterk, the intended general measure does not require the consent of the country in question. However, he is still hopeful agreement can be reached, as the Gumbs-cabinet has one week to react.
The dispute regards primarily the constellation of the envisioned body, where The Hague insists on appointing two of the three members, including the chair, while Philipsburg maintains it should be the other way around. The chamber's task is to investigate possible transgressions such as abuse of power and conflicts of interest in the public sector, and to bring them to the attention of the Prosecutor's Office.
Based on the findings in two already-existing integrity reports, the Dutch want to keep the new entity as far away from the local political establishment as possible. However, the Government of St. Maarten sees no reason for such a level of distrust and unilateral decision-making, also considering its own actions regarding integrity improvement of late.
As the matter is considered urgent, in that sense it actually would be better if the current deadlock were broken to prevent further delay, because otherwise the Council of State probably will be asked for advice, which could take another three months.
