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PHILIPSBURG--Parliament's adopting the draft law to establish an Integrity Chamber "strengthens" the country's position when ministers go before the Kingdom Council of State in a week's time to present St. Maarten's case against the Dutch Kingdom Government's use of Article 51 of the Kingdom Charter to impose a measure on the country. This is the belief Justice Minister Dennis Richardson shared with Members of Parliament on Friday.

"It [the law – Ed.] strengthen our position on the legality" of St. Maarten's stance "in the confrontation that is to come" with the Dutch Government when the case is put before the Council of State, he said.

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and Richardson will seek a position from the Council of State on whether the use of Article 51 by the Dutch Government is "constitutionally correct."

Richardson said in the Central Committee of Parliament that the law tabled by the St. Maarten cabinet was "more balanced" and offered people who might be subjected to integrity investigations better protection against misuse than the one the Dutch Government had prepared and wanted to have submitted via Government to Parliament for approval.

Parliament is in possession of both draft laws. Friday's meeting was suspended until Monday at 10:00am to give MPs time to compare the laws and come with proposals and amendments.

The law prepared by St. Maarten's government was formulated well before "the bad draft" of the Dutch Government, Richardson said. The law would have been before Parliament sooner had the Dutch Government not requested that the cabinet "hold on" with moving forward while an agreement was reached between the two sides.

However, it is clear now that the Dutch Government's call to hold off and some two months of "negotiations" had "to do with winning time," said Richardson. This stalling tactic was a way to give the Dutch Government "time to brush up their proposal."

Dutch Minister for Interior and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk "chose not to say" when he was in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament that his government had requested that St. Maarten hold on with moving forward with its draft law, Richardson said. The Dutch minister also neglected to say St. Maarten had been "in discussions" with the Dutch Government.

The negotiations were in "good faith," said Richardson.

Several anti-St. Maarten Dutch MPs have made "macho statements" in the Second Chamber about putting St. Maarten in its place. After such statements, they are said to be finding it hard to back down.

Those statements and the push by the Dutch Government to impose its will do not impede the St. Maarten Government and Parliament "from what we have to do," he said. "My advice is: let us continue with our work. Let us continue to do what we have to do for our country."