SXMElections.com

Dear Editor,

St. Maarten people are being proper. They are being kind and open. St. Maarten people are being themselves. Mr. Editor, I've been pondering this letter for quite some time. I think it's amazing how little fanfare or minor attention has been given to the fact that a man of Indian descent and woman of Chinese descent are contesting the elections on the slate of the two oldest parties, the DP and National Alliance.

Now, don't get it twisted. I'm not amazed that they are running and the fact that the media has not even mentioned that for the first time in our history an Indian is running. I'm more amazed at the questions that should be pondered about these candidates and their people are not being openly asked.

No, not questions about policy and positions on the typical election issues, but questions on the character and culture issues that matter to St. Maarten people. It is a subject that we don't like to broach, but I will broach it anyway, because this is what the real people on the road are talking about.

The Indian and Chinese communities are the most segregationist communities on St. Maarten. They stick to themselves and participate in nothing local. With the exception of being part of one or two elitist clubs, they do not mingle, they do not integrate, they do not inter-race and in some cases they forbid any association with anything local, unless it's to make money off of the local.

I was finally convinced to write this letter after seeing a political ad in the Chinese language. Excuse me, but who exactly are you seeking to represent in Parliament? How telling was it that the first political ad that the good lady of Chinese descent placed was one in Chinese. No local could have read it. For all we know, it could be saying death to all locals. I thought that this was an insult to our people. At least, put a translation.

Cultural issues are important to indigenous Caribbean people. Having to accept non-indigenous people into our highest ranks stimulate one to ask several cultural questions. I can think of many questions for the Indian and Chinese candidates, including some surrounding our Carnival, our Ponnum, our foods, our emancipation day, our schools etc.

And then a direct question comes to mind: Can our sons marry your daughters? Think about it. Can my black, local son, who might have fallen in love with an Indian girl, date her normally and end up marrying her in the Methodist Church, not flying to India or Dubai? How can cultures with such strict, racial practices want to represent all of our people? Represent who exactly?

And let's call a spade a spade. Mr. Editor, these candidates are counting on their own community to get elected. We all know this and the parties that put them on their list know it. When and if they get in on the strength of the votes of their own communities, who do you think they will be representing? Not the 12,700, who didn't put them there, but the 300 or less who did and they won't be indigenous St. Maarteners.

Then, I would be very interested to hear the views of the Indian candidate on labour, director licenses, the minimum wage, why the majority of the Indian business people in town don't hire locals, what his opinion is of the famous Indian phrase "locals are lazy" and why the Indian community frowns on closing their stores on our holidays, but don't hesitate to close up shop on theirs.

Be very careful my people, be very careful of the precedent that would be set. But then again, what am I talking about, you won't vote for them, their own people will. So either way, telling you to be careful doesn't make much sense. It is out of our hands, just like who they would represent.

A concerned citizen

Name withheld at author's request.