Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
It is important to evaluate our representatives in Parliament on an annual basis and not wait until election time. Therefore, SMCP is developing a parliamentary report card that will indicate how well or how poorly our MPs are doing in the following six areas: attendance, participation, representation, supervision, legislation, and interaction. In the first letter to the editor on this topic, we covered the reason for and the nature of the report card and presented an extensive description of the first benchmark attendance Read more
PHILIPSBURG:--- The much anticipated 2nd edition of Where’s Where in St. Maarten (WWSM) was released to the public in an official launch held at the Jubilee Library in Philipsburg on Friday, August 18th. The first copies of “Where’s where in St. Maarten†were offered to the Director of the library, Mrs. Monique Alberts and Assistant Circulation Supervisor, Daniel Helligar. To highlight the community aspect of WWSM, several community leaders spoke at the event such as Rhoda Arrindell, Cassandra Richardson and vice president of the University of St Read more
A Report Card For Members Of Parliament
At the end of every school year, students are evaluated and promoted or not promoted based on their performance during the year. Conversely, at the end of a parliamentary year, Members of Parliament are not evaluated yet they continue in parliament without anyone questioning their achievements, their performance or their competency to function as a parliamentarian.
I have observed that in several countries around the world, political and interest groups are developing report cards for parliamentarians Read more
PHILIPSBURG:--- At the end of every school year, students are evaluated and promoted or not promoted based on their performance during the year. Conversely, at the end of a parliamentary year, Members of Parliament are not evaluated yet they continue in Parliament without anyone questioning their achievements, their performance or their competency to function as a parliamentarian.
I would like to commend Member of Parliament, the Honorable Ardwell Irion, for presenting a proposal to Parliament that would make MPs more accountable and transparent, particularly towards their voters and the public in general. In the next Annual Parliamentary Report, we should be able to see how each MP voted on a law or a motion.
I also concur with MP Irion that Parliament’s website also needs upgrading Read more
PHILIPSBURG:--- Prior to the election on September 26, 2016, two expressions dominated politics and the news, namely “ship-jumping†and “electoral reformâ€. Electoral reform was the reason for the fall of the Marcel Gumbs Government in 2015. Electoral reform led to the snap election that was scheduled for February 9, 2016. Electoral reform was also the reason why this election was cancelled, because the honorable Prime Minister William Marlin insisted that his government needed more time to be able to initiate legislative reform in order to address the phenomenon of ship-jumping that was so prevalent among our parliamentarians Read more