St. Maarten Private Eye

Transparency of Government and the Belvedere Land Lotto

Yesterday May 16, the deadline to get financing for the Belvedere land week-end give away, elapsed. Lots can now be allotted to other people on the waiting list if financing is not in order, according to an article in TDH of April 17, 2007.

Our local media reported the whole event in their usual style of jubilance when they are being fed state propaganda. But when the drama started smelling so bad that even Roy thought it was wise to apologize for his stench, the whole matter was swiftly swept under the carpet. Silence galore.
The Sint Maarten media conveniently forgets that they have rights to ask questions. Does the transparency of government act 1996 ring a bell?
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"The National Ordinance on Transparency in Government of 1996 allows each member of this community to request and obtain information from the government and civil servants on all public issues, excepting only those issues regarded as national security or information on persons and individual industry-specific data. Through this Ordinance, the decisions taken by the authorities and the implementation of these decisions become more transparent for the community. If one member of our community wants assurance that a decision taken by the authorities to grant, for instance, a license to build a new hotel in a specific location was made in accordance with good governance rules, that individual has the right to request and receive all information on this project. He can then evaluate, based on the information received, whether the decision was made in accordance with the rules of good governance. "

Source: website of the Central Bank.

A well informed government official told me that our newspapers never exercised this right to get certain information disclosed. It is about time they did. Swallowing what you are being fed is for babies. We are interested in the list of people who were lucky enough to get a piece of land during that infamous week-end. We also want to learn the criteria that were applied when Roy signed off on the contracts. Why? Because we fear that the whole exercise was one big cozy DP get together on a Sunday afternoon. The list and criteria should be made public so we all can evaluate, based on the information received, whether the decision was made in accordance with the rules of good governance.

Any specific reason for that? Lots. But to mention one, it is rather coincidental that the outgoing assistant to commissioner Heyliger and die-hard DP addict Michael Granger, happened to know about the give away and also happened to qualify for a piece of land. Some people seem to have it all. Here he is with commissioner Marlin eagerly signing off on his golden handshake. We wonder why the newspapers didn’t publish any pictures of this glorious moment. Conveniently missed it? It is about time the papers start asking the right questions. It is the first duty of a journalist to respect the truth and the right of the public to the truth.

Rackham

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