St. Maarten Private Eye

The BES islands must be laughing at us, SXM and CUR hardly making progess while the BES islands have secured the basic elements for their people such as proper and affordable health care, education (and they are in talks of making higher education free to their residents), proper social welfare, justice & police, real pensions and so forth.

And then some insane politicians here want to go independant. So they can rule the island the way they have running it into the ground for the past decade.

Why not go along and get a sort of UPT status for SXM as well? Holland is getting more integrated in European Union as well. It's a global phenomenon: integration but with your own set of customized rules and regulations. So keep the Dollar, create a specific tax system (which doesn't conflict with the French side) etc. etc.

I don't see why that can't be a viable option which will yield true benefits for all residents of St. Maarten. Independance just good for the politicians: not for the residents.

As for country Curacao, this island is making progress. it is SXM that has the most difficult time. Curacao has all the necessary departments already to become a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Social security, central bank, pension fund, justice ministry, court of guardianship, archive department, all of these and more are already in Curacao. Curacao is more than ready with all their departments, whereas SXM has to create them from scratch.
Curacao government sent out brochures to all communities giving information about the future of Country Curacao and the status and ongoing discussions about this.
SXM is and will continue to be the one with the tough end of the stick as our island took too long talking about it and doing very little to fix and or upgrade our departments to take over, we have lost key Fed. owned companies that we never saw a cent of, Landsradio, ALM, WINAIR is still Fed. owned and we have no idea why it has not been transferred to the Windward islands Governments of Saba, SXM and Statia.

WinAir is pending transfer, I understand that SXM is refusing to sign and take over the shares because there are pending court cases and possible payments to be made by WinAir to past failed deals and partnerships.

Flipper

The The Winair Story can be found on the PJIA page.

TDH:

Six Marechaussees arrived on Monday

PHILIPSBURG--Six members of the Dutch military police or Marechaussees arrived in St. Maarten on Monday.

The six officers will be reinforcing the General Detectives Department as well as the Special Robbery Unit, said Police spokesman Chief Inspector Johan “Janchi” Leonard.

The six Marechaussees were introduced to the St. Maarten Police Force, and were presented to their new colleagues during a welcome reception on Monday evening.

The officers from the Netherlands were assigned here in connection with the Safety Plan for the Netherlands Antilles.

In addition to these six Marechaussees, 13 more have been made available by Dutch Minister of Defence Eimert van Middelkoop for the period of one year. Van Middelkoop is the administrator of the Royal Marechaussees.

The request for more Marechaussees, filed by Minister of Justice David Dick, was based on the WODC report. In the report, law enforcement in St. Maarten was severely criticised and described as gravely lacking.

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Pro sit.

Well, I don't agree because not everyone wants that (i.e. placement under Dutch curatele qua justice and governement). Look at the outcome of the elections last year. Most people obviously reject Dutch justice assistance or Dutch interference of any other nature.
And furthermore, I doubt if the Marechaussee will ever be sent to SXM again, especially now when all people can think about is Independence and past that, it's still misty. Very misty.

There are plans though, but sadly only only on paper.

People of SXM, don't just put the blame on Curaçao of the Netherlands! That won't solve your problems. Your government neglects you and you have to stand up and say that tourism is not the most important thing right now. I mean you all know very well that education is lacking, the environment is ignored and so on, but is anyone actually doing something about it? Plans on paper make no changes unless they are realised!

I do not see the elections as being indicative of whether people want independence or reject Dutch justice assistance at all. I know many people for whom the doing the right thing for the island, it's people and it's children is more important than Independence. I think a new referendum is required before the DP starts spouting on about Independence, they have no mandate from the people for this.
Most people I know envy the BES islands, time will tell of course how good a deal they got, but the one being presented by the DP, carrying over all the skeletons and problems from the past and not making a fresh start is not appealing at all.

Caribdude

But of course the elections ARE an indication of what the people of SXM really want! I mean when you vote for someone, you are clearly saying that you agree with that persons ideas and plans for the future. That's the whole idea behind democracy! And the DP wanted Independence; got votes and so the people obviously want Independence. Right?

Subsequently, if you didn't want Independence in the first place you should not have voted for the DP. They didn't hide their desire for Independence at all during the elections, so ...

DP never campaigned for Independance. They campaigned for a seperate status, at the time they told the people that they prefer a status like Aruba's.
Please don't fool the people or confuse people on the www.
They only people I remember who campaigned for independance was the Lake Bothers, Jose Lake and Lasana Sekoe and they are not politicians.

The DP, and the NA for that matter, both have policy aimed towards New Status. While it is true that some in the DP want independence, this is not what they campaigned for/on and the referendum did not mandate them to move the island in this direction. The people voted for Separate Status as you well know. Problem is, SS is a rather vague and flexible guide, open to manipulation and interpretation, (or misinterpretation).

If you firmly believe most people want independence then you should have absolutely no argument about there being a new referendum. I think myself when it is clearly explained to the people of the island just what the 'cost' will be of this then it has little chance of being the case. It's pretty much agreed here between the administrators of this site that we want to champion this issue and we think it's very important that our 'leaders' are given a new and much clearer picture of what the people want. If they choose independence then you'll get no more argument from me.

Flipper

The DP got just less than 50% of the total vote and everyone who voted for them knew clearly they were mandating and supporting a push for independence. I don't think the argument stands up very well, sorry.
The only reason the DP want independence is so that they can continue playing the same old games they have been playing all along, sadly many in the NA have this same thinking and just waiting their turn. Gracita was right all along when it came to how sketchy the govt is, but she screwed up, with me at least, with her belief that SXM (and the PPA) would be able to clean it up themselves.

I don't see any politicians out there who would champion a new referendum, they are too afraid of being painted anti SXM. The only way it will happen is if there is a citizen movement to campaign for it.
Hady

Quite out of the question, I should say.
A vast amount of citizens probably doesn't even know what exactly is happening at the top.
Citizen movement... you'll have to make sure there's loads of food and music and what not, to get the Saint Maarten people to do something. Don't get me wrong but I really have no hope for a citizen movement whatsoever.

Only you guys from SXM PE and a few others worry about the future of the island and that's will probably not be enough to get a referendum about the New Status.

At least the Netherlands is still trying to give a hand! Our own OM. Great joy!
And a MOT!
Why not through a party at some resort's bar and get drunk while sitting next to our beautification angel?

Interested? Just tell me, 'cause I just happen to know the name of the place...

new ref, way to new horizons