PHILIPSBURG--Quarrels and fights within the National Alliance (NA)/Heyliger coalition continue to play out in the press, with Commissioner Theo Heyliger being publicly "put in his place" by his coalition partner, says opposition Democratic Party (DP).
Heyliger was given the title Deputy Leader of Government not as a genuine post, but a "keep you happy" one, when the Emilio Wilson Estate Accord that formed the coalition was signed on June 2009, according to the DP.
That signing between then opposition NA leader William Marlin and former DP commissioner Heyliger put an end to DP's almost 10 years of uninterrupted tenure in government.
DP leader Sarah Wescot-Williams said Monday that Marlin and Heyliger had agreed to a leadership conference, penned into the accord, as a basis for the coalition. "When, if ever, did this leadership conference of Heyliger and Marlin take place, except in the press?" she asked.
Heyliger said in June 2009 that he had to turn his back on DP because the party did not appreciate his work and input, Wescot-Williams said. This was the furthest thing from the truth, she added, because the "free hand" given to Heyliger as a DP commissioner "to manage his portfolios in a practically unchallenged way with the only constraints being the boundaries of law was evident to all."
There had been differences of opinions on certain matters in the former DP government, but "respect was always there," she said.
Heyliger is being showed up in the press by his coalition partners by the way his portfolios are dealt with. This is tantamount to "nothing else than a slap in Theo's face," his former party leader said, adding that an example of the coalition infighting is the public spat about the Cay Bay Development Plan in which an NA commissioner's executive assistant had "called Theo to order."
Another is NA's placing utilities company GEBE's "headache" squarely in Heyliger's lap, denying the collective responsibility the Executive Council should share and refusing to give him any support, Wescot-Williams said.
"If a decision was taken by the NA/Heyliger government on the Westin/Sonesta comfort letters, as Leader of Government [Marlin] alleged, how come Commissioner Heyliger had to resort to publicly calling for the letters issued by the DP, of which he was part, to be honoured?" she also asked.
Heyliger was "so embarrassed" by the entire scenario that he had to walk out during the vote on a DP motion that called for the same things he had urged his coalition partners to do via the press, Wescot-Williams said.
And, contending that Heyliger also has been overruled by NA in the case involving the re-assignment/dismissal of the Director and Acting Director of Public Works, the DP leader added: "Clearly Commissioner Heyliger was overruled in his portfolio and not afforded the decency of coming with his own solution. And mind you, this witch hunt comes from the NA faction in the Executive Council who, when in opposition, called for a public Island Council meeting to debate the dismissal of a civil servant of the Personnel Department because the [DP] government was 'taking bread out of someone's mouth.'"
The Executive Council position on the Public Works management was shared with "only a very selected few" within the government, but was leaked out to the press. Wescot-Williams said the leak had happened because "it needed to be established publicly who is the boss in the Executive Council."
