PHILIPSBURG--The National Alliance (NA) has constantly said that St. Maarten is not ready for country status, but it is NA that is not ready, opposition Democratic Party (DP) leader Sarah Wescot-Williams said in a press release Monday.
NA Parliamentarian George Pantophlet stated recently that St. Maarten was not ready because it needed more help to build up its infrastructure and manpower, while Finance Commissioner Xavier Blackman said in his Thursday press conference that the NA-led Executive Council continued to point out that the Island Territory was not ready to assume all the tasks associated with country status.
Pantophlet said "we are not ready" when dealing with the draft law on the changes to the Islands Regulation of the Netherlands Antilles ERNA, as proposed by Constitutional Affairs Minister Roland Duncan (NA).
On the basis of this draft law, the NA leader and members have been insistently announcing that elections for a new Island Council would be held in June 2010.
The draft law, according to NA, is necessary to expand the Executive Council by two members to assist with the added responsibilities the Island Territory will receive from the Central Government. These responsibilities can be transferred to St. Maarten and Curaçao based on another law passed by Parliament recently.
"The NA is right in its assessment that it is not ready. How could it be? What tasks have been transferred to the Island Government thus far?" she asked.
Without the transfer, the additional two commissioners will not have anything to do other than "shadow the respective ministers, while costing the taxpayers of St. Maarten more in salaries, staff, and vehicles, etc. Or is this move to spread the existing portfolios and conceal the weaknesses of the present members of the Executive Council?" Wescot-Williams asked.
NA is "getting cold feet" on the draft law to change ERNA, she continued. "We hear Parliamentarian Pantophlet making a case out of the spelling of 'meantime' and 'in the mean time.' And that 'St. Maarten should not be shafted in the process.'"
The DP leader said an explanation needed to be given by Pantophlet on this stance. "Explain to the people of St. Maarten how Minister Duncan can draft a law that, according to Parliamentarian Pantophlet, is not in the interest of St. Maarten."
NA went on a "We are not ready" campaign with the expectation that the Dutch and Antillean Governments would take pity on St. Maarten and rush to the rescue, she said. "But NA was told in no uncertain terms, 'Stop the whining and finger-pointing and show what you [St. Maarten] intend to do.'"
DP has "practically given up" on getting any information on "essential and detrimental issues" from the Executive Council. In light of this, the opposition party has asked publicly who drafted the law referred to by Pantophlet that "could potentially shaft St. Maarten," and "and are these only feeble attempts to make NA seem as if it has issues with Minister Duncan?"
Wescot-Williams also wants to know what the Executive Council's formal response to this draft law was, and if the council was even consulted.
This draft law proposed by Minister Duncan allows for dissolving the Island Council before the end of the four-year term and holding early elections after the constitution for Country St. Maarten is approved by the Island Council with a simple majority.
The law allows for a new election of a 15-member Island Council, the appointment of two additional commissioners and the implementation of a dualistic system of government, in which commissioners can no longer be members of the Island Council and vice versa.
The law also paves the way for the elected 15 Island Council members to become Members of Parliament of Country St. Maarten, once this status is achieved.
