Duncan: ‘Removing Holiday is a
policy decision of the Minister’
PHILIPSBURG--Justice Minister David Dick had spoken in the Council of Ministers about the his intention to relieve Police Chief Commissioner Derrick Holiday temporarily of his post as head of the Police Force of the Windward Islands.
“It’s a policy call of the Minister. It’s his decision,” Constitutional Affairs Minister Roland Duncan said.
In a Ministerial Decree of January 31, Dick decided to place Holiday at the disposal of the Directorate of Justice for the next two years, tasked with assisting in setting up the judicial chain of country St. Maarten. While performing this task, Holiday will not be able to function as Police Chief Commissioner.
Duncan told The Daily Herald in an invited comment that there had been complaints about police management in St. Maarten and in that regard, the Justice Minister had undertaken drastic changes.
He believed that for Dick it was all about making choices. “My experience is that when civil servants don’t agree with a certain policy, they will not do the job and things get stalled.”
Besides, St. Maarten has been pressing about setting up its own justice ministry and police before becoming a country within the Kingdom and it is good for the island to have somebody experienced to assist in this matter, he said.
“I assume the Island Government agreed on Holiday’s role in setting up the judicial chain, because that was the idea.”
Regarding Dick’s statements that he had two candidates from the Netherlands, Duncan said it was obvious that the Dutch Government wanted a finger in the pie in matters concerning justice in the Antilles.
Duncan said that while St. Maarten was putting pressure on who would be responsible for Justice on the island, the Dutch were also pressuring and reminding St. Maarten of its responsibilities.
“The WODC report and the recent report called ‘Nu of nooit’ (now or never) about police management are clear indications of the pressure applied by the Dutch.”
According to Duncan, St. Maarten’s inclination to shun its responsibilities and repeatedly ask the Netherlands for help in precarious situations proves to the Dutch that the island is incapable of acting independently. He believes the decision to remove Holiday wasn’t punishment; the fact is that there are serious issues to be dealt with.
