A call to leadership
Commissioner of Constitutional Affairs Sarah Wescot-Williams was not a happy camper yesterday. She fumed even as she sought to put into perspective the outcome of Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s visit to St. Maarten.
In fact, as she addressed yesterday’s live Executive Council press briefing, she was clearly livid that, from her standpoint, the Dutch just don’t seem to get it – don’t seem to have a full, proper and reasonable appreciation for all that has been done and is being done in and by St. Maarten in preparation for country status.
She seemed furious too that there seemed not to be a full understanding of which entity in the Netherlands Antilles is responsible for what in St. Maarten – the raison d’être for St. Maarten’s desire to witness the speedy demise of the political entity known as the Netherlands Antilles.
The commissioner is also concerned that the Dutch seem to be singling out St. Maarten for special unfavourable attention and mention. She contends that St. Maarten seems to have been too “collaborative” in the past – much to its own detriment – and is now being seen as the “enfant terrible” because it is not prepared to accept constitutional changes at any cost.
The commissioner suggested also that the Prime Minister had not been fully and adequately briefed about matters such as the extensive work being done by St. Maarten in the area of ensuring integrity in public life. She suggested further that had he been thoroughly briefed before his meeting with the Executive Council Tuesday morning, his Philipsburg Courthouse speech later that morning would have been different.
While we can understand Wescot-Williams’ indignation, we wish to caution that this is not the time to go tilting at windmills. The Dutch Government has made its points in an unmistakably clear manner and St. Maarten needs now to pause and make a level-headed assessment of the lay of the land before charting its course forward.
The Dutch Government has a point when it says the mechanisms for guaranteeing integrity in public life and for fighting corruption must be functional. That would go a far way in sanitising the poisoned atmosphere within which St. Maarten exists, given all the talk, rumours, suspicions and innuendos about conflicts of interest, nepotism, and government functionaries enriching themselves through corrupt practices and poor governance.
Unfortunately, the image that emerged at the end of yesterday’s press briefing was one of a constitutional reform process floundering with most of the wind having been knocked out of its sail. St. Maarten needs to regroup and to do so fast. St. Maarten needs to begin a serious well-structured emergency conversation with itself and with all the stakeholders sitting at the table.
The situation calls for unselfish and enlightened leadership, which leader of government business Sarah Wescot-Williams has a mandate to provide.
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