Sarah says William ‘counted his
chickens before they hatched’
~ Reiterates her majority support in Island Council ~
PHILIPSBURG--Simple persuasion, says Democratic Party (DP) leader Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams, was all it took to woo Island Councilman Louie Laveist back into the DP fold after he was hell-bent on supporting opposition National Alliance (NA) in the formation of a new Island Government.
NA leader Island Councilman William Marlin’s statement to the press on Saturday that he had a majority in the Island Council with the support of Laveist was a case of “counting his chickens before they hatched,” Wescot-Williams said Monday in a press conference to reiterate that her party had majority support in the council formalised in a letter to Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards.
The correspondence, faxed to Richards’ office Sunday afternoon, was signed by DP Commissioners Wescot-Williams, Roy Marlin, Theo Heyliger and Maria Buncamper-Molanus, DP Island Councilman Petrus “Leroy” de Weever and Laveist, who had declared himself an independent Island Council member on November 13.
“I have the support of the DP faction in the Island Council, Louie Laveist, the general membership and can safely add to that the people of St. Maarten,” Wescot-Williams said.
Asked by the press why her four-person Executive Council had not resigned when her party lost Laveist’s support, she said the resignations, which are now superfluous, had not been submitted immediately because “the fat lady had not yet sung,” pointing to the fact that there still had been negotiations on various fronts to save the present government.
Addressing the clearing out of offices last week by some members of government, including herself, Wescot-Williams said, “I did because I respect the system that governs us. I have absolutely no need, if we cannot count on a majority in the Island Council, to sit and hold onto an executive chair.”
On the matter of Laveist’s post as a non-active Commissioner, she said this was still being looked at closely and would be further addressed by Laveist in a press statement. However, in his written statement faxed out Monday evening, Laveist did not touch on this topic and only stated that he remained an independent Island Council member.
Meanwhile, the DP has not dealt with his resignation from the party, according to Wescot-Williams and no decision has been made on the possible appointment of a fifth commissioner to round off the Executive Council. Laveist’s portfolios were distributed among the four remaining commissioners in October during his nine-day detention for forgery.
Attacking Marlin’s statement that it’s better to go into government on a leaky craft than to try to get to the other side in a sinking ship, the commissioner said the difference between her and Marlin was that “notwithstanding the rough weather, I have navigated that [sinking] ship. I, too, could have jumped in a raft and jumped in a new ship.”
She reflected on statements made by NA Island Councilman Hyacinth Richardson that “There is a spiritual movement taking place. … Politics is the skill of arts and craft.”
She said, “If this is a statement endorsed by the NA leadership, it deserves explanation to the people of St. Maarten, who for the last couple of days have been wondering what was taking place, who were part of what was taking place and when or what would be the outcome.”
Wescot-Williams also dealt with the NA lament that Dr. Randall Friday’s problems in opening a gynaecology clinic were not being solved by the Island Government, and about the rapidly spreading dengue epidemic. She said the Friday case also played on Central Government level, but she still had not seen questions or suggestions about what could be done from Marlin, who supports the present Central Government.
The commissioner also challenged Marlin’s statement that government had not done anything to stem the dengue epidemic, which she said had been tackled head-on by government and its departments.
