Dear Editor,

Here we go again. A PowerPoint presentation has been put together and shown to the Government of St. Maarten. Since it is a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, it might be wise to put this presentation on the Internet so that the citizens and taxpayers, actually owners of the TelEm Group of Companies, can see what their company is planning to do, presumably to the benefit of the citizens of St. Maarten, very soon to be Country St. Maarten.

Transparency at its best!

This time talks are about finding a suitable partner for the TelEm Group of Companies. True or not, UTS might be contending for a partnership. So far, TelEm Group of Companies did well without UTS looking over its shoulders.

The owners of UTS are the citizens of Curaçao, soon to be Country Curaçao. Are we in fact about to hand over facilities and revenues to UTS – to the owners of UTS?

Nothing is wrong with that, unless the citizens and taxpayers of St. Maarten become majority owners of UTS. That possibility should be explored before any talks of partnership can be contemplated. A solid guarantee must be set for this partnership not to become an avenue to monopoly.

There are two possibilities. The local government should look north for a partner. If the government wants to look for a partner South of St. Maarten, look for a partnership with a Brazilian Telecom, preferably one that has a strong relationship with a telecom company in Spain.

No matter which way the exercise to partner with someone takes TelEm Group of Companies, the partnership should provide the opportunity to the public to own shares in its company, and finally say of the partnership company: "'Tis we own thing."

A concerned TelEm Services subscriber