Philipsburg:--- Leader of government William Marlin in reactions to statements made by Island Councilman Leroy de Weever last week as he refused to vote on the law on cooperate governance said the island councilman has mislead the people of St. Maarten with inaccurate information. Marlin said De Weever was the chairman of the Central committee and he never objected to the law, which was prepared by his party the “Democratic Party”. Marlin said the National Alliance/Heyliger and Laveist executive council did not change anything from the proposed law because they all supported it. He made clear that the advisory council would be a permanent council that would advise government.
This council he said would have a minimum of three members with a maximum of five members. These members are going to be installed for a period of four years, with an external assessment in its third year. Marlin said he believed the councilman is probably confused with the ten articles of the law. He said article four states the council members have a four-year life span while another article states the council is permanent.
Marlin said the excuses given by De Weever is ridiculous one of which is wrong. Outlining the wrong statement, Marlin said De Weever in his statements said it is the NA/Heyliger executive council has been changing things to the island’s detriment. He said the council on cooperate governance was established when the Democratic Party was in government which has to be appointed by the executive council and felt if these members were to be appointed by the DP then De Weever would not have had a problem with it. He said De Weever came to the meeting with the intention not to support or even vote on the law on cooperate governance.
Furthermore, Marlin said ever since the Democratic Party was thrown into opposition they have been criticizing everything the current executive council does. Marlin explained that most if not all the things that are being criticized by the Democratic Party are things they themselves did while in government. The island leader said he does not expect the opposition to lie down and play dead but to mislead the people is not acceptable. He said all of sudden they are concerned about things that they did not do while in office. Marlin said if someone really listens to the leader of the DP they would get the idea that while she was leader of government and in charge of the permanent committee of constitutional affairs they were meeting constantly. Marlin promised to release the records of that committee which would show how often they met and where they were times he was not even invited to the meetings even though he was a partner in the constitutional process. Marlin said prior to the road trip to The Hague there was no meeting of the permanent committee on St. Maarten. He said that does not mean that his government would do the same, but for the leader of the DP to accuse his government of shutting her out of information is unacceptable.