The draft constitution for St. Martin received on Friday by members of the Island Council is dated June 24th and all indications are that this is a draft approved by the NA/Heyliger Executive Council on the following day.
We estimate that in the last month or so at least 4-5 drafts of the constitution of country St. Martin have been circulated, have been vetted, commented on, amended etc.
The last time the Island Council members of St. Martin got a chance to debate the constitution for country St. Martin was in early 2009.
There is clearly no more opportunity for debate on the constitution of St. Martin as the Executive Council 's preoccupation at this time is to present the constitution to the Kingdom partners on July 1 during the Kingdom Political Steering Group meeting on Curacao.
Some will argue that the final approval still needs to be given by the Island Council of Sint Martin, which is a fact, but we foresee the same fate there.
While cognizant of the time constraints faced by St. Martin and the importance of a constitution approved preferably unanimously by the island council, the DP has a serious issue with the approach to this matter by the government of St. Martin.
If we question the constitution, we will be accused of stalling the process. If we blindly approve the constitution, we would have abdicated our responsibility as an opposition and the voice of the people of St. Martin in the affairs of their government.
We have shown our willingness to facilitate government in getting consensus Kingdom laws and organic laws passed without much ado, but the Constitution.........?
Would it be fair to say, we support government in its quest to present a draft constitution to its partners, but reserve the right to question matters in the final approval trajectory of the Island Council, realizing that the approved constitution needs to be agreed upon by the Kingdom government as well?
It is no secret that the DP has been clamoring not only for the draft constitution to be sent to the Island Council, but also to work with the Island Council on a time table for the handling of the necessary laws, in particular the constitution. To no avail, worse yet, this matter was trivialized by government.
It seems that the opinion of the Kingdom government matters, the opinion of the vetting committee matters, that of the Joint Court of Justice matters, but when it comes to the 11 representatives of the people of Sint Maarten, we have to accept it as is, so as not to give a semblance of a divided St. Martin on the issue of constitutional change.
Generally, the DP has towed this line, but in the case of the Constitution of Country Sint Maarten, we have serious reservations.