I salute you and I wish you God's guidance as you go about doing the people's work, defending and representing Country St. Maarten and her people.
You are Honorable Members of Parliament. You are NOT MP's.
For the salary that we are paying you, the chairpersons as well as each one of you must take the extra time and refer to each other as Honorable Members of Parliament.
There are two clichés that I want you to dispel so that you would not use them nor pay attention to them.
To go independent:
In our political terminology this applies to a Member of Parliament who leaves one party or grouping to stand on his/her own.
To jump ship:
In our political terminology, this means leaving one party or grouping to join another party or grouping.
You took an oath and based on that, all 15 of you are Independent Honorable Members of Parliament. The only grouping that is recognized is the grouping that agrees to appoint the ministers. After the ministers have been appointed by a minimum of 8 Members of Parliament, the majority, in Parliament, gives directions to the ministers.
This means that each of you can support or reject any idea or motion that comes to the floor, regardless to who presents it.
We want to hear WHY you support or reject every idea or motion that comes to the floor.
No more simply voting for or against, along party lines. For the salary we are paying you, we deserve an explanation/motivation and not just a 'for or against'.
We do not believe that the group of 8 or more is always right and the others are always wrong.
There is this crazy idea that the executive branch does its own thing and the legislative does its own thing.
That must be a thing of the past.
The most important law, that you have to legislate on, is the BUDGET.
That is the law that the ministers have to comply with, as per your instructions.
Every minister must come to Parliament to present and defend his/her budget.
The minister of finance must act as a controller to advise ministers and Parliament when monies are not being used properly, what monies are received, not received and spent. His/her duty is also to set fiscal policies, with the approval of Parliament.
There must a limit to the amount that a minister can commit the country to, without approval of parliament.
These ministers must be appointed for 4 years. Changing alliances, is no reason for changing a minister. If a minister does not perform properly, there must be a possibility to dismiss him/her. This should be done in a Parliamentary meeting, at which time the minister must be given the opportunity to defend himself. There should be special arbitration in such a case.
We believe that there must be a change to our electoral laws.
I have my suggestion, that I have been hammering on over the years and I will present it to you.
Once again, I wish you God's blessings and guidance as you defend and represent Country St. Maarten and her people.
Clifton R. Wilson
