PHILIPSBURG:--- As the yearly challenge comes around to select the person of year, this year was not as challenging as it was in the past years, simply because the candidate that was selected made the headlines both locally and internationally more than any other person on St. Maarten. While being in politics for half of his life, during the entire time he was in opposition for a mere 18 months.
That person is none other than Theodore Heyliger who had over 18 years to make this sunshine city really shine. In this article we will highlight as much as possible various angles of Heyliger's political life, his achievements and his downfalls.
When the FCCA conference was held on St. Maarten earlier this year, Heyliger who was one of the speakers said he was the youngest person to represent St. Maarten in such a prestigious organization, yet he became a favorite, so much so that the FCCA gave him the credit for developing tourism on St. Maarten singlehandily.
Rightly so, Heyliger worked hard when he first entered politics and he indeed did a lot to develop our one pillar tourism based economy. His first mission was to build a huge harbor which most Caribbean islands do not have even though they may be able to afford it.
While his intentions for the island back then were probably good he also thought of himself like every other politician who serves themselves first rather than the people that elected them. If there is one word to best describe Theodore Heyliger it would be a "businessman" and not a politician, since everything for him is about dollars and cents.
Heyliger focuses on building large projects in order to earn the 10% everyone says he gets from the projects he initiates, we will develop this accusation further down in this article but for now let us focus on some of the large projects Heyliger initiated and finalized. The A.C. Wathey Cruise Facility, the Boardwalk, Front and Back Street enhancement, the 150M USD Causeway and the unfinished ring road. Many persons criticized Heyliger for the boardwalk some even held protests but today the Boardwalk is the centerpiece of Philipsburg and all the persons that criticized and protested against the Boardwalk are using it today. So while Heyliger may have made some monies from the construction of the Boardwalk, his decision to construct it is to the benefit of St. Maarten.
The first time he left the Democratic Party in which he was born and formed the United Peoples Party (UPP) Heyliger was part of two of the three governments in one governing period. One has to be a good businessman with deep pockets to get the things he is after, and what is it he is after? Full control of the Harbor Holding Companies, the Ministry of VROMI where the 10% comes from and PJIAE, let's not forget the bond issue he insulted Governor Holiday about at the opening ceremony of the Causeway.
International Recognition.
Besides these projects, Heyliger is the only politician that has brought so much bad publicity to the island that it might never recover from, that being the Dutch is on top of the island for the mass corruption highlighted in the PWC report and the "Do the Right Things Right" Report. The island's Prosecutors Office has been accused of "class justice" because his name was wiped out of the Masbangu court case. Heyliger has become so popular among those in the justice system that he is untouchable. The Landsrecherche even interrogated him at his home over beers and snacks in a high profile case. His name was printed several times in the Bahamas where he is accused of building a dolphinarium in the Bahamas with businessman Samir Andrwos.
Besides that, Heyliger was named the mastermind of the taping of former Member of Parliament Patrick Illidge in the famous Bada Bing scandal. He was also accused of offering former MP Romaine Laville bribes on three occasions. Heyliger was mentioned in almost every scandal on the island and internationally, his affiliation with the casino boss Francisco Corallo, businessman and banker Hushang Ansary and former Prime Minister of Curacao Gerrit Schotte.
One must admire that even though the Dutch is after Theodore Heyliger one thing about him is that he refuses to give up. Heyliger refused to let anyone trample on his terrain and as long and as much as it takes he will do everything possible to be in control of government.
One of his favorite statements is St. Maarten is his country and the people of St. Maarten are his people. Well when properly analyzed not once Heyliger has defended a local person or business and most of all not one of his legitimate children were born on St. Maarten, he made sure he got married outside of St. Maarten, yet the people here are his people and yes it is his island while he owns a huge mansion in Miami.
Formation of Government.
Theodore Heyliger made history after the August 29th Parliamentary Elections, despite all the restrictions the UPP was the only political party that had the monies to campaign heavily and that earned him seven seats in Parliament. But seconds after the results were announced and Heyliger and his crew were preparing to party their joy turned into sorrow when the NA/DP/USP signed a governing accord.
When many were working endless hours to finalize the formation of a broad based government Heyliger sneaked in like a mouse and stole one of the coalition members and broke that coalition. On September 24th the island had its first volcano because what was just a rumor became reality when MP Cornelius de Weever signed a governing agreement with the UPP and skipped the island, leaving his voters with their mouths opened.
Stealing the cheese is one thing but eating and making sure it is digested is quite a different story, we can see that Theodore Heyliger successfully broke up the first coalition but he got three extensions to form a government, more amazing is that the people Heyliger wanted to become Ministers four of them failed the screening process outright while the one that is supposed to lead by example did not pay his taxes. So while Heyliger did a lot of good things for St. Maarten forming governments is certainly not something he should do. The current situation where the island did not have a government until Friday December 19th, 2014 when five of seven Ministers were sworn in has placed the island on the world map and possibly in the Guinness Book of Records. Speaking to several persons on St. Maarten about the current political situation they would simply say it's a disgrace and damn shame that the UPP cannot form a government with the right people while he had the best list with the most qualified candidates.
St. Maarten's Paradox.
While Heyliger is the one highlighted within the Kingdom and by SMN News one must accept that the voters on this island played a huge role in allowing Heyliger to get what he wants and to do as he wishes.
It's no secret that St. Maarten has a brain drain problem. Most young people who go away to further their studies do not return. Those who do return have difficulties finding a job; the excuse is usually "you're over-qualified". The lucky few who do find a job are forced to accept a wage that does not match their qualifications. The reason for this along with several other problems on St. Maarten is what is called St. Maarten's paradox. According to Dictionary.com, "a paradox is a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth." After reading that definition one would probably want to stop reading. St. Maarten's paradox is a cycle, a cycle that involves the people of St. Maarten and those in power.
The majority of people on St. Maarten do not have a college education and that is not by coincidence. The sad fact is that those in power willfully hold the people back in order to take advantage of them. Several citizens and politicians have said that they need to move away from the one pillar economy and Education could be the second pillar. But if Education is developed the population will become more aware and start holding their leaders accountable. The people of St. Maarten will also be able to earn a proper living and not need to sell their votes.
Take a look at the University of St. Martin (USM) which is always struggling to make ends meet and the fact that USM hasn't had a substantial investment from government in over 20 years. This is the cycle, those same people that need help will jump on the bandwagon of the politician who has the catchiest tunes, bright colors and is willing to give them a new fridge, which they need and probably can't afford. They are unable to do the math and realize that they are being robbed. The cycle involves people who can't see the problem and the educated few who can but will face serious hardship if they try to make a difference. After all those in power will not sit idly by and let you change the situation which is currently in their benefit.
In the last paragraph it is mentioned that people are unable to do the math or haven't realized it yet so this person of the year award is meant to bring these sad facts to your attention. With a rough calculation one would say the average cost of a vote on St. Maarten is a fridge, a stove, plane ticket or between 200 to 500 USD, these are some of the answers received. People on St. Maarten accept items or cash, so to do the math one can say the average is $600 for many people while the Masbangu case showed persons who received monies got a mere $300. The candidate who received the most votes in the last election was Theodore Heyliger (1945 votes). With this information a rough calculation will assume that Heyliger bought all of his votes, which probably includes his own vote, 1945 x 600 = 1,167,000. Now let's look at the biggest project that Heyliger was credited with during the last term, the Causeway Bridge which based on research cost taxpayers roughly 50 Million USD. If Heyliger was able to secure 10% of that money, 10% of 50 Million is 5 Million. So assuming that Heyliger paid $600 for all the votes he obtained he would have paid $1,167,000 and if he was able to get 10% of the Causeway's financing he would get 5 Million. Keep in mind that this calculation is for one project, this does not include other projects conducted by Heyliger. This also does not take into account the depreciation of the item (fridge, stove etc.) that was received or bought with the money over a four year period, one election term.
As I am writing this I am starting to realize why roads on St. Maarten constantly need resurfacing and why there is heavy focus on building new infrastructure and little focus on maintaining current infrastructure. Politicians that are getting a "piece of the pie" will always pick the biggest pie. And the people who elected them are less likely to ask the critical questions, where is the money coming from, much less where is it going. Politics on St. Maarten, a 16 mi2 island is very lucrative, so lucrative that we have had three governments in the last governing term and it continues to be lucrative because of St. Maarten's Paradox.
Earlier in this article it stated that Theodore Heyliger gets 10% on each of the projects he awards to contractors well that fact was shown when BBW secured the clean up Mullet Bay. Our information shows that the company made just over $300,000.00 after the total clean-up out of that $250,000.00 went to Heyliger while the company had to lay off workers, creditors cannot be paid and soon enough if someone is not ready to launder money into that company it will be heading towards bankruptcy.
SMN News is the only media on St. Maarten that awards people in the positive and negative but in the case of Theodore Heyliger, he could not get a positive award neither could he get a negative award, therefore the Leader of the United Peoples Party and Member of Parliament managed to earn a neutral award from SMN News simply because he did both good and bad things for St. Maarten. Besides that. the people of St. Maarten which are the voters are just as guilty for selling their votes and not holding elected officials responsible for their actions. They fall for cheap talk, empty promises and most of all they sell themselves to the highest bidder on the block.
