Says his cabinet was busy putting out fires, cleaning up mess and dealing with the Dutch for the past seven months
PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs became somewhat agitated and straight forward on Wednesday during the live Council of Ministers press briefing when SMN News posed several questions to the Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson. Prime Minister Gumbs said that those Members of Parliament that are questioning why the Central Committee meeting held on Friday was behind closed doors should come together and question the President of Parliament as to why he chose to hold the meeting behind closed doors. Prime Minister Gumbs said that his cabinet consisting of five Ministers were invited to Parliament to discuss crime in a closed door meeting, he said they did not request for the meetings to be held behind closed doors.
“I think the 15 members of parliament need to do some soul searching and also ask their chairman how the meeting came about? I want to make this abundantly clear that none of the Ministers from my cabinet requested that the meeting be held behind closed doors. Secondly, those MPs that are questioning about insurance for police needs to explain to the community what transpired in the past. He said in the former Netherlands Antilles there was an insurance in place for police officers but that insurance was not taken up when St. Maarten became a country in October 2010. This insurance he said was not to desire of the Netherlands Antilles but it was put in place when an officer he identified as Officer Charles was shot down in the Bottom in Saba. Prime Minister Gumbs said that those that were in government from 2010-2014 did not put an insurance in place for police officers however, the fire department and ambulance personnel who falls under the island government are insured.
Prime Minister Gumbs said since his government took office on December 10th 2014 they were busy putting out fires they did not start, cleaning of mess they did not create and dealing with the Dutch that they met that has a problem.
He said about six to eight weeks ago government was confronted with the matters of insurance which he described as confusion within the various ministries. “Basically what we discover is everyone in each Ministry was doing their own thing and his government have decided that they would have to coordinate things better and they have decided to establish an insurance work group. This group he said has to be established by Landsbesluit whose core duties will be to review all matters and or policies that involves insurance. Prime Minister Gumbs said at this moment St. Maarten does not have any structured insurance in place to deal with liabilities in the event of an accident. He said his government is busy working on these matters but made clear that there is no policy or guidelines in place for government buildings and even schools.
Prime Minister Gumbs felt that everyone in society including the media should ask themselves what is it they want to do for St. Maarten. He said why is the Dutch is on the backs of St. Maarten. He said that everything that is printed and a particular radio program that is held every Tuesday night is only destroying the country. He asked if the people of St. Maarten is on a track of self-destruction. He said those people that wants to do that should ‘tie a block” around their necks and jump off the pier, but they should not be destroying the country.
Further to that Prime Minister Gumbs said that if people are suicidal or have physiological problem’s they need to seek help or destroy themselves but not the country the way they are doing at the moment. Gumbs said the last term there were three governments in place and each time government falls it creates instability. He asked who wants to invest in a country that is unstable and wants to know how St. Maarten can move forward. He said this kind of thing destabilize everyone including civil servants. “It’s time for the people to get serious because his cabinet has done their best. Right now they are busy making changes that will be in the best interest of the country.”
He suddenly everyone has a solution to the problems St. Maarten is facing but they forgot who was there for the last four years. “Those persons that has good solutions should stay quiet and make those contributions to further develop the country instead of continuing to make the country and its people look like fools in the outer world.”
Gumbs said each time he travels overseas he is confronted with the question as to whether or not he could keep his government together. He said when he was in Washington with the King and Queen everyone asked the same question about the stability of government in St. Maarten.
