Attorney General gain the support of the Dutch to annul guideline issued by St. Maarten Minister of Justice.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Attorney General of the countries St. Maarten, Curacao, Guus Schram has gained the support of the Dutch politicians who intend to annul a decision taken by St. Maarten’s Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson. According to a letter sent by Minister of Home and Kingdom Affairs Ronald Plasterk it states that the Attorney General of the countries Curacao and St. Maarten filed a complaint to them when he received directives from the Minister of Justice of St. Maarten Dennis Richardson. It is understood that Guus Schram wanted to change the current system by creating an Criminal Investigative Division (CID) for the RST and Marechaussee in order for the detectives working at those two Dutch entities to submit their reports; rather than submitting it to the Criminal Investigative Division (CID) of KPSM.
When Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson learned of the Attorney General’s plan he immediately gave directives to Schram informing him that he is not allowed to change the current system which is prescribed in the police law stating that each country has one police force which in the case of St. Maarten is KPSM that already has a Criminal Investigative Division (CID) in place with a chief.
Minister Richardson in his directive clearly stated that the Attorney General must follow the chain of command and not make changes as he sees fit. However, this did not sit well with Schram so he contacted the Dutch politicians and complained to them who immediately decided that they will annul the decision taken by St. Maarten Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson. By this, the Dutch is determined to take away the authority of St. Maarten’s Minister of Justice, or in one way siege the Ministry of Justice of St. Maarten illegally. The Minister of Home and Kingdom Affairs along with Minster Van der Steur decided that they will use the directives given by St. Maarten’s Minister of Justice to ask the Kingdom Council of State to grant them permission to give St. Maarten an instruction on the establishment of an integrity chamber.
When St. Maarten’s Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson learned of the measures the Dutch have decided to use to get their way it sparked a fierce communication by letter between the country’s representatives and the Kingdom Council of Ministers.
It is clear that while the Dutch is claiming or has painted St. Maarten as corrupt country and they need to take the “bull by its horns” to curtail the corruption on St. Maarten they have so far failed to take action against the prosecutors they sent to St. Maarten who clearly violated the law when they sold a number of boats that were confiscated illegally, and who also lost every case of corruption they took before the court of first instance. The judge in the Court of First Instance clearly said that there is ‘class justice’ when he rendered his verdict in the Masbangu court case, while the Piranah investigation that landed former Minister of Finance behind bars were thrown out and the prosecutor’s office had no choice but to accept the verdict and not appeal because they know they messed up royally. It is indeed true that the integrity investigations conducted by the Do it Right Committee, PWC and Transparency International all stated that there is corruption on St. Maarten, but nowhere in these reports did the investigators show proof of their conclusions. They did say the laws were not being followed and gave numerous suggestions as to how St. Maarten should curtail corruption and implement the laws on the books.
Parliamentarians on St. Maarten are the ones that have to represent the people that elected them to office, however, there seems to be some type of in action by the parliament of St. Maarten simply because these MPs have not taken the time to read the correspondence between the Dutch Kingdom Council and the Council of Ministers on St. Maarten.
SMN News published several documents that showed that the prosecutors that were sent to St Maarten abused their power in order to enrich themselves. While the Dutch politicians is eager to take over the Ministry of Justice they have also failed to grant St. Maarten the assistance the country requested over the years and each time they sent a prosecutor to St. Maarten it’s a junior prosecutor who comes to the island for his or her internship.
SMN News filed a complaint with Attorney General Guus Schram about the illegal sales of boats by prosecutors on St. Maarten including the current Solicitor General but instead of Schram dealing with the corruption committed by his Dutch subordinates he said that the complaints could not be filed at his office.
The question now remains as who selected and appointed Guus Schram as Attorney General for the two countries namely Curacao and St. Maarten? Was it the Dutch Politicians whom he is serving? Are civil servants working for the Dutch allowed to pass judgement on St. Maarten and commit whatever crimes they want and escape with it? Are these Dutch civil servants such as Bouman and Schram above the law? These are only some questions that the people of St. Maarten need to answer and they also need to step up to the plate and preserve the constitution of St. Maarten along with the laws, and entities that were established on St. Maarten.
Clearly, the Dutch politicians are focusing on St. Maarten and its people who definitely have some skeletons in their closets but so far the Dutch have not taken the time to count how many of their own had to step down from office because of their alignment and or involvement with corruption.
