PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament Cornelius de Weever spoke out on Wednesday for the first time since he left the Democratic Party to form a government with the UPP political party in 2014. De Weever said that during the last term the Democratic Party was in government SWW3 cabinet he was supposed to stay on as the Minister of VSA and to his surprise his name was not submitted by the Prime Minister (leader of the Democratic Party) for vetting but his uncle who was a Member of Parliament at the time did some maneuvering and he managed to stay on as Minister.
MP De Weever said that while forming the (red, white and blue) coalition he had a number of issues, one being he asked the leader of the Democratic Party to give him a letter which would guarantee that if he was ousted as Minister then he could take up back his seat in Parliament but his request was denied. MP De Weever said at the he even asked the leader of the Democratic Party how other members of the party were given that opportunity and his request was denied. He said the party leader never responded. Things he said fell apart when he asked those preparing the governing program to ensure that the counterpart law is added to the governing program because his vision is to provide training and work for the younger people of St. Maarten.
MP De Weever said that in his presence his requested was granted but in his absence it was removed by Roy Marlin, Michael Ferrier in the presence of a USP representative. De Weever said given the stance of older stalwarts of the Democratic Party he had to take a decision on whether or not he should take up a position as Minister only to be ousted after or should he leave and form a government with the UPP. He said he chose the latter that party already had seven seats. He said that a lot was said about ship jumping but he wanted to remind everyone that even their ancestors jumped off the ship in order not to be enslaved and he did the very same thing in order not to be enslaved by the system.
MP De Weever went on to explain why he used the word national ordinance in the last meeting of parliament he chaired and closed. He said the word he used is in the constitution of St. Maarten. Besides that he said the rules of order and constitution has a lot of flaws, spelling and grammatical mistakes that ought to be corrected. He further explained why he sent back the request that was sent to parliament to debate a meeting of was described as “illegal act” MP De Weever said he told those Members of Parliament who now has the majority to either re-word their letter or report him to the relevant authorities if he really did something illegal. As for the last meeting he cancelled the former 2nd vice chair said that the majority of eight did not submit a request for the meeting to be scheduled and since the rules of order was not followed he sent out a press release to say the meeting was cancelled.
The independent member said that what is going on right now is that St. Maarten is busy making history with the current constitutional crisis taking place. However, he believes this process is needed in order to make things better for St. Maarten and the younger generation.
