The integrity investigation
Are Theo and Duncan secret targets?
The cool, detached bureaucratic tone. The legalistic jargon. A chilling, sinister, implied threat. One has to hand it to the Dutch. They are good learners. One can easily imagine that one is reading a Nazi directive posted in square of some dorp in Holland circa 1942. The similarities are eerie, scary even. This approach is what made the Dutch the most effective killing machine for the Nazi's. Jews were invited via mail, delivered to their homes, to report to their deportation stations. Date, time and place were meticulously noted. Coats were to be dropped off here, shoes there, jewelry over here. All along the Dutch claimed they did not know the Jews were being deported to extermination death camps. The Germans appreciated their efficiency. After a while they did not even have to supervise them anymore. The Germans considered the Dutch fellow Aryans, and junior partners in crime. Many Dutch it must be mentioned did refuse to collaborate. Many were shot for refusing to collaborate. Today they are remembered as heroes while the former, are remembered, rightfully, with scorn and loathing.
Such is the effect reading their latest exploit, the so-called "instruction" to the Governor of St. Maarten to conduct an integrity investigation. He is being recruited, somewhat in the manner of war time collaborators, to round up the "usual" suspects for extermination. One has to pity his situation. Called upon to do the dirty work for the prestige of being governor. One doubts whether they will even pay him, since his more than generous salary is wholly paid for by the tax payers, yep, you and I, of St. Maarten. Will he chose to be remembered as a hero, or does he want to be remembered, rightfully, with scorn and loathing?
The document itself, is mercifully short. It is also a mass of contradictions, perhaps owing to the haste in which it was drafted. After going to great lengths to accuse the government of St. Maarten of basically being a bunch of thieving, corrupt, dishonest bastards, it turns around and calls for an investigation to find out if it is really true that they are in fact thieving, corrupt, dishonest bastards. Then, the use of the word "integer", or honest. This word occurs over and over in the document, leading one to surmise a Freudian slip. The drafters must have serious doubt about their own honesty. Why else are they constantly talking about honesty? It reminds one of the homophobe, who tries to cover his fears about his own sexuality by being hyper-aggressive towards gays.
History repeats itself?
As was pointed out elsewhere in SMN News, it is exactly twenty years ago, to be exact, February 25, 1993, that St. Maarten was placed under Higher Supervision for, yep, you guessed right! For being thieving, corrupt bastards. Even the approach was the same. First a report was commissioned, the now infamous Pourier report. The committee submitted its report in May, 1992, and guess what, it found that indeed, St. Maarten politicos were a bad lot. "By using political patronage, the same group maintained its grip on power" the report stated, "Government leaders eventually found themselves in the position where government decisions, and thereby the use of public funds, was too often directed towards maintaining their own position, and too little for the general interest." This crossed an "imaginary line" the Pourier committee reported, which justified jumping in to stop the abuse. Even the actors were the same. Then as now, the Democratic Party was in power. The UPP and the DP are of the same provenance so in fact we do have a DP government. The party one hopes, can be proud of its long lineage of corruption and bad governance. This is the second time in twenty years that it has managed to drag the country, which it so badly wants to govern, into the mud.
Theo and Duncan in the cross hairs.
St. Maarten politicos are now facing a real manhood crisis. This "instruction" is plenty mean. It shows just who is boss. It is much more intrusive that the 1993 version, which only required the island to submit decisions for review before passing them into law, and then only if it involved sums greater than Naf. 25,000. This time, the Dutch are going for blood or serious jail time. The Ministers and their staff, are ordered to lend their "cooperation" to the investigators. They are supposed to meekly submit and, just as the Jews during the Second World War, blindly follow instructions to their own demise. These investigators are not supposed to be from St. Maarten, so expect plane loads of Dutch technical assistants. This should warm the heart of the Minister of Justice. During the first Higher Supervision he was Lt. Governor. He practically burst with pride as he basked in the company of his "friends" who were his closest allies and confidants. He will soon have the opportunity to welcome a new contingent again. One can see him beaming with joy as he welcomes them to "his island". The "instruction" is intentionally vague. The investigators are given a free hand to ram sack any Ministry. They can demand to see emails, files, anything, order civil servants to stay home, while they search offices, and God knows how far they can go depending on what they find. It can lead to criminal prosecution, because you can be sure that if they find anything suspicious they will be happy to run to the prosecutor. Remember these folks have come to find proof of guilt. If they do not produce such proof, their paymasters in The Hague will be very unhappy. When one reads, that they want to investigate the granting of permits for infrastructural works, it does not take a genius to understand that they want to investigate just how Theo managed to navigate through all the laws and rules to build his Causeway. Ditto for Duncan when they state that they want to investigate prostitution and permits, meaning residence permits, which Duncan issued. One local paper was on a one man campaign to smear Duncan as a whore house manager, and the Dutch now want to find proof of guilt.
The politicians have only themselves to blame for the mess they now find themselves in. Instead of leading the people out of the Kingdom, and into independence, the chose to "love the lie". The lie being that there is a happy home for us in the Kingdom of Holland.
Name Withheld Upon Author's Request