PHILIPSBURG:--- The newly elected political leader of the OSPP, Mr. Lenny F. Priest and his Deputy Leader Mr. Edwin Maduro stated that when they are elected after the upcoming elections to the parliament of St. Maarten they would not accept 20% of their salaries. On Sunday, April 6, 2014 both of them signed a declaration that if they are legally bound to accept the full amount, they would refund 20% back to the coffers of the government. "All persons thus far who have indicated interest to be a candidate with the OSPP have agreed to sign this declaration, says Mr. Lloyd Beaton the newly elected president of the OSPP. We must put our money where our mouth is. Say what we mean and mean what we say. The people of St. Maarten are sick and tired of politicians saying one thing to get votes and doing something completely different. We must lead by example and let them know that this is a new breed of politicians and that we have their interest at heart at all times. During the launching on Thursday, August 1, 2013 in Middle Region our leader stated very clearly that this is the position of the party and it will remain as such, according to Mr. Lloyd Beaton. Of course it is without saying that we will do everything within our power once elected to debate and convince our fellow members of parliament to reduce our salaries. Just like us, the general public feels that the members of this Parliament have not performed sufficiently over the last three years and a half to justify the salaries that they are collecting on a monthly basis. To the contrary many people believe that we are worst off now than when this parliament took office in 2010 after promising the people that we would be better off. As a people we can't be fooled with those beautiful graphs and statistics that our government is providing us, but we must deal with reality and reality is that the most of our people are suffering. "This government would want us to believe differently, says Mr. Beaton. How can you explain that members of the parliament do not go to meetings but at the end of the month they receive 100% of their salaries? These same members with the worst attendance record in the history of this country today are making themselves available to postulate for the upcoming election. Some will want us to believe that members of parliament with a lower salary would be bought much faster. But I 'm wondering where do all these integrity investigations come from? Would you say that we should pay them even more but the argument that the highest office holder (politician) should earn more than the highest civil servant is not true, according to the OSPP because the highest civil servant is a professional and the politician is rather a vocation or an honor, therefore the politician should accept a lower salary, according to Beaton. The OSPP is of the opinion that the redundancy scheme (wachtgeldregeling) during which a former minister continues to receive his salary after he leaves office should be drastically shortening. How can we explain to the voters that those persons applying for social welfare have to go through a process after losing their jobs and an ex- minister come into consideration for this redundancy pay immediately after leaving office. Some of them even though are qualified to obtain a job immediately after leaving office has abused the system by holding out until the time is just about up. The OSPP believes that we should change the way we have being doing politics for years and that change must start now with the signing of this declaration by our leader and deputy leader.
OSPP Press Release
