Will not contest 2014 Parliamentary elections
PHILIPSBURG:--- New political party Citizens for Positive Change (CPC) regrets to announce that the decision has been made not to contest the upcoming 2014 Parliamentary elections.
The formation of CPC started at the beginning of 2014 and is the result of the board members' disappointment with the level of politics on St. Maarten. CPC saw and still sees a need for Positive Change and board members decided to gauge this sentiment and not surprisingly, it was met with enormous enthusiasm and encouragement after which the formation of the party was finalized.
CPC received great help, has built a significant membership and has a dedicated team who put forward the ideas of the party which were laid down in a solid manifesto but unfortunately the formation of a well rounded list of candidates which the electorate deserves is the deal breaker.
For CPC it has never been about just getting into parliament, what CPC wants is to effect a positive change in the way St. Maarten engages with politics and government. With democratic rights also come responsibilities. In that sense we hoped for more people taking democratic responsibility. More people interacting with elected officials and candidates on a high level, about the actual issues at hand. Seeing dialogue take place on the real issues within the community at large, whereby equitable solutions are arrived at with everyone's participation. CPC was looking for a certain amount of organic growth but unfortunately this growth did not reach the level required to contest this election.
St. Maarten's political culture still needs to advance as well. A local newspaper recently featured an interesting article about the "cult of personality" within Latin American politics, which has similarities to St. Maarten. For the most part St. Maarten's political culture is to elect officials as it was some sort of popularity-contest; it is often about individuals not about the message or ideologies. These officials are then expected to chart the course forward without ever having engaged with the electorate on how they would like that course to look.
Furthermore, CPC has noticed that there is quite a level of fear for political reprisals within the community. People fear that by exercising their democratic responsibilities, they will be singled out by the powers that be and will be adversely affected personally or professionally, nobody wants to "rock the boat" in public while in private and with guarantees of anonymity it is clear that many people in fact support the positive processes initiated by CPC. This state of affairs is unfortunate and if St. Maarten really wants to move forward as a truly democratic community, in which the majority opinion rules but the minority opinion is respected, this needs to be addressed as well.
The CPC hopes that by trying to engage with the community in an open and transparent way, focusing on the issues that we will change the political culture, perhaps we expected to see this change too quickly. This process while it progressed extremely encouragingly and was the main reason why CPC decided initially to already contest the 2014 elections, remains exactly that; a process which needs attention, time for organic growth and participation from the community at large to remain viable in the long run.
Although CPC received encouraging support from a wide section of the community, the participation CPC anticipated, especially in the willingness to step forward as a potential CPC candidate ready to contest the 2014 elections, was a clear indication that organic growth cannot be rushed. In that regard we can say: if St. Maarten really wants democracy and proper representation, if we really want positive changes, we will all need to get involved and work for it. CPC will maintain its course and build on the organic growth as the party has been doing over these past months. CPC welcomes everyone to participate in the dialogue regardless of whether or not one agrees with the CPC manifesto or positions on various issues.
To those voters who were thinking of voting for CPC in the 2014 election: we apologize as we do not have any intention of letting anyone down. In the end, not contesting now is the wiser choice. CPC will not go away, to the contrary: we will continue to remain critical about issues facing the island and will continue to publish our ideas for initiating positive change on St. Maarten. Furthermore, CPC will prepare more robustly for contesting the next election (after 2014) which might come earlier than 2018 judging by Government's track record.
CPC looks forward to the debates and again emphasizes that St. Maarten four years after 10-10-10 faces serious social, environmental and economic issues. All candidates elected to Parliament will be faced with making tough decisions. CPC therefore urges the electorate to look beyond the glitz and glamour of the campaign paraphernalia and to use their vote wisely.
CPC Press Release
