UPP Leader wants to maintain Port de Plaisance agreement.
PHILIPSBURG:--- While MP Hyacinth Richardson was the first MP to ask MP Lloyd Richardson to support the draft 2016 budget and to stop rejoicing over the arrest of MP Silvio Matser because they are first cousins.
SMN News understands that MP Lloyd Richardson agreed to support the draft 2016 budget if he is given a guarantee that he will get his brother’s garbage collection contract renewed, while the leader of the United Peoples Party Theodore Heyliger wants to maintain the agreement the former government has with Port de Plaisance for land that is zoned for a parking area.
Wanting to control at least three of the government owned companies will also give certain politicians the rights to dictate and spend the monies these companies have aside for projects.
There is a saying if someone does the crime, certainly they should also do the time, another is everyone is innocent until proven guilty. So while many might rejoicing and have drawn conclusions in the Octopus investigation it would be advisable for those persons to wait and see what the outcome of this case will bring. The National Detectives have track record of losing cases. 86% of the cases they investigated and prosecuted they lost. Damaging the names of politicians and long standing politicians is the order of the day when it comes to Prosecutors Office. SMN News spoke to a few lawyers, who said that the Appeals’ Court Judges are all political while the lower court judges act according to law.
However, it maybe, if there is nothing to hide and there is evidence that MP Matser bought votes then prosecute him for just that and let the court decide on the case, but to elevate a case in order to disrupt the functioning of a country and creating a national crisis for another country’s political gain is not in the interest of the people of St. Maarten.
Those Members of Parliament who chose to boycott the draft 2016 budget should take a few things into consideration, the last approved budget by the CFT is the budget of year 2014, one that had a Naf20M deficit. The only balanced budget with all the criteria set down by the CFT is the one for 2016 that still has to be approved by Parliament. Another thing that the Members of Parliament should know that any elected official who chose to not represent and protect their country can be considered as traitors to the people that elected them. Hopefully, those Independent Members of Parliament that is so eager to get on political lists in September should know by now that at least the UPP wants to get rid of them so having them on his list is indeed a dream that will never be realized.
