SMN News contacted the Director of Communications for Prime Minister Luc Adolphe Tiao, Cyriaque Pare to verify if the Prime Minister's speech was written by one Pierre Marssin. Pare said that Mr. Marssin is not known to the Prime Minister and that his speech was written by the Prime Minister's technical advisors. "As the director of communication of Mr. Tiao, I helped put that speech together and we do not know anyone by the name of Pierre Marssin. I can confirm to you that the Prime Minister does not know the person either, I asked him this question today after your call and he confirmed to me that he does not know anyone by that name, the Prime Minister also made clear his speech was written by several persons in his cabinet." Pare is also the owner of an online newspaper "Journal lefaso.net".
SMN News also made several searches online for Pierre Marssin, it turned out that this person does not exist anywhere online. On March 20, 2012 someone created a Facebook profile for Pierre Marssin that does not have photograph and his only friend up to April 5, 2012 was Alex Richards.
SMN News made several attempts to get a comment from President Richardson regarding his speech but he could not be reached. A source close to the RRR group said the executive council met on Thursday afternoon to discuss the matter but up to late Thursday evening no other statement was made.
Youth radio talk show hosts contacted President Richardson for a comment on the ongoing discussion about the speech and the President said since he took office on Monday has been busy working on the issues that matters to St. Martin. The President hinted that there are number of persons who are upset that his team was elected to office and they are doing whatever they can to make the RRR lose focus. He assured that he is busy working on the mandate he was elected to carry out. President Richardson said St. Martin needs 30 million Euros for the Collectivity's operation and if the monies are not found then the island is in dire trouble.
Below is a copy of the email SMN News received from Cyriaque Pare as proof to show we made every attempt to bring the truth to the forefront regarding President Richardson political declaration.
Comme par hasard, j'étais le directeur de la communication de M. TIAO, au moment où il prononçait sa Déclaration de politique générale. Je peux donc vous confirmer qu'il ne connaît pas M. Pierre Marssin, qui ne peut donc pas être l'auteur de sa DPG.
Cordialement
Journal lefaso.net / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The following is the press release from Alex Richards, the Director of the President's cabinet.
Objet : Communiqué de presse
Certains articles de presse ont porté des accusations graves de plagiat pour le discours de politique générale que le Président Alain Richardson a prononcé lors de l¹installation du nouveau Conseil Territorial. Je souhaite, sans m¹attarder sur cet épiphénomène, apporter quelques précisions afin de répondre aux interrogations des uns et aux accusations des autres. La campagne électorale que nous avons menée a mobilisé l¹ensemble de notre groupe et nous avons décidé de faire appel à un expert en communication politique pour la rédaction du discours du Président Richardson. Une démarche habituelle chez les leaders politiques, que nous avons entamée auprès d¹un spécialiste, M. Pierre Marssin. Nous avons fourni à ce dernier le programme de campagne, que nous avons présenté à la population ces dernières semaines et qui est conforme aux analyses de notre groupe RRR.
Quant aux similitudes notées entre le discours d¹investiture d¹Alain Richardson et celui du Premier ministre du Burkina Faso, Luc Adolphe Tiao, elles s¹expliquent par le fait que Pierre Marssin a également rédigé le discours de Monsieur Tiao. Il n¹y a donc pas de plagiat, et si la trame peut sembler identique, les grands axes de la politique que nous entendons mener pour les cinq prochaines années y sont clairement développés.
Cet épiphénomène que certains prennent plaisir à amplifier pour des raisons bassement politiciennes, n¹a aucune sorte d¹influence sur la détermination du groupe RRR à mener la politique pour laquelle il a été élu. Les polémiques stériles n¹ont pas leur place dans notre feuille de route, et nous préférons mettre toutes nos forces dans le développement des thèmes qui intéressent la population, l¹emploi, le pouvoir d¹achat, l¹économie, la sécurité, etc, et pour lesquels nous apporterons des solutions concrètes.
Notre objectif à terme reste l¹application des mesures prioritaires pour la satisfaction de l¹intérêt général, c¹est tout l¹enjeu de cette mandature.
Alex Richards
Directeur de Cabinet
TRANSLATION OF PRESS RELEASE FROM ALEX RICHARDS, THE DIRECTOR OF THE PRESIDENT'S CABINET.
CABINET OF THE PRESIDENT
Marigot, April 5, 2012
Subject: Press Release
Certain press articles have made serious accusations of plagiarism about the speech on general policy delivered by President Alain Richardson at the installation of the new Territorial Council. Without focusing on this secondary phenomenon, I would like to bring further clarification in addressing the concerns raised by some and the accusations made by others. The electoral campaign conducted by us has mobilized our entire group and we have decided to call upon an expert in political communication for the drafting of President Richardson's speech. A common practice among political leaders, and therefore we engaged a specialist, Mr. Pierre Marssin. We provided him with the campaign program presented to the population during these last weeks which is in accordance with the analyses of our group RRR.
As for the similarities observed between Alain Richardson's nomination speech and that of the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Luc Adolphe Tiao, they are justified by the fact that Pierre Marssin has also written Mr. Tiao's speech. There is, therefore, no plagiarism, and if the framework can appear identical, the main lines of the policies we intend to implement during the next five years are clearly developed in the speech. This secondary phenomenon which certain persons take pleasure in amplifying for purely base political reasons has no influence whatsoever on the determination of the RRR group to implement the policies for which they were elected. The fruitless controversies have no place in our road map and we prefer to exert all our efforts in the development of matters of major interest to the population, jobs, purchasing power, economy, security, etc., and to which we will offer concrete solutions. Our ultimate objective remains the implementation of priority measures which will satisfy the general interest, that is the main challenge of our mandate.
Alex Richards
Cabinet Director