Philipsburg:--- Leader of the National Alliance William Marlin visited the teachers and civil servants who were meeting at the Sports Auditorium on Friday to discuss a counter proposal to send to the Finance Minister regarding their cost of living allowances. Marlin told reporters that he is supporting all workers on St. Maarten who are currently facing a national crisis for several reasons. As for the cost of living adjustments Marlin said there was an agreement left by the former executive council which he headed to pay off the teachers what is due to them. However, the UP/DP coalition has been making sporadic changes without informing anyone. Marlin said the current government is not about governing, they are project oriented. "All they are doing is looking for another project to work on or to see where they can pump more sand."Marlin said government did not hold any consultation with the unions when they decided to cut the civil servants money to balance their budget. The National Alliance leader further explained that if proper consultation was done with the unions and workers the protest currently taking place would not have happened. Marlin said the current finance Minister has taken decisions and then he points his fingers at other people even though he has been part of the budgetary process for the last 10 years. "It is either the Minister was not in control of the finance department when he was heading the department, or he did not know what was taking place in the department he was heading thus he was ill advising the commissioners of the former executive council and government". Marlin made those statements as a reaction to the statements finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto made when he said when he became Minister of Finance he found a mess with the budget.
Marlin said St. Maarten is in a crisis because there is a government who is simply not governing the island. He said right now no one knows who the leader of the government is because there is a Prime Minister who has no authority since the cabinet is not hers, while there is a de-facto leader who stays away from any and all confrontations and is busy looking for projects. "There is a Prime Minister that has no authority, there is a crisis at Pelican and what you see is two other Ministers going there to play politics with the livelihood of those workers."
"Here you are taking away from workers while increasing taxes on the people and the only thing the de-facto leader is talking about is the 39 million dollars causeway through the lagoon without the proper environmental impact study done."
Marlin said just the other day he heard the Minister of Justice telling people that there is no need for a policy because his verbal instruction is just as good. He called the statements of Minister Duncan erratic.
While addressing the teachers and civil servants Marlin said the only people who stand to benefit from the 5% Turn over Tax is the businesses. The former school teacher said that government chose to give the businesses an exemption on several items such as rice, milk, bread and baby products. These are the products that sell the most and while there is no guarantee that the supermarkets will decrease their prices on these products, one thing for sure they do not have to pay the 5% TOT to government on these items because government granted them an exemption.Persons who are renting apartments will not see a decrease in their rents either but government chose to give them an exemption too, while the people is feeling the pressure with these increases government will be collecting less money in TOT.
While the police, civil servants and teachers are fighting for their cost of living allowance, information circulating on the island is that the Council of Ministers has taken a decision and ordered a number of new cars for the Ministers. SMN News learnt that a contract was signed with one of the car dealership for several fully loaded SUV's that cost $37,000 each. When asked about this Marlin said while he did not get any official information on the purchase of the new vehicles but he also saw some new vehicles around the government administration building. Marlin said while buying the cars would not bring along any major relief, neither would it put a bigger dent in the budget, but it sends a wrong message to the community.
Marlins said if government is asking everyone else to tighten their belts while they are buying new cars. The former leader of government said a year and half ago the previous executive council bought five new cars that are in mint condition. He said buying the new cars is sending the wrong message psychologically.
We urge our readers to listen to the audio where Marlin spoke to the media and the protesting teachers.