Philipsburg:--- The National Alliance Faction posed several questions to Minister of Justice Roland Duncan on Tuesday during a parliamentary meeting regarding the Brooks Tower Accord extension process.The meeting which was called mainly to determine if the Minister had deviated from the policy set by former Minister of Justice Magali Jacoba on the BTA process which started in 2009 and if the Minister has a new policy in place turned into circus when other issues took center stage.
Leader of the National Alliance William Marlin said the extension of the BTA resulted in mass confusion where people were camping out over night at the IND building so they too could register for a BTA permit. Marlin said information reaching him indicates that people who came to the island two to three years ago were given a permit when in fact the policy of the former Minister of Justice clearly indicates that persons who came to the island in 2006 and after had to leave the island as their permits were being processed. Marlin said it is clear to him that the Minister has deviated from the current policy and as such he wanted to know what motivated the Minister to reopen the process and what he wanted to accomplish.
While parliament called the meeting to discuss the BTA procedures which sparked an investigation that landed three people behind bars, the members of parliament deviated from the issue. Dr Ruth Douglas described the foreigners as rats running around on St. Maarten while Member of Parliament Patrick Illidge added his own twist by saying that elected officials or government would have to buckle to the FCCA. Member Parliament Illidge said should the FCCA ask St. Maarten to jump they in turn would have to ask how high since the island is totally dependent on the tourism economy. Member of Parliament Leroy De Weever attacked the Dutch for wanting an Ombudsman and St. Maarten has to pay for it.
Another point heavily debated during the meeting is the speaker's time which the National Alliance contested. The leader of the National Alliance placed a proposal on the floor of parliament requesting that the speakers time be amended from 20 minutes to 30 minutes in the first round and from 10 minutes to 20 minutes in the second round.
Member of Parliament Jules James then made a counter proposal to keep the time limit as is saying the members of parliament wanted more time to grand stand parliament. The majority in parliament voted in favour of keeping the time limit to 20/10 by voting.
Minister Duncan in his response said every command he give on a daily basis is a policy and it does not have to be written. The Minister further explained that he extended the time frame for the BTA applicants to give everyone a fair chance to submit their request. He argued that while questions are being posed on the 2008 to 2010 applications then someone has to show him a BTA permit that was granted to those applicants. Duncan said based on the law every person has a right to petition government with their request. He said that does not mean the request is automatically granted. Minister Duncan in his response quoted several articles of the law from his law books to prove that he has the right as a Minister to use his discretion to make decisions.
The following is the full recording of the parliamentary meetings on the BTA procedure. We urge our readers to listen to the audio.
