Philipsburg: ---- Leader of the Democratic Party Sarah Wescot Williams at a press conference yesterday outlined some of what she considered to be discrepancies with the statements made at the National Alliance Press Conference held on Saturday.Wescot Williams said she was not holding a press conference to say she had her chickens in the coob instead she was there to say she managed to get the support of commissioner Louie Laveist on the faction of the Democratic Party. She said in the very near future the commissioner would be making statements to say why he changed his mind and returned his support to the DP faction even though he remains an Independent member of the island council. As for Commissioner Theo Heyliger she said he had never made any statements saying he was no longer supporting the faction and hopefully he too would address the matter.
The island leader said there were several interesting statements made at the NA press conference. She began with two statements made by Island Council man Hyacinth Richardson. Statements such as there are a ‘spiritual movement taking place on St. Maarten and the National Alliance will overcome and the statement politics is the skill of arts and craft. She said if the National Alliance endorsed these statements then the people of St. Maarten deserves an explanation since they were wondering what was taking place and who the players were and the outcome.
Wescot Williams admitted that her party was engaged in a lot of negotiations or what maybe called wheeling and dealing or better yet bringing others to the fold. "These actions did not begin now or these last days and surely it was not one sided. What we do have is that the current situation created fertile ground for these types of negotiations and discussions to take place."
She said some of the stories she has heard are too scary to believe that in these negotiations that the ultimatums that were put on the table were factual, she said she hoped these stories would remain what it is until now and that is rumors she said.
Wescot Williams said that she also laments on the statements of Dr. Randal Friday and the Dengue epidemic. She said Friday's case has matters to do with the Federal Government which the National Alliance is part of and to date they did nothing to assist the gynecologist. Wescot Williams said she is challenging the statements where council man William Marlin on his statements where he said the island government has done nothing to rid the island of this epidemic. She said information was given over and over on the actions government is taking to eradicate dengue.
Wescot Williams said she also took note of what was said about ‘team St. Maarten' and it is true they are working on this together. However, hen one comes to the people and say they are ready to take over the leadership of the island as the National Alliance did, she said one cannot say they are on team St. Maarten. She said the questions should be is if the National Alliance is ready and has what it takes to lead St. Maarten towards country status. She asked if they are willing to make the sacrifices that are required. Wescot Williams wants to know if the NA team is ready to be in hours of meetings and sleeping on Airports and not being able to eat on time and yet be alert of the happenings. "What the people want to know is if you are ready to lead this island to country status". She also addressed the matter of where commissioners cleaned out their offices as she is one of those persons who did that because she has respect for the system that governs the island. She said she has absolutely no need to sit and hold on to an executive chair if they do not have the majority in fact the minute that takes place they conclude they would resign their position that was drawn.
Another area of the National Alliance press conference that Wescot Williams spoke of was the fact that the leader of the National Alliance said he was willing to trying to cross the channel on a leaky raft rather than a sinking ship. She said notwithstanding the rough weather she managed to safely navigate the ship.
National Government
The island leader said that one of the statements that were made by William Marlin when he was asked about the possibility of a National Government, Marlin responded by saying they were in discussions some five months ago. She said what Marlin failed to mention was the fact just four hours prior to his press conference he had a conversation with her pertaining to forming a national government. She agreed that during the Buncamper Molanus saga members of her party and the National Alliance was in discussion about a national government. "We were not talking about who had left the chicken coob but we were talking about the need for the larger parties should come together and discuss a national government." She said to state that there was such discussion is not something she could answer. She said instead of the leader of the National Alliance continuing the meetings concerning a National government he chose his leaky raft to try and take over the government of St. Maarten. She said should any talks of a national government the people of the island need to know what they are engaged in and as well as the outcome.
