Monday, November 06, 2017
H.E. Eugene Holiday Governor of St.Maarten Falcon Drive 3
Harbor View
Philipsburg, St.Maarten
Your Excellency,
As we are already acutely aware of the precarious situation the whole island is experiencing in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and Maria, the current political development that is now leading to snap elections in the very short term is a formula to further burden our population with undue stress and uncertainty while the real job at hand is to put roofs over our heads, food on the table, clothe our families, and safe keep or find income to subsist on. There are those fortunate enough to have insurance to help out that may see a glimmer at the end of the tunnel, but there are so many more that could not readily afford insurance that are in dire need of assistance.
In your role as keeper of our laws and constitution, I fully appreciate the fact that with the invocation of the various articles by our government and parliament, it is clear that the call for elections is irreversible with precedence already established recently in St.Maarten and in Curacao. However, under the circumstances described above and in your position to command attention on the problem,please impart on our local political establishment the idea of establishing a "working" cabinet of ministers,similar to what took place in Curacao, and to do so post haste in order to have this "working" government expedite and manage the recovery process of our Island.
With this "working" council of ministers in place, have the elections at a later date, that will"afford" the electorate some breathing space between their harrowing disaster experience and be fit and ready to go to the ballot and cast their vote when the time comes.
I think this would be the best scenario to serve both the people of St.Maarten and the political establishment, and will also provide assurances to the Netherlands and other countries or organization making substantial aid available for our reconstruction efforts.
Please note and with all due respect to your office, that while I'm delivering this letter to you, a copy will also be published to the media to get the message out to the population, and especially our political leaders. The fact is that there's barely any income for many businesses today that trickles down to government coffers in tax and social charges remittances to even pay the salaries of Ministers, their cabinet members, the civil servants, and the parliamentarians, or even for the light bills amongst others. That is a stark reality!
We've been down a similar path before in the post-hurricane Louis era and we all know the outcome of those movements, so I'm hoping that our political establishment can find the strength and wisdom in what is being proposed, and that political maturity will prevail instead for the sake of St.Maarten.
Just to be clear of my motives, I'm affiliated to my family, my friends and neighbors, my employees, my home, my island, my country, my St.Maarten.
Sincerely,
Georges Gréaux