The Editor
Every politician knows that the key to winning elections is to make great promises. This is the season where politicians mount platforms and sell cures to all the ills of the country. In the spirit of the election season, Sint Maarten’s longest-serving Minister has once again dusted off his promise to construct a much-needed hospital. Minister Lee, a top underperformer, is now trying four years later to redress the wombs of his broken promise with the application of the same dirty dressing on his broken promises. But like old wombs dressed over with old bandages, its pungent smell is offensive to the voters.
Desperate to give life to old promises, Lee confident in his ability to fool the people with gimmickry, may offer to host a breaking ground ceremony for his haunting four-year-old hospital promise, even with no approved funding. This may be a countermeasure to jump past botching the bidding process on this occasion. Minister Lee stands accused of not given to promising any vast improvements in job creation, infrastructure, and the economy if it will not bring a benefit that abounds to his immediate family and Princes Heights Hotel.
Theo Heyliger, Prime Ministerial hopeful, has now found his voice and dusted off his own recycled promises. Theo and Minister Lee must learn that digital era makes available an extensive repository of videos and archived articles which now stand in stark contrast to their actions (or inactions).
Today Theo's glaring inconsistencies can now go viral as we have discovered that on September 25th in 2016 Theo is quoted as saying UP is “about inclusion” and shamelessly evoking the spirit of the late Dr. Claude Wathey he repeats “My grandfather said “Never take the people for granted,” and then goes on to add “I am a born Sint Maartener and I love every child and all the people of Sint Maarten. If you live on Sint Maarten you will be represented by this party.” Less than sixteen months later the same Theo, as the Political Leader of the Democrat Party is committed to appeasing his big business friends and cronies and the children of Sint Maarten get no more love and are to get no basketball court. This is why UP/DP voters suffer the highest buyers’ remorse.
But against the backdrop of his enumerable empty campaign promises Theo managed during African history month in an interview with SOS host Billy D revealed thinking of a prejudice politician with his revoltingly divisive comments. Theo to calmly announced to the whole of Dutch and French Sint Maarten, that he would deny the youth; the future of our nation, a place to play in the land of their forefathers and instead place the interest of the people’s of other lands, ahead of their own. This is reason enough to banish Theo Heyliger forever from the corridors of government. Supporters and independent voters alike must not ignore these prejudice stereotyping of our youth and must outright reject him at the polls.
Billy D must have sat in disbelief enduring Theo’s insult to our children. Theo claims that “you know how our local boys do behave” so he uses that as a reason to justify why he supports non-Sint Maarteners try to seize government land with his support. The occupation of the proposed basketball court is irrefutably illegal. The old hotel owners were squatting on government land, on our land. Theo’s logic is an insult to our intelligence that our young boys and girls should be denied a basketball court because a set of less than honest people wants to claim of our limited land space in our friendly island.
The question that we should ask is whether the hotel has the permission to transfer its long lease to another or whether it should have gone by to government for the Minister of VROMI to issue. Theo’s behavior is far from exemplary and he has no right pronounced on our children.
Theo must be told in no uncertain terms, that our neighborhood children will not search for a new space to play, they have a place and must be allowed their promised space to become the first Michael Jordan of Sint Maarten. Let the hotel owners excavate and create underground parking or let Minister Lee create a container parking solution. All our local boys and girls in Sint Maarten will take our known behavior to the voting booth and vote for those who genuinely love Sint Maarten, do not disappoint our children.
Name withheld upon author's request
