Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG--National Alliance (NA) elected members were "busy" last week trying to persuade United People's (UP) party Member of Parliament Silvio Matser "to leave UP in their attempt to cause problems in the UP-led coalition, says UP Leader MP Theo Heyliger. This makes the call by the NA's board for Matser's immediate resignation from Parliament "truly hypocritical," because those attempts to woo Matser "were ongoing after his court sentence" on January 7.
Heyliger said he found it "ironic" that NA board issued a statement on Tuesday calling for Matser's immediate resignation, when the party's elected officials had only recently tried to get Matser to join them in a the formation of new coalition. "Is this a case of one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing, as the NA leader loves to say? Was the NA board not informed by its elected members of their attempts at what they were calling 'Operation Bring Silvio Home'?"
"The NA leader and the party as a whole never cease to amaze me. They are willing to be in government with a person they want out of Parliament, or at least the party board wants out of Parliament," Heyliger told The Daily Herald on Wednesday night in reaction to the NA Board's statement calling on Matser to resign from Parliament.
The opposition party has proven that its elected members "can say one thing today and another tomorrow as long as they benefit or it gets them into government." Heyliger drew reference to NA elected members, especially its leader William Marlin "condemning" now former MP Louie Laveist when he faced his legal trouble in 2008.
"So let's go down memory lane; the same NA after calling the MP all sorts of names and demanding he leave the Island Council turned around and was willing to form a government with him. Not only that, they put him as a candidate even after his conviction by the court," Heyliger said.
"It cannot be so that one day NA's elected officials see someone as fit to be in government with and if things don't go their way, they trash the person. NA members were confident last week they had Matser as a start to the formation of the new coalition, and they were busy trying to gather support from other MPs to make the magic eight seats," said Heyliger.
Matser was sentenced by the Court of First Instance last week to 24 months, 18 of which were suspended, on three years' probation and 240 hours of community service, for tax evasion. Matser can appeal his sentence.
The NA board said in its press release on Tuesday: "It would be yet another gross injustice and ill representation of the people of St. Maarten to have a convicted Member of Parliament continue to retain his seat in light of such a sentence."
Pointing to that particular part of the NA board's statement, Heyliger said: "How soon they have forgotten MP Laveist. He had only been out of parliament for just three months."
