SXMElections.com

Dear Editor,

"Statia needs me and I am now heading home!" With these words, Statia Commissioner of Finance Astrid McKenzie-Tatem stormed out of her meeting with the Dutch Government because of the imposition of higher financial supervision. It was all rather reminiscent of a Miss Piggy fight with Kermit the frog!

However, whereas the Muppets are puppets and we expect them to behave like puppets, politicians are not. But they do have a political stage. How you say something and how you do something is just as important as what you say and what you do.

In the case of our new Commissioner of Finance, she has done very little. The prospect of a significant budget overrun was evident by the second quarter of last year. To plug the hole in her finances, she should have implemented the harbour ordinance immediately and taken steps to get rid of government waste.

What did she do? She got rid of her non-local finance director and gave the keys of the government's safe to her brother! And that without advertising the position or asking approval of the Kingdom Representative. Her brother has now been discharged of this illegal appointment.

"I am now heading home!" she says. Yes in total disgrace! Good thinking, Astrid! Bad behaviour! Perception is reality. She should have stayed in The Hague to listen and learn. Any Agony Aunt will tell you that when you walk out of a relationship (unless abusive), make sure you do not need that relationship.

By running away from her Dutch government partners to occupy the first business class airline seat she can find, her behaviour is noted. It will be the last business class seat she enjoys. All business class travel has now been stopped by the Island Secretary. She has demonstrated that she is not an equal partner, and has deserted a few important issues.

There is for example, the matter of delaying a two-per-cent hike in the sales tax per January next year. What steps is the Dutch government taking as shareholders of Winair to reduce the cost of air tickets? How can the local government promote private and public investment on the Historical Gem? What economic synergies can be derived by working closer with the governments of Saba and Bonaire?

My list is endless but her patience clearly was not. Not a good example of representing the people of this island! We can excuse Miss Piggy for her glamour and pretentions. How should we excuse McKenzie-Tatem? Very difficult! Especially since Minister Plasterk mentioned that "repeated appointments were taking place for which there was no basis in the budget." Ouch!

Perhaps we could excuse her behaviour, given a rather loud party boss in the form of Clyde Van Putten. His bursts of racial rhetoric have not been well received by The Hague. His desire to have "more black faces" around him is viewed as being ignorant and discriminatory. In the Netherlands, his remarks are rightfully illegal. And when he blabbers on about "my country" and "my "nation", you really wonder on which planet he resides.

But behaving badly is what Commandant Van Putten does well. His voters may have forgotten the fiasco of dipping into government coffers for USD 35,000 to send a family member to Venezuela for health treatment. That money has still not been repaid. Then there is the matter of community commissions paid by NuStar to promote a new oil terminal in the middle of the island. And what about the land ear-marked for a new prison, but given over to his brother for his cows to graze on?

Reputation is a rare commodity. As PLP leader, Van Putten should have coached his Finance Commissioner to do the responsible thing and hang in there, and not send her back to Statia as he did.

Statia needs open government, vision and financial responsibility. Not a culture of favours. That behaviour belongs to the last century. How could the Finance Commissioner step onto that flight to Schiphol, knowing that she had, in one act of nepotism, put the reputation of her party, leader, Executive Council, Island Council and that of the whole island in jeopardy?

The DP party of St. Eustatius will no doubt move a motion of no confidence at the next Island Council Meeting. Dishonest politicians always cover their backs and the motion will be defeated. But where does that leave the people's trust in the people they elected? McKenzie should now do the honourable thing and resign. Her salary at the tax office is far more interesting than the pressure of political responsibility. So it is back to the Tax Office from whence McKenzie-Tatem came. That way she gets to collect the people's money, not spend it. And I HOPE she does it wisely without any preference to family, friends and their families.

Even Miss Piggy had a more realistic grunt when it came to pig politics: "Style is about expressing your inner self, capturing your personal ethos, and, most importantly, spending someone else's money!"

Oink- Oink!

Name withheld at author's request.