Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
After all the political turmoil over the last few months the installation of the Gumbs cabinet can be seen as a welcome Christmas present. Of course, it regards a smaller-than-usual Council of Ministers due to screening issues, but at least this ends the undesirable situation of having a caretaker government in office since September, of which two members also became parliamentarians in the meantime.
The two remaining cabinet members will be added later, but there is no reason to believe the current five plus the plenipotentiary minister in The Hague won't be able to do a good job. In fact, although Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and returning Justice Minister Dennis Richardson are taking on respectively the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure and that of Public Health, Social Development and Labour only temporarily, it might be worth considering to keep it like that for the time-being.
In addition to helping reduce expenses on the 2015 budget as required by the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT, this also would send an important symbolic message to the population that government too is willing to do more with less. That does not mean to say there were too many cabinet members before, but if the same work can be done in an adequate manner by fewer people, why not?
Having said that, the new team backed in Parliament by the UP/De Weever/Marlin-Romeo coalition faces a daunting task. The integrity concerns are still on the table and must continue to be dealt with, not in the last place at the insistence of the Netherlands.
At the same time, budgetary adjustment still will have to be made, while other pressing matters such as better timeshare legislation, the long-announced Gaming Control Board (GCB) and moving into the new Administration Building demand the necessary urgent attention as well.
The new prime minister has a wealth of experience in both the legislative and executive branches, but this was mainly in the former Netherlands Antilles. Some things certainly have changed since St. Maarten obtained the status of autonomous country within the Dutch Kingdom on 10-10-10, but he no doubt has kept abreast of recent developments and should be able to hit the ground running.
The same obviously goes for Richardson, who basically remains where he was, as is the case with Finance Minister Martin Hassink. The two relative newcomers should waste no time in learning the ropes, because the voters have been forced to wait much too long already.
