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~ Warns that measures will create social unrest ~

THE HAGUE--St. Maarten Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs has informed the Dutch government formally that his government cannot agree with the current proposal of the Kingdom Council of Ministers to impose the installation of an Integrity Chamber for St. Maarten.

Gumbs stated in separate letters dated February 9 to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in his capacity as Chairman of the Kingdom Council of Ministers and to Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk that the proposed General Measure of the Kingdom Government ("Algemene Maatregel van Rijksbestuur" AMvRB) was "in violation" of the Kingdom Charter and "disproportionate," that it "undermined St. Maarten's Parliamentary democracy" and that it would "create social unrest."

Gumbs sent separate letters on February 12 to his colleagues Ivar Asjes of Curaçao and Mike Eman of Aruba, as well as to President of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Anouchka van Miltenburg, in which he criticised the moves by the Kingdom Government and Plasterk to impose an integrity measure for St. Maarten.

Gumbs emphasised in the letters, which were sent to the media on Tuesday, that St. Maarten underscored the urgency, the problem and nature of integrity in government, and that St. Maarten most certainly had taken action to redress the situation by, among other things, preparing a national ordinance to establish the Integrity Chamber, appointing a quartermaster to facilitate this process and drafting a plan of approach.

According to Gumbs, there was no dispute between St. Maarten and the Kingdom Council of Ministers about the sense of urgency to tackle integrity issues in government. However, the point of discussion has been what legal instrument should be used to realise this approach, he stated in his letter to Van Miltenburg.

While St. Maarten has started the procedure to establish an independent Integrity Chamber, the Kingdom Council of Ministers took steps late January that defy the actions by the St. Maarten government. Gumbs said St. Maarten had tried to reach a joint solution on how to tackle the integrity issue, but this had proved impossible because the wishes of the Netherlands infringed on St. Maarten's autonomy.

Gumbs said there was "never an equal negotiation between the Kingdom partners," as the Netherlands has indicated repeatedly that it would start a procedure to impose an AMvRB based on article 51 of the Charter if St. Maarten didn't agree to an AMvRB based on cooperation, article 38 of the Charter.

Fair play

The St. Maarten government was given less than a week to respond to the draft AMvRB, which, Gumbs stated, was an "unrealistic timeframe considering the weight and gravity" of the issue at hand, and the principles of proper governance that Kingdom partners should use in dealing with each other, such as "fair play."

Gumbs pointed out in his letter to Van Miltenburg that the guarantee function of the Kingdom Government to ensure good governance – article 43, paragraph two of the Charter – could be used only if redress by the country, in this case St. Maarten, had proven impossible. This was not the case and as such, the grounds for the AMvRB are "absolutely insufficient," Gumbs stated.

"The St. Maarten government wishes to inform the Second Chamber that the Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations has taken a direction which, in our opinion, will not prove to be effective and which can and will only lead to social unrest in St. Maarten," Gumbs concluded his letter to Van Miltenburg.

Gumbs also sent copies to Prime Ministers Eman and Asjes of his letters to Plasterk, Rutte and Van Miltenburg. Gumbs deemed it necessary to inform Rutte, Van Miltenburg, Eman and Asjes about the letters by Plasterk, which, in his opinion, contained "errors."

He told Eman and Asjes that his government did not plan on accepting the treatment by the Netherlands and requested Aruba's and Curaçao's support in the Kingdom Council of Ministers to "help avert the injustice" St. Maarten was facing.

In his February 9 nine-page letter to Rutte, Gumbs gave a detailed explanation as to why St. Maarten opposed the procedure to impose the AMvRB and what St. Maarten had done to improve integrity, actions that were in line with the recommendations in the reports of the Wit-Samson Committee and of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to Gumbs, the January 28 letter that Plasterk sent to the Kingdom Council of Ministers "incorrectly" suggested that St. Maarten was not aware of the urgency, gravity or nature of the integrity problems on the island. Gumbs stated that talks with Philipsburg and exchanged documents showed just the opposite.

Gumbs explained the workings of the Integrity Chamber in detail in his letter to Rutte. He stressed that this institution would operate completely independently and that it had as an objective to detect integrity violations in government and government-owned companies, which it would then report to the local Prosecutor's Office.

Completely unjust

Gumbs called Plasterk's comment that the St. Maarten Parliament would have the last say on the Integrity Chamber "completely unjust" because the role of Parliament would be limited to approval of the national ordinance and receiving the Integrity Chamber's annual reports. Gumbs said the draft national ordinance had been adapted in several areas to meet the critical remarks expressed during consultations between Philipsburg and The Hague.

Gumbs said St. Maarten always had kept the door open for a "constructive contribution by the Kingdom Council of Ministers" to the integrity issue. The same goes for a dialogue on the text and effectiveness of the Integrity Chamber national ordinance, he added.

St. Maarten has been appealing to the Netherlands to utilise the article in the Charter that invites countries in the Kingdom to offer each other assistance in the execution of their autonomous tasks. Gumbs said Plasterk wanted to skip this article.

Gumbs remarked that the AMvRB proposed by Plasterk largely infringed on St. Maarten's autonomy and that it did not help the island in its own development. He said the AMvRB was not an adequate solution, as suggested by Plasterk, because there was absolutely no need for such a measure, as St. Maarten had taken several steps to address the integrity issue.

"St. Maarten doesn't trust that the proposed AMvRB offers a solution to tackle the integrity problem. Not in the least because the AMvRB in fact proposes the installing of a committee that can singlehandedly put aside St. Maarten's complete governing structure without the intervention of any legislature," Gumbs told Rutte. The AMvRB was not an option for St. Maarten, Gumbs concluded.

In his letter to Plasterk, Gumbs pointed out that the "lack of trust," cited by the minister as a reason to intervene, "could and should not serve to justify" the imposing of an AMvRB. He closed off his six-page letter to Plasterk by again requesting a top-level consultation to find a common solution that was acceptable to all parties.

When contacted by The Daily Herald, the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations responded that it would not comment for now on Gumbs' letters. The Kingdom Council of Ministers is slated to meet on March 6.