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PHILIPSBURG--Parliament will continue its handling of the draft national ordinance to establish an Integrity Chamber on Monday starting at 10:00am. The Central Committee meeting resumed on Friday morning after its suspension on Wednesday evening, but was suspended again after coalition Members of Parliament (MPs) requested time to compare the draft law with the version suggested by the Dutch Government.
MP Tamara Leonard (United People's (UP) party) made the request for time to review the two versions to Parliament Chairman Dr. Lloyd Richardson (UP). The request was seconded by independent MP Cornelius de Weever.
Leonard said that although she was prepared to discuss the draft tabled by Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and Justice Minister Dennis Richardson, the answers received in writing from the ministers to questions posed in the first round were "too broad." She acknowledged that government was facing a time constraint to put the law in place, but said MPs needed time "to properly prepare" to move forward with the law.
Her request was put forward after the session had resumed from a one-hour recess to study the answers from the ministers.
De Weever, in motivating his support for the suspension request, said the version of the law prepared by the Dutch Government was 24 pages long and time was needed to compare the two, to facilitate the further debate.
MP Sarah Wescot-Williams (Democratic Party) made it clear that she was prepared to continue to discuss the draft law with the two ministers, who were present in Parliament House. However, she said she did not believe passing the law would stave off any instruction from the Dutch Kingdom Government that imposes that government's will (see related story).
St. Maarten is under a time crunch, with the Marcel Gumbs Cabinet pushing to have the draft law passed before it presents its case against the Dutch Kingdom Government for what is now seen as the continued illegal use of Article 51 of the Kingdom Charter. The Dutch Government has used that article to justify its integrity probes and demands, especially since 2013.
Gumbs and Richardson are to travel to the Netherlands on April 19 to table their argument before the Kingdom Council of State. That Council is the advisory body to the Kingdom Government.
Unfortunately, St. Maarten does not have a voice in that council. St. Maarten's seat, granted by the Kingdom Charter, has been vacant since May 2013 when Richardson stepped down to become justice minister in the Wescot-Williams III Cabinet.
There has been talk since earlier this year about filling that seat with former Parliament chairwoman Gracita Arrindell. It is understood that the Gumbs Cabinet to date has not formally submitted her candidacy for the post as member of the Council of State.
