What led to the fall of Marlin’s government?…
The developments leading to a possible change in government and the eventual snap elections on St. Maarten could be blamed on several things. It’s either Marlin is hated by his own coalition members or the Dutch painted him black for his tough stands on hurricane relief conditions. Or maybe ship jumping? a piece of legislation(to address the matter of Parliamentarians crossing the Isles and breaking government) he himself promised to bring to parliament when he came into office. Or it could have been a condemning statement from one of his ministers aimed at a coalition partner in Parliament forcing an already agitated post Irma situation to have them thinking in opposite directions.
Of course, there were other things playing that could have led to the fall; for instance before Hurricane Irma, there was a growing attitude of arrogance and silence in some areas about what government’s plans were when getting things done. In one case there was a bad decision made about how government planned to utilize shelters that later had to be changed at the last minute, because it made more sense. Then came Irma and there should have been a completely different approach to governing since we were now faced with a disaster. What seemed to be prevailing was politics as usual and a lack of insensitivity towards the immediate needs of the citizens of St. Maarten and the gravity of the disaster that presented a different challenge when governing in a crisis situation.
In general the Marlin Government must be credited for having made some important steps to correct lots of areas in government that were screwed up by previous governments. For example the fiscal discipline established by the Minister of Finance on spending and being able to produce a balance budget each year. St. Maarten never had a balance budget before without it being heavily scrutinized and often rejected by the CFT. The use of a government building that was sitting empty for years; and no doubt, there could have been more plans to correct other areas that badly needs attention but unless the NA is elected with a majority of seats in Parliament for this election, their chances of governing St. Maarten once again have failed them.
So what could have gone wrong? The Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs Mr. William Marlin’s way of handling the situation with the Dutch after the hurricane, for many, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Dutch Government committed themselves to supporting St. Maarten after the devastation, with relief funds to the tune of over 500 M Euros that would certainly help the recovery efforts of the island speedily. A couple of conditions however, were standing in the way of the relief funds getting here. The two conditions were the establishing of an Integrity chamber for checks and balances on St. Maarten and securing additional Royal Military Police to strengthen border control and immigration. The Government at first refused to cooperate but wanted to negotiate. The refusal to accept the Dutch conditions tail spin the recovery funds that were earmarked for the rebuilding of the country. To this day everything is waiting for a stable government (says the new Secretary of State for Kingdom Relations) to jump start the recovery efforts using Dutch funds. Another issue that played in the fall out is a statement made by the minister of VROMI in a group chat charging those who are in the coalition and not in agreement with the stand taken by William Marlin with the Dutch, should not be part of the coalition. That statement was taken personal by DP leader and chair of Parliament Sarah Wescott Williams who since that declaration felt if she cannot have an opinion of her own there is no place for her in the coalition either. The Prime Minister never admitted to have done anything wrong, but soon realized his government was in trouble to the point of receiving a vote of no confidence from Parliament. The William Marlin led Council of Ministers then retaliated and invoked article 59 in the constitution to dissolve parliament.
That spells the end of Marlin led Council of Ministers. In the meantime, the Governor honored the decree of the Council of Ministers to dissolve Parliament and have new elections scheduled for January 8. 2018. Since changed to Feb. 26th2017.
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