PHILIPSBURG--Parliament has sent Government back to the drawing board with the controversial draft National Ordinance on the establishment of an Integrity Chamber for the country.

 

Parliament sending Government back to make changes was not unexpected, as the majority of MPs had voiced their discontent with the draft when it was tabled in the Central Committee of Parliament about two months ago.

 

The reworking of parts of the law means the deadline of June 30 for Parliament to handle the law as stated in a recent protocol with the Dutch Government will not be met. However, the deadline is viewed by some MPs as more of a date by which Parliament should at least start its deliberations on the draft, rather than the date by which the draft should be adopted and made ready for publication.

 

Monday's plenary session of Parliament called to approve the draft law was suspended until further notice by Parliament Chairman Dr. Lloyd Richardson to give the Marcel Gumbs Cabinet time to make amendments wanted by Members of Parliament (MPs). Chief among those changes are a list from the United People's (UP) party, which leads the governing coalition (see related story).

 

The meeting is expected to be recalled some time in August when Parliament is back from its July recess. The ministers will have to submit amendments to the law as well as answer the MPs' questions at the resumption.

 

Initially, the ministers had requested a two-hour recess, but MPs saw that as insufficient time to make changes to the draft law and consult with the Dutch Government, if needed.

 

Independent MP Leona Marlin-Romeo reiterated her call for Government to consult and obtain advice on how to move forward with the law and how to adjust its contents. She said that while she was very much in favour of what the law seeks to regulate, she could not support it without changes.

 

MP George Pantophlet said St. Maarten was "in a box called the Kingdom of the Netherlands. ... It is not our home. There are rules and we have to adhere to them." Those rules include the push by the Dutch for the integrity law to be passed by Parliament.

 

Democratic Party (DP) MP Sarah Wescot-Williams asked government to explain whether St. Maarten should prepare for a fight against a general kingdom measure to implement the Chamber being put back on the table by the Dutch Government. She called for a breakdown of how the Chamber would be paid for by the St. Maarten and Dutch Governments.

 

UP leader MP Theo Heyliger said that if St. Maarten was self-governing "we should be self-policing." It is "tiresome" that every time the Dutch Government demands something of St. Maarten, the country has to be "compliant" when faced with time limits, he said.

 

Independent MP Cornelius de Weever said Government should look into obtaining training possibilities for St. Maarten lawyers who want to become judges.

 

MP Johan Leonard (UP) said there continued to be ample distrust of the Dutch Government and its continued move to thwart St. Maarten's progress.

 

Existing regulations

National Alliance (NA) MP Silveria Jacobs said the country had numerous laws and policies to regulate integrity issues, but these appeared not to be applied by Government. The list of regulations is rather easy to find, she said, by looking at the back of the Integrity Baseline Study carried out by the General Audit Chamber.

 

She asked Government to explain what would happen to the already-existing Integrity Bureau, an organ create by law already, if/when Parliament passed the draft law to establish the Integrity Chamber. The draft law will only create another "untouchable" high council for the country "with huge influence from the Dutch," she said.

 

Such an Integrity Chamber as the Dutch Government is pushing for St. Maarten should be a Chamber for the entire kingdom and not only for St. Maarten, Jacobs said.

 

MP Tamara Leonard (UP) also called on Government to re-examine the country's existing regulations dealing with integrity and see where further implementation is needed.

Leonard asked Government how the draft law would deal with an instance where an MP could be the subject of an integrity investigation. She said the situation would be awkward, as Government would be called on to act on an advice from the Integrity Chamber that related to a member of Government's controlling arm: Parliament.

 

Protocol

Justice Minister Richardson said government "embraces" the recommendations of the many integrity assessments carried on in the country. The Dutch Government, by signing the protocol at the end of May, has "conformed" itself to St. Maarten's wishes as laid out in the draft law, he said. He reiterated his statements that the Council of Ministers could not take away the powers of Parliament and that the protocol did not do that, as believed by some MPs.

 

Richardson said negotiating the protocol had been a way to persuade the Dutch to remove a pending general kingdom measure (an instruction) that would have resulted in the Dutch Government imposing its version of the Integrity Chamber on the country.

 

Prime Minister Gumbs said the push to get the draft law passed and the Chamber established was Government "still fighting to protect our [St. Maarten's – Ed.] autonomy." Government, since taking office half a year ago, has been confronted with threats of instructions from the Dutch Government which "continues to move the goal post" every time St. Maarten makes significant strides.

 

NA leader MP William Marlin said the draft law could not be divorced from the protocol signed by the Justice Minister. He called for a debate in Parliament on the contents of the protocol. He questioned that the protocol, which has mainly to do with strengthening of the country's law enforcement with support from the Netherlands, was coupled with the passing of the law to establish the Integrity Chamber.

 

Marlin said, "This integrity thing is blown out of proportion" and blamed the "weak" Prosecutor's Office and insufficient manpower in the Police Force and other parts of the Justice system for the delay in cases. Those delays have led to the wrong perception of Government.

 

MP Maurice Lake (UP) said he had "some issues" with the protocol: the June 30 deadline and that changes in the law to establish the Integrity Chamber have to be approved by the Dutch. "This method of dealing with things is colonialism in its purest form," he said.

 

"We as the duly elected representatives of the people are going to establish our own Integrity Chamber with our own independent local professionals with a plan of action to address our own integrity issues over any Dutch proposal," said Lake.

 

Jacobs said the protocol signed with the Dutch Government that appeared to offer law enforcement assistance to the country as long as the Chamber was put in place was tantamount to "blackmail" by the Dutch and should be "investigated as an integrity breach."

'Treason'

 

MP Christopher Emmanuel (NA) said the country had been put under integrity scrutiny by its own representatives. He said the Justice Minister, by signing the protocol with the blessings of the Council of Ministers, had committed "treason."

 

Emmanuel called the Council of Ministers "the axis of evil" for agreeing to the protocol. He reminded the ministers that, unlike MPs, no one had elected them to office and said they should not fly up to The Hague to make agreements.

 

The Daily Herald