Leader of the Democratic Party on Saba Mr. Dave Levenstone on Tuesday afternoon said that he is following the emotional outburst of Saba’s Commissioner of Constitutional Affairs Mr. Christopher Johnson very closely.
Personally speaking I don’t think that the Commissioner outburst makes any sense whatsoever. To me it is a smoke screen without fire that Commissioner Johnson has thrown out in order to take away certain criticism from within the community of Saba about his functioning. It is a matter of diverting the attention from other pressing important matters on the island.
According to Mr. Levenstone there are political differences of opinion within the ruling Windward Island People’s Movement and the party is not at all together and the majority of them has an issue with the present Senator for the party in parliament, Senator Ray Hassell. Levenstone went on to state that instead of the smoke screen he feel that the party should have instructed the senator to request a meeting of the Central Government coalition to discuss the call of the Prime Minister for Parliamentary elections. The Prime Minister is being accused of not consulting with the other coalition parties and the Commissioner has done the same thing with his call for secession. Other members of his party was not aware of the call being made.
Levenstone went on to state that from his information the party did not discuss this present call of Commissioner Johnson and he feels that the Commissioner is only out to confuse the community of Saba and throw stones in their eyes. the letter which was presented to Mr. Henk Kamp in Levenstone opinion does not stand any ground because it is not a position of the Island Council of Saba who is the highest elected body and can call for such move to be made.
Talks about not transferring the Turnover Tax to Willemstad and lowering of the Antillean flags is utter nonsense. Saba should have been withholding 1% from the TOever sincece it was first introduced. Lowering of the flags is nothing new because in front of the Government Administration Building the Antillean flag has not been flown for over a month now.
The Commissioner is trying to divert the main issues at hand. He is not informing the civil servants why they cannot collect their outstanding periodical allowances from 2003, throwing the blame on Curacao, CFT and the Dutch Government has become a common practive where this is concerned. He recently traveled to Miami to discuss and look at pre fabricated homes there, he also attended the dollarization congres on Curacao, he should be out there informing the Saban community about his recent trip to the Island of Bonaire where he held discussions with Bonaire and St. Eustatius, he should be also informing the people of Saba about what type of taxes they will be forced to have to bear once Saba becomes a part of Holland and he should be out there letting the community know about the Geothermal energy that they have been traveling up and down to Nevis about, he should be also informing the community what is happening with the Social Economic Initiative Projects. It is very easy to throw up a smoke screen to divert attention. What amount of money will the senior citizens on Saba be receiving once we become a public entitity these are important issues for the community to be aware of. What will the minimum wages be after we become a public entitity. Why aren’t any Sabans being hired to work at the Regional Service Center and why aren’t our young people being accepted into the Coast Guard Service, the Police Department and the Immigration Department.
Several of our young people has recently received back word that they have successfully passed their CXC examination with flying colours, how come we ain’t hear the Commissioner coming out to congratulate the youngsters for being successful and explaining to them why some of them are not able to obtain a scholarship. All of the aformentioned are more important than this smoke screen about seccession.
The majority of the people on Saba voted in 2004 to leave the Antillean constellation and everything is being worked out and put in place to achieve that goal of the Saban community. I don’t see how and why the Central Government should be blamed, Saba has more or less giving the Dutch Government carte blanche to do as they please and according to me that is being done. Holland is sending their people here on a daily basis to put things in place and once that is completed the country as we know it now will be totally dismantled. The Dutch Government has been moving the goal post constantly.
Levenstone said that he never intended to get into this smoke screen bussines, but he just could not sit back and allow this thing to go on without making a public statement. What is also very interested to know is that with all of this I have not heard a word from the political leader of the WIPM party Mr. Rolando Wilson, I take it that he is once again going along for the sake of party loyalty but deep down he is not in agreement.
If this matter of seccession is so important I challenge Commissioner Johnson to call home the Senator of the WIPM party and the State Secretary becuase if you are not happy with the Central Government then your party should declare itself outright and go into the opposition benches until after the elections. The people of Saba should be granted the rights to go to a referendum to see if they agrees with this seccession call by Commissioner Johnson don’t use the excuse that the people has spoken out in 2004 in referendum. They did not vote for seccession in 2004 they voted for direct ties with Holland and that is being worked on. We have to stop trying to confuse the mind of the Saba people by throwing the blame on Curacao for everything.
I hope that when we leave the Netherlands Antilles that within one month we don’t hear them blaming Holland for everything that goes wrong. Already he hear them blaming the Cft for everything. This game has to stop and come clean to the people of Saba and stop playing dirty politics.