Member of Parliament George Pantophlet says that you can’t pour new wine into old wine skins. The new wine being the Parliament and the council of Ministers of St. Maarten and the old wine skin being the old mind set of the old and in particular that of the two Ministers Mr. Hiro Shigemoto of Finance and the Minister of Public works with responsibility for the Harbor Mr. Theo Heyliger who know the ins and outs of government.
Just to refresh the people’s memory permit me to state the following; In the case of the Minister of Finance during a Public meeting of Parliament convened to discuss developments surrounding the Budget 2011 some 100 questions were posed to him in writing. The Member of Parliament learnt that the answers are ready and the Minister of Finance is waiting on Parliament to set a date to resume the meeting. Member of Parliament says that the responsible and respectable of the Minister is to send the answers to Parliament as soon as possible and not to follow the old behaviors of the past and wait until the day of the meeting to do so. With respect to Minister Theo Heyliger it was some 6 weeks ago 12 questions were sent to the Minister through the President of Parliament in a letter of March 22, 2011 asking for clarification on the expansion at the Harbor. A picture on the expansion appeared in the Daily Herald of March 16, 2011. The Member of Parliament learnt through a statement in a newspaper article attributed to Minister Heyliger that the expansion was approved in 2007 by the then Island Council of the Island Territory of St. Maarten. He (The Minister) could not give any clarity as to the status of the financial statements of the last 3 years. He even put the onus on the General Shareholder at the time the former Lt. Governor Franklin Richards. This would appear that the Minister was not aware of what is taking place at his harbor, sorry the people’s harbor. The Member of Parliament George Pantophlet says that he will follow up with a reminder through the President of Parliament and if still no answer is received he will be calling for a Public meeting and have the Minister come to the floor of Parliament to answer these questions. We need transparency and after all the Harbor is owned by the people of St. Maarten. This behavior has to change because it is hindering the growth of St. Maarten. We cannot pour new wine into old wine skins.