Someone said and I quote: "The Burden of Freedom is not the absence of law, work or a release from authority, but in reality, true freedom imposes more law and more work than slavery, because it demands more discipline and self-control than slavery" end of quote. I don’t want us to focus on the word slavery but I need for us to understand that freedom brings with it a price. We have to be responsible with that which we have been made custodians of and that is to manage our own affairs in a responsible manner.
During my acceptance speech on October 5, 2010 I wanted to place emphasis not only on the government or Parliament but on all of us recognizing that the responsibility for the success in building of country St. Maarten lies with us all. We all have rights but also obligations. We are co-responsible for our health, our education, our environment, our infrastructure and how can we forget crime? These are things that need to be addressed individually as well as collectively. We can’t or should not think that we can do as we please. There are rules, laws or guidelines laid down as to how Parliament, Government and people should behave. The constitution is one of the prime examples regulating such. It speaks about freedom of religion and personal convictions, freedom of expressions of opinions, freedom of education, freedom of association, meeting and demonstration, movement and so on. But as I said before all of this comes with a price tag. We as Parliament and Government must inform the people but this does not mean that people can’t take it upon themselves to go out and seek information and also apply that which they know. I will continuously use this phrase that I learnt some time ago "information without application is a waste of time". My hope is that the professionalism required for the building of country St. Maarten will be exercised at this very critical time in our history. We must change our behavior because we are now called country. Permit me to close with another quote: "There is no way to walk into freedom without shouldering its responsibility" end of quote.