I totally agree with S. M. Richardson’s opinion on page 29 of Saturday, September 21st Herald.
I remember in the early 90’s when Holland so desperately wanted to bring down the sledge hammer on Dr. A. C. (Claude) Wathey. They threw everything at him and the then Leader of the Democratic Party was being crucified by all those who in the past had been too chicken to open their mouth to say anything, but now that Claude seemed to be "down and almost out", especially supporters of his opposition had a FIELDDAY. They ranted and raved about corruption, dictatorship, nepotism,and you name it, all to the glee of the Dutch who promptly pointed out to their own constituents across the pond, that even St. Maarteners complained about the all mighty Claude. They promptly organized a "Claude round-up" and orchestrated his well publicized arrest. And then I experienced what I forever remember as "my greatest political teachable moment": José Lake Jr., the local newspaper publisher, the political analist, the leader and mouth piece of the "Independistas" on St. Maarten, who had, as far as I was concerned, always been one of THE biggest and loudest critics and opponents of Dr. Wathey, made the following public statement (and I paraphrase here): "Holland, keep your hands off Claude Wathey; he may be whatever you claim he is, but he is OUR Claude Wathey. We will deal with him, not you!".
No one ever expected that one of Claude Wathey’s defenders against the Dutch would be one of his biggest local opponents. S. M. Richardson is saying the same thing to all the political pundits and pseudo pundits: become big enough in your thinking to NOT relish in the thought that the Dutch, or anyone else for that matter, need to come and do our "dirty" work. We need to have enough integrity and sense of what is right from wrong to deal with those amongst us who feel that "because I from here, I can damn well do as I please". Thumbs up to S. M. Richardson, who I know is a proud young St. Maartener, wanting to make a positive contribution to his new country.
Michael J. Ferrier
President of the Democratic Party.