Philipsburg, Sint Maarten — already that the new proposed coalition is already unable to lead this country and bring through stability in government which they so proudly professed,” the United People’s Party (UP) Board said on Tuesday.
The National Alliance (NA)/Democratic Party (DP)/United St. Maarten Party (USP)/Silvio Matser/Maurice Lake led coalition, for two days could not even muster a quorum in order for parliamentary business to be handled in the House of Parliament, the UP Board said. On Monday, a plenary session was on the agenda where Members of Parliament would have discussed membership of various parliamentary committees etc. Absent was MP Silvio Matser of the new majority.
“MP Matser stood up on the floor of parliament so adamant to leave the UP-led coalition for reasons yet truly unknown but fails today to take his role seriously,” the UP board added.
On Tuesday, once again the new majority coalition led by NA/DP/USP/Silvio Matser/Maurice Lake, could not muster a majority among themselves to hold a Central Committee meeting regarding double taxation between Sint Maarten and the Netherlands. Absent from the meeting of the new coalition were, MPs Silvio Matser, William Marlin and Frans Richardson.
“MP Marlin needs to balance his responsibilities properly instead of running around the country to form an ad hoc short lived government,” the UP Board said. “We are closely monitoring these developments in parliament especially since much was said with the 8 vs 7 scenario,” the UP Board added.
As the Democratic Party pointed out in recent media reports, indeed the new majority in parliament MPs led by the NA/DP/USP/Silvio Matser/Maurice Lake are once again duping the taxpayers by not being able to muster their majority together. When the UP signed in for the parliament discussion on the Integrity Chamber Law, members of the so-called new coalition were missing in action at the costs of taxpayers.
“Clearly the stability of the new eight member coalition is already in shambles and its reason why we support any call to allow the people of St. Maarten to freely express their democratic right by the power of the ballot,” the UP board stated.
The UP Party Board agrees that this ‘old and outdated political practice’ needs to stop and the NA/DP/USP/Silvio Matser led coalition partners have not stepped up to the plate by not getting their act together.
“Eight seemed to be the new magic number in Parliament but they have failed in their responsibility by not showing up to support meetings of Parliament. The new majority coalition needs to show some sort of political maturity to lead, and so far they have been miserable at it to say the least,” the UP board concluded.
