Disclaimer: By the time this article is published, there is a high chance that there is a new development with the current political crisis in Sint Maarten.
On Monday, 20th May 2024, the Social Media and the public of Sint Maarten received the announcement that Member of Parliament Kevin Maingrette has rescinded his support of the current '2 by 4' Government and has signed a coalition agreement with the Opposition Factions (of the National Alliance and the United People's Party) to form a new majority in parliament - thus throwing down the government who only had 17 days in office. In response to that, Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Luc Mercelina, invoked Article 59 of the Constitution on Sint Maarten, dissolving the parliament and calling for a snap election.
These proceedings have taken the country by storm, with many people already declaring that they will not be going back to the polls, calling in on the daily radio programs to air out their various grievances, and taking to social media pages and WhatsApp blasts to share their opinions. Many would argue that this is an issue that is derived because of how long it took the government to be established. Others would argue that this is a result of the January 2024 elections. However, this started long before that.
In this piece we will take a theoretical look at the country's politics from 2020 until now and how it led to the explosion to happen. For the personal and emotional explanation of the matter, Click Here.
Cracks too Large to Fix
The other day I told myself that the reaction to the results of the election felt like when a Scooby-Doo Villain gets caught at the end of the episode and states "And I would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids." In this situation, we might assume that the meddling kids would be persons within and outside the political arena that is adamant about holding the political elite of the country accountable for their actions. That is not the question. In 1995 the meddling kid was Hurricane Louis. In 2008, it was the Economic recession. In 2017 it was Hurricane Irma, and In 2020 it was the COVID-19 pandemic. These disasters continuously showed the cracks that were present within the governance of the country and this time there isn't enough asphalt in the world that can patch the current dilemma that we are living in.
In the National State of Affairs Press Conference on May 21st, the Minister of Finance, Hon Marinka Gumbs, and PM Mercelina highlighted that there isn't any money in the government coffers and that essentially the country is broke. How can the country be broke if the last two years were self-reports of continuous economic growth (the Central Bank report which cites slower growth in upcoming years), projects coming to the island at multi-million-dollar deals, and more and more tourism opportunities? The answer is money mismanagement.
As I mentioned before, this is not a present-day issue, but one that has been lingering in the background, waiting for its spotlight on the grand stage.
Money mismanagement is not something that 'accidentally' happens within a country, but it is a clear political strategy that benefits those at the top at the expense of those on the bottom.
Money Mismanagement is not something that 'accidentally' happens within a country, but it is a clear political strategy that benefits those at the top at the expense of those on the bottom. In the political science terminology of things, we can describe our style of governance and economic development as neoliberalism. Neoliberalism can be defined as a political approach that favors free-market capitalism, deregulation, and reduction in government spending. While a theory first formulated in the late 19th Century, it has seen itself as the global form of governance due to the influence of US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 80s.
As a political and economic term, there are different variations on how scholars present this theory. For the sake of simplicity, we are going to use the definition highlighting the keywords "free-market capitalism" "deregulation" and "reduction in government spending" and correlate that with the issues we see in Sint Maarten today.
Free market capitalism is how we were able to push tourism to be the stronghold of our country, allowing for many hotels, restaurants, stores, and casinos to establish business in Sint Maarten. The idea of the more options for tourists to enjoy their stay in Sint Maarten the better. The issue is the concept of more is better is an idea that usually sets you up for failure. The idea of needing more businesses, more competition to bring in more tourists, and by extension, more money means that the government would like to do that as quickly as possible. But how can you do that as quickly as possible if there are regulations in place to streamline a process and ensure proper checks and balances? Here is where deregulation comes into play.
In Sint Maarten deregulation isn't the act of removing the necessary policies but more so of either ignoring the policies that exist or not writing the much-needed policies that are needed. A great example is our casinos. The casinos in the country make a lot of money - especially from our elderly population- and yet in 2022 reports come out about the amount of money casinos owed in backlog in taxes. How an establishment that was only allowed to exist within hotels are now major stand-alone structures across the country? Deregulation. The SER announced that there are 6.9 lottery booths per square mile as of 2021. In a 16 square mile country that is an absurd number of lottery booths. One might ask how is that possible. Where are the regulations for these businesses? Deregulation isn't also present with money-facing ventures for the island as well. Sint Maarten has a Hillside Policy where point 3 states that no building should occur on hilltops, rides, and above the 200-meter altitude line. Unfortunately, I am unable to access the heights of every hill and thus unable to cite whether a lot of these new structures on the hill have successfully found the loophole to said policy and situated themselves at 198 meters, but the policy continues to state at point 5 “certain hillsides, which are considered important for their visual impact on the general landscape, should also be conserved.” A quick look around the country suggests that this has been thrown out of the window. This form of deregulation is not only in contravention of the Hillside policy but also highlights the looming threat of massive landslides that will impact the island as we continue to deal with long drought periods and heavy rains.
This leads us to our last point "reduction of government spending." We can make the argument not that there isn't any money for the government to spend so these fits. While this is true, it is formulated for this exact thing to happen. Paycheck to paycheck is what keeps capitalism running, so why not apply that to governance? It is a dangerous risk to take. Earlier I spoke about how more businesses meant more tourists which equates to more money for the island. So where is the money? It goes back to the original point of this article on money mismanagement. The deliberate mismanagement is aligned so that the country is reliant on these deregulated deals and practices which fills the pockets of those executing and signing things off but keeping the money that is supposed to society function. At the end of the day, it is the people who suffer the most from our enduring commitment to neoliberalism and hyper-capitalism.
Money mismanagement isn't something new to the last ten years, but a continuous practice that has harmed those before us, harmed us, and will harm those in the future if not nipped in the bud.
Politricks.
Quickly switching from the political science point of view to the purely political point of view to look at the last five months. In my post-election analysis, I stated that one of my main concerns is how the opposition would utilize their post-election hostility. Now we know. If we take away all the moral and ethical nuances around the conversations of dropping the government, I believe that this move was a major mistake by the National Alliance and the United Peoples Party Factions. Besides the now obvious issue with MP Maingrette writing a letter to the governor stating that he rescinded his support to that coalition and put back his support to the Mercelina cabinet, it was not the strategic move that would help with their political reputation.
The opposition is there to hold the government accountable, and that is the role that the two factions should've embraced as they took the stance that they were better for the people of Sint Maarten. However, throwing down the government with them only sitting 17 days in office and without a major scandal for any of the sitting ministers, felt hasty, desperate, and manipulative. As a political party, those are the last things you want the public to view you as. The best route would be to play the game of patience. There were visible cracks within the 2 by 4 coalition. The game of patience would've allowed you to understand those cracks and allowed the government to fail. This would've given you a legitimate reason to be like 'Hey, you see we were the better choice." Riding on the momentum of the chaotic process regarding the approval of the credentials of MP Brug and MP Kotai and the issue where the Governor refused to sign the national decrees in which would approve MP Christophe Emmanuel and Raeyhon Peterson to be Ministers (of ECYS & VROMI respectfully) was a mistake, especially seeing how the opposition also had a role in the situation.
My hope for the next election cycle and further is that not just the opposition parties but all that are planning to be active in Sint Maarten politics find themselves with strong and forward-thinking political advisors that would ensure that this - whatever this may be - does not happen again.
The cracks have fully opened, and we are currently doing a free fall into a dark pit where there is no knowledge of the end. There is a possibility that we can find ourselves in the situation of The Last Cliffhanger and find a lucky branch that can give us some time to catch our breath. But one must remember that the tagline is "Can't. Hold. On. Much. LONGER!!"
Does Sint Maarten have the ability, the leadership, and the vision to try to hold on any longer? Who knows.