~ Also swipes at Lucassen ~
PHILIPSBURG--Democratic Party Member of Parliament Roy Marlin on Thursday dubbed the comments on the bond for St. Maarten by Curacao's Finance Minister George Jamaloodin as "hogwash" and accused the Minister of being jealous of St. Maarten's harbour facilities and the sweat that went into developing said facilities without handouts.
Marlin minced no words in saying that St. Maarten "has had enough," and as long as he is an MP he will not allow any Minister on Curacao to disrespect St. Maarten's ministers or St. Maarten's members on the board of the Central Bank, which St. Maarten partly owns. "If they will be disrespected, let it be by us, not by any Minister in Curaçao," Marlin said. He was speaking during the meeting of the Central Committee of Parliament on the 2012 budget.
Marlin said it was astonishing that Jamaloodin would question a bond for St. Maarten for a top-of-the-line facility like the harbour, when Curaçao got a NAf. 350 bond from the Central Bank for Aqualectra, a company that suffered from massive water and electricity theft from consumers and non-payment of electricity bills without disconnection.
"I'm curious to know under which conditions that bond was given. I'm curious to know the reserve that Aqualectra is putting aside to repay the Central Bank or investors that hold those bonds. I'm curious to see the books of Aqualectra," Marlin said.
In comparison, Marlin continued, St. Maarten has seven cruise ships in port regularly which benefits merchants, car rentals, taxi drivers and tour operators. "And then we must sit back and listen to a Minister of Finance on Curaçao who wants to be critical on investment in an institution on St. Maarten that directly and indirectly creates thousands of jobs," Marlin said.
"So you can imagine my feelings of listening to this hogwash. You're jealous of what St. Maarten was able to achieve. St. Maarten was able to achieve the development of its cruise facilities without any hand-outs or financing from abroad. The most we got was NAf. 10 million from the Dutch to make the project feasible, and they collected interest. St. Maarten was prepared to repay the principal amount of money that they granted to us," Marlin added.
The veteran MP said Jamaloodin had some "gall" to question the bond for the harbour and should simply look at the value of the facility standing in Point Blanche. He said St. Maarten's MPs must be prepared to "let people know where we stand and where we want to go."
In that context, Marlin also chided MP Eric Lucassen of the PVV faction in the Dutch Parliament for his comments regarding St. Maarten's harbour being a transhipment point for drugs. Marlin took issue with Lucassen's comments and reminded the Dutch MP that the port in Rotterdam is one of the biggest transhipment facilities for drugs going into Europe.
He said Lucassen and other Dutch MPs should ask themselves why Curaçao ended up with a container scanner, while St. Maarten's request was never honoured; why St. Maarten's safety plan wasn't funded and why St. Maarten can't get the outstanding NAf. 180 million, which could be utilized for purchasing police vehicles, a container scanner etc.
Marlin also asked why Lucassen and others aren't questioning why the RCN is opting to use UTS's facilities rather than those of TelEm as a landing point for their fibre optic cable.
"But every opportunity they get they jump on little St. Maarten, which after 10-10-10 was never given a fair chance to get justice in order," Marlin said, adding that the Minister of Justice despite all of this ought to be commended for BAVPOL and the extra manpower on the streets.
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