12 years in, now what? a short reflection on country sint maarten.

I remember the elections before we officially gained country status within the Kingdom. As a child, it was a huge spectacle. I remember all the banners for the various political parties, the rallies, and William Marlin’s jingle on the radio going '10.10.10 and beyond.' It was a time. As a young child who was always curious about politics and how things work, I was fascinated. My young brain saw this as a jump into something new, something exciting, something that would be a much-needed change for the island. I did not fully understand what the transition to constitutional status meant. I just thought it was cool that we finally had a Prime Minister. We made history at the time by having a woman as a Prime Minister and the President of Parliament, something that was rare in the region. It has been twelve years since this curious eleven-year-old was fascinated by the entire process. It has been twelve years since we became Country Sint Maarten. But we are twelve years in but somehow it doesn't feel that way. 
 
The political climate in Sint Maarten today can be nicely described as troubled. Troubled in the sense that there isn't a clear vision for the country, especially in how we perform governance. It is disheartening that this is where we are. However, it shouldn't be surprising. The country has suffered from a lack of stability for 10 of its twelve years of existence. We are on our 9th government and that does not create an environment that is conducive to growth. Now we have our longest-serving government and parliament and even then, that stability has shown many unstable moments. We are at the point in time where our government is seen as a spectacle.  We've spent the last twelve years producing what could be an award-winning reality show but at the cost of the livelihood of our people. That is not a good thing to show after twelve years. 
 
The last five years have honestly shown us that we are not ready, nor mature enough to deal with the concept of autonomy. Hurricane Irma destroyed us. The Covid-19 pandemic put the entire country on pause. The response to these two phenomena put us in even more dire positions.  We play the victim every single time and do not hold ourselves accountable for actions that might've made a situation even worse. We refuse to undo the harm and play the blame game. We don't care about making sure the people of Sint Maarten are at least not alright. We just care about the concept of power and use the struggles of the people to put us in said power. Usually, in these pieces, I would provide a couple of solutions to various problems that we have. Unfortunately, you can only suggest so much if all it does is fall on deaf ears.  It is a very somber moment that we've made such a historical stride to gain that autonomous status in the Kingdom and have done nothing but continuously push this country down the drain. Imagine I must remember that 2000 referendum, but in the last twelve years you've done nothing to show that the referendum was one of the best things that have happened in the history of Sint Maarten. 
So, I ask, now what? We are all going to say our little speeches, about how we worked hard for this position. But what's next? Another twelve years of confusion, instability, and the same equipment in the parliament building?

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