~Invited wrong person to Parliament~
PHILIPSBURG--Leader of the National Alliance William Marlin admitted on Wednesday that his faction erroneously requested the presence of the Shareholder Representative of GEBE, rather than the Minister of Energy Theo Heyliger to answer questions about the utility company in the plenary session of Parliament.
The Shareholder Representative of GEBE is the company's Shareholding Foundation chaired by attorney and former Lt. Governor Ralph Richardson, who was present on the request of Parliament. Upon realizing his fraction's error, Marlin informed Chairlady of Parliament Gracita Arrindell that his fraction does not intend to enter into a debate with Richardson and indicated that the request to invite the Shareholder Representative will be withdrawn and a new request, inviting Heyliger to Parliament before the close of the first round, would be submitted during the meeting on Wednesday, and it was.
The meeting was a continuation of the session last week and GEBE was agenda point two for discussion. The deliberations on Wednesday were round one of that agenda point. As such, the Alliance wanted Heyliger present before the close of the first round. After Minister of Economic Affairs Franklin Meyers had finished answering questions from Parliament, Arrindell attempted to move on to the second round of the deliberations.
Realizing that a number of questions had not been answered by government, due to the absence of Heyliger, whom he erroneously did not invite, Marlin objected to the closing off of the first round. Marlin proposed that the meeting be adjourned until Heyliger could be present and then finalize the first round.
"We cannot just close off the first round, who will answer these questions?" Marlin asked.
Arrindell explained: "While the questions were being posed, the Minister in charge of Energy was not part of this meeting, and his staff was not instructed to take notes, that is why the invitation and proposal submitted by MP William Marlin, cannot take place. If the MP's wish to invite the minister to come to the floor, then I suggest to Parliament and to the NA faction to submit a new letter requesting for a new meeting."
In that light, Arrindell suggested that if there were no other questions for Minister Meyers, under article 48 she would close the agenda point, and by extension close the meeting.
To which MP W. Marlin responded: "This procedure proposed is nonsensical. The minister does not have to be present. If the staff of parliament is doing its job the correct way, then we would have minutes of this meeting and every question submitted to the minister/government would be drawn up in a report and presented to government. The minister does not have to sit here. If the chair wants to use might over right, you have my blessing but not my support. Because it's about time we stop making a mockery out of the Parliament of St. Maarten. This is nonsense."
MP Roy Marlin used a point of order to remind the Alliance fraction that the mistake was theirs. "We have to have one thing clear. If parliament calls for a meeting, Parliament members debate among themselves. Myself and the other members of parliament have a debate. It goes through a first round, it goes through a second round, if there are questions asked during the debate of Parliament, it goes into a report and that report goes to government because Parliament needs clarification on an issue," he said.
"But it does not say that Parliament cannot have a first and second round debate among itself. Now having a Minister present is a totally different story. If we want the Minister present, then let's request the Minister to be present, not the Shareholder Representative and when you make a boo-boo, you try to muddy the water to create the impression that you're still right. You're wrong," he added.
R. Marlin also said that as a member of the former Island Council when the GEBE Shareholding Foundation was established, W. Marlin should have known better. MP Jules James also stressed that the error was committed by the National Alliance and proposed that deliberation be ended based on article 48. This proposal was seconded and the meeting was closed.
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