PHILIPSBURG--Two staff members will be allocated per faction/political party represented in Parliament. This was decided during the faction leaders meeting on Thursday, over the objection of National Alliance (NA) leader Member of Parliament (MP) William Marlin.
The proposal to appoint two staff members each to coalition partners United People's (UP) party, Democratic Party (DP) and independent MP Patrick Illidge, and to opposition NA was made by the Presidium of Parliament, headed by President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell, and was presented to the faction leaders.
The two-staff-member allotment is said to be based on Parliament's present budgetary constraints. There are plans to increase the number of staff members for UP, DP and NA in the future.
Faction leaders MPs Roy Marlin (DP), Romain Laville (UP) and Illidge are in agreement with the allocation of the staff per faction.
Marlin continues to object to the allotment, because he sees this as a problem for Parliament's budget in the future, should more MPs go independent and become entitled to the same staff allotment. The allotment should be based on the number of seats won by each party, he said in an e-mail to this newspaper.
"It is unacceptable that someone who leaves a faction and goes independent can claim the same number of support staff as the much larger original faction.
"If all factions, including the chair [Arrindell, ed.], agree to the principle that the allotment of staff should be based on the number of seats each faction has, then there is no reason not to immediately put this into effect, particularly when they all agree, so that if by next week more new factions are created, each of those new factions will be entitled to two support staff," Marlin said.
Arrindell said the decision to hire two staffers each per faction did not require approval of Parliament, as it was based on Parliament's budget. Marlin does not agree with this.
He said this decision created the possibility for Parliament to employ up to 30 support staff if all MPs went independent, which is not covered by the approved budget.
Marlin is considering taking the issue to the floor of Parliament for a public debate.
"Over four months after we have become country St. Maarten, a rush decision is taken because on the one hand it is politically convenient for those factions supporting the government, and on the other hand it covers up for the inability of the Presidium of Parliament to present a fair and democratic proposal to Parliament," he said.
Responding to criticism from DP faction leader MP Roy Marlin and Illidge that he had supported the hiring of faction staff for then-independent Island Councilmen Theo Heyliger and Louie Laveist, William Marlin said that argument did not apply in the present case.
"We are no longer part of the Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles, neither are we Island Territory St. Maarten. We are the Parliament of country St. Maarten. It cannot be that we apply the law when convenient and make an appeal on how things used to be done when we were Island Territory or when we were a part of the Netherlands Antilles.
"With such a mentality and modus operandi, we will never move forward and grow as a strong nation, respecting our constitution and the principles of democracy and good governance," he said.
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