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Musings on St. Maarten’s labor welfare

May 2, 2008

Yesterday was the day of labor “celebrated” worldwide which made me think of the St. Maarten labor market and its stagnant, rigid and rediculously long process to obtain a work / residence permit for St. Maarten (Dutch side).

Also Stringdude’s submission on the numerology of birthdays and the meaning of it combined with another earlier story of “homeland security” placing a federal agent on cruiseships (California departing vessels are to start this “farce”), it came to mind how easy politics ignore best practices on labor and human rights.

Often implemented rules and regulations on labor movement are counter productive and mostly outright illegal. Now St. Maarten is a special place and close to my heart but it saddens me to see that intelligent people in political positions can’t think further than beyond their wallet and “tomorrow” when re-election time comes around.

Granted tomorrow is not election day but sometime soon, just before St. Maarten will reach “country status” election will have to be held to determine who will lead this 16 Square mile “Dutch” part of the Dual Island Nation into a prosperous country. The cornerstone of a country and its well being are founded in safety, justice and best government practices.

Given the fact that about 110 different nationalities form the salad bowl of a truly cosmopolitan flavor making up St. Maarten’s habitants but are also the cornerstone of intellectual property it seems “mighty” unfair that only very few are given the right to vote on the “political and economical destiny” of the Country St. Maarten.

Let me explain this a bit further. Who has voting rights? Well let’s see: All those that hold a Dutch passport and are registered at the census office. Anyone else. Nope!

So what about those other 109 Nationalities that somehow established themselves on St. Maarten, be it as an entrepreneur, a professional (sometimes invited for their knowledge), a developer, a laborer to do the “dirty” work such as garbage collection or construction workers, sweeping the streets, maids in the hotels and many others, but mostly entrepreneurs that invest sometimes very heavily into the St. Maarten economy? Do they have a say in the wellbeing of the country?

NO

So how many of them are “voiceless”? St. Maarten has some 19,000 registered voters according to the Census and Voting Bureau so that leaves about 25,000 (rough estimation since those that have a dutch passport but are not yet of voting age) are left in the “cold” or better “the hot sun”.

If we talk about democracy, we for sure have a minority that “dictates” the majority. But is this not against the principle of Democracy where the most votes “Count” for the policy that needs to “steer” St. Maarten as a country? How can we uphold the principle of democracy if the majority is not allowed to voice their opinion? And … what has this to do with the St. Maarten labor market?

If not everything than at least almost everything since those that do not “hold” a Dutch passport have to renew their work and residence permit every year or every 2 years and it now looks like that the minority has decided that you can only reside on St. Maarten for a maximum of 3 years as a professional. If you start a business, invest heavily into providing job opportunities, but do not hold a Dutch passport, you MUST fear the possibility that the minority says that your residence permit is revoked the next renewal time around.

So what about your investment, what about your business you build? Well, if you can’t sell it and recouperate what you invested before you “overstay your welcome” (your permit expired), it all goes down the drain.

Where is the legality of this in a democracy that is determined by a minority? And how does this reflect the intellectual property of a country?

Brain drain for one but secondly and much worse, you attract the “fly by nights” and daredevils, the shady investors and the illegal operators that open today and close shop tomorrow much more so than the legitimate investor that can bring real long term value into the country and build a nation that prospers from its labors and financial injections.

A history lesson that seems to be forgotten every morning our leaders wake up and dream-up another pesky way of creating roadblocks for legitimate businesses to prosper seems to be more important than the experiences from yesteryears whereby “the tighter you pull the leash the more you choke the democratic system” and create unwillingly underground illegal practices such as forcing legitimate businesses to circumvent the burdensome legal labor market for the “illegal” employees with all its economic consequences. Since the control mechanisms are virtually non-existent the snowball effect gains momentum with each new “law” or rule that comes out of a minority leadership to secure their next election. This is where shortsightedness turns to blindness and we all know that the “deaf leading the blind” does not hold a promising future.

Written by admin · Filed Under Local News 

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