PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — Independent MP Christophe Emmanuel on Thursday said it was a pity that Minister of VROMI Egbert Doran would break the goodwill of the holiday season with “a set of tomfoolery and stupidity” during an interview on Thursday morning.
Emmanuel said that while listening to the Minister, a persistent source of corruption in government, accuse him (Emmanuel) of “everything under the sun,” he sat there bewildered and merely shook his head. They have already lost, according to Emmanuel, if that is their game plan.
The sole benefit of “Doran’s ranting” on the radio, according to MP Emmanuel, was that it served as a timely reminder that he (Emmanuel) still has unresolved issues with the prosecutor’s office and the manipulation and rigging of the waste collection contracts, outlined in the now infamous Ombudsman report.
“The Minister of VROMI actually got on radio and said I created the Irma dump, somehow forgetting that it was an emergency situation for the country and somehow forgetting that the decision was taken by the EOC (the Emergency Operations Center) who takes over in such calamities. And who was the chair of the EOC after hurricane Irma? The Prime Minister at the time and his leader MP William Marlin,” MP Emmanuel said.
Emmanuel said the Minister of VROMI is so used to speaking lies as truth, that he cannot summon the wherewithal to actually speak the truth or common sense. “Boasting of things the current government has to fix, when your own party formed part of the “past” that you are speaking of, is infantile and begets us nothing. It may come as a shock to the Minister, but it is called doing your job. A coward’s method of operation is to conveniently overlook their own mistakes while riding on the backs of others. The people should consider the source,” Emmanuel said.
The MP said a case in point is the Minister bragging that he fixed Belvedere homes. “The Minister took a lot of pictures in Belvedere after he and his government rejected the housing foundation’s request for financial aid to fix the same houses. But today you can run on radio and take credit for renovations made possible by trust fund money. The Dutch paid for the renovations, the puppy’s in their laps handed out the keys. Let’s get real man. Housing foundation doesn’t report to government or you forgot that too,” Emmanuel said.
He continued: “It is amazing to me that this same Minister when he was an MP criticized the Leona Romeo government for depending on funding from the Dutch. This same Minister called Leona a sellout and played the song Country for Sale. But today, the trust fund money and the Dutch are great, so great you can claim credit and take pictures. I keep telling the people of St. Maarten that they have to reject these kind of dubious leaders in sheep’s clothing.”
MP Emmanuel said he agreed with one statement the Minister made when he said that “the truth never changes.” “I agree with this and this will include the fraudulent handling of the garbage collection contracts outlined in the Ombudsman report in which fraud was clearly identified. I will be increasing my call and take further steps to get the Prosecutors office to finally wake up and investigate this report from a high council of state,” Emmanuel said.
He continued: “How is it possible that a high council of state presents a report where fraud is at a minimum alleged by a sitting Minister and the prosecutor hasn’t picked it up. And if they have, then an update is due. The Minister can spew a million lies if he wants to, they will not cover up his atrocious tenure as Minister of VROMI will be revisited and further exposed so our people never forget the kind of personality, full of vindictive tendencies and deal-cutting intentions, that currently occupies a Ministerial post.”
