SINT MAARTEN (GREAT BAY – By MP Sjamira Roseburg) - Today, 10 October, Sint Maarten turns sixteen as a country.
When I ask people how they feel about 10-10-10, hardly anyone says “proud.” They shake their heads: “Have you seen the price of groceries?” “My GEBE bill is too high.” “I'm paying for internet I can't even use.”
I hear you. You live these problems every day. What you need is action.
I wasn't in Parliament in 2010. Those who were laid the foundation of this country, and I'm grateful to them. Now it's our turn to build on it.
A nation is built, not born
A constitution made us a country. People make us a nation. Nation building doesn't only happen in Parliament. It happens when a teacher stays late, when a nurse works a double shift, and when a young person comes home after studying abroad. Every good law is one brick. Every one of you is a builder.
Sixteen, still growing
Like any sixteen-year-old, we still need help, and we make mistakes. We survived a Category 5 hurricane and a pandemic, back to back.
My work in Parliament covers a range of issues affecting our people. Here are a few examples of the initiatives I’m pursuing and the matters I’m continuing to push forward.
- Cheaper groceries. My initiative law removes turnover tax (BBO) from more basics, from vegetables and meat to cooking gas and menstrual products. Stores must pass the savings on to you.
- Fair bank fees. It shouldn't cost you money to send your own money. I'm pushing for instant transfers that are free or much cheaper.
- Lights, water and internet that work. In 2026, these should simply work. I'm looking into stronger consumer protection and whether we can offer free Wi-Fi in public places. And I keep asking hard questions about your GEBE bill.
- Steady jobs. I'm following the VSA legislation to end the cycle of one temporary contract after another.
- Our youth. I've proposed using the Crime Fund for conflict resolution training in schools and mentors who can say, “I've been where you are.”
Equal in the Kingdom
We are equal partners with the Netherlands, Aruba and Curaçao. A person in Philipsburg deserves the same dignity as a person in The Hague. Our autonomy was earned by enslaved people who resisted, like One Tete Lokhay, by workers who fought for fair wages, and by the voters who chose country status in 2000. We honor them by speaking up, including about slavery and what repair should look like.
As chair of Parliament’s Committee for Kingdom Affairs and Interparliamentary Relations (CKAIR), I fully agree with Wouter Veenendaal, Professor of Kingdom Relations at Leiden University, and Oberon Nauta, senior adviser at the research bureau DSP, who wrote in de Volkskrant today, on our sixteenth birthday, that the Kingdom is failing its Caribbean citizens.
Since 2010, The Hague has tightened the reins on our finances and governance, but on education, healthcare, social security and climate adaptation it looks away: “autonomous country affairs.” As a result, Dutch citizens in the Caribbean increasingly live as second-class citizens, while the Charter obliges the Kingdom to guarantee rights like education and a decent standard of living for all of us.
They are also right about the democratic deficit. Only the Dutch parliament can hold the Kingdom government to account, and we have no vote for it. Åland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, the Azores and Madeira all have representatives in their national parliaments.
Why not us? The Caribbean countries need a much stronger voice in the Kingdom, and the Netherlands must take a step back. As CKAIR chair, I will carry that message to IPKO and to The Hague.
Have each other's back
After Irma, nobody asked what party you vote for or where you were born. There was the neighbor with the chainsaw, the church with the big pot of food, and the young men carrying water up the hill for the elderly lady who lives alone. That is nation building. Let's be that every day, not only when a storm is coming.
What I'm asking of you
Laws take time, and I need support from my colleagues and the government. Your voice makes them move faster. Follow my WhatsApp channel for updates: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb8aini5q08WE8DIvg2w
Come to Parliament, call me, email me. Tell me what's working and what isn't.
Sixteen is when you decide what kind of adult you'll become. Let's decide together. Let's build a Sint Maarten where our youth can stay, our elderly can rest, and we stand as equals in the Kingdom.
Our best years are not behind us. We will build them, together.
God bless our sweet Sint Maarten land.
MP Sjamira Roseburg
