St.maarten – Leader of the United St. Maarten party MP Frans Richardson on Monday night urged Prime Minister William Marlin to finally "put to bed and shut up" Minister of Finance Richard Gibson who, according to Richardson, is "becoming rude and bold in this country."
Richardson tore into Gibson during the USp’s public meeting on Monday night, chastising him for not taking care of workers in his places of business for many years, but quick to talk down colleague MP’s of the current coalition government. According to Richardson, Gibson recently degraded MP’s Silvio Matser and Maurice Lake. "Without those two you could not be a Minister, but you are out here degrading them. Enough is enough with you," Richardson said.
He said Gibson and his habit of "talking down his nose" at people, acts as if he is "Mr. Fix It Alone", failing to remember that it took all 8 of the MP’s supporting the current coalition to appoint him as Minister. "And it will take all of us (eg the people) to leave him on the outside," Richardson said.
"So I am calling on the Prime Minister, it’s time to shut him up. It’s time to put him to bed, he’s old. It’s time for him to go home. It’s a new dawn and it’s time for new leadership," Richardson said.
Richardson said that Gibson’s so called "watch" should be over since his party didn’t agree with him on the issue of tax reform. Richardson, whose party was the first to propose tax reform that would lead to indirect taxation, noted that the National Alliance included indirect taxation in its manifesto released on Monday.
Gibson in late August went on record in the media to state that indirect taxation would not be implemented "under my watch", prompting Richardson to dub Gibson as completely out of touch with the realities of St. Maarten. On Monday, Richardson pointed out that on page 13 and 14 of the Alliance Manifesto, the white party agrees with what the USp has been saying for most of this year: "The reigning tax system has to be reformed in a manner that is fair to all."
“It’s time to shut up and go home”
