Heyliger calls for unity, healing at remembrance Claude Wathey

July 24, 2016

PHILIPSBURG–“It is time to put aside differences. It is time to let healing begin for our country and to move it forward.” This is what United People’s (UP) party leader Member of Parliament Theo Heyliger said his grandfather, the late Dr. Claude Wathey, would have called for if he were alive today.

Heyliger, clad in a red polo shirt, made the unity-and-healing speech at the wreath-laying ceremony to mark Wathey’s birth anniversary at his statue in front of the Government Administration Building on Sunday. Wreaths were laid by UP, the Wathey family, University of St. Martin (USM) and the Democratic Party (DP), the political party Wathey formed together with the late Clem Labega, and others. DP leader MP Sarah Wescot-Williams was also present for the ceremony.
“I decided to wear the colour of the party he established, which was the red colour. Let’s put aside political differences. Put aside political party and realise that red means the true blood and the heartbeat of our country,” said Heyliger, a former DP member.
Continuing about advice his grandfather would have imparted, Heyliger said, “I believe he would say it is time for the healing of St. Maarten to begin, and a new future to be brought for our people, and we should forget about the personal interest everyone is looking for in this election and start looking for country above self and making St. Maarten a great country again.
“A stable St. Maarten, Theo, he would have said … It is time to put aside differences. It is time to let healing begin for our country and to move it forward,” the UP leader stated. “He would have also said it is time to look at the economy, because our people are hurting.”
Wathey, seeing the state of the country today, would have said, “It is also a time to look at our education system, because our people need to have the strength and education to go forward and to hold hands together, and to make our country heal and to grow as a nation together,” said Heyliger.
“The ole man was always about the people. The ole man was always about making sure the country was above self … Today, we can feel good to have known a man that gave his life to our country, a man that has as built our country,” Heyliger said.