Strategic Sense

When national interests are under pressure, St. Maarten politicians have a choice to make: hold one another accountable, yes, but also recognize when the moment demands common ground. This is one of those moments.

Former MP Christophe Emmanuel was right in at least two important respects. He was right that when push comes to shove, Curaçao will move to protect and preserve its leverage over the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten. Whatever the legal framework says, the reality is that this “joint” monetary union has not felt truly joint for a long time. He was also right that St. Maarten must protect its own interests and do what it must.

That is why, based on the reporting now in circulation, Minister of Finance Marinka Gumbs deserves to be judged fairly. She will and should face questions. That is part of the job. But she cannot reasonably be held responsible for what was done in 2017, nor for the long years in which the CBCS chairmanship remained unresolved after the court stepped in merely to keep the institution functioning. And if her account is accurate, she also cannot be blamed for Curaçao walking back a verbal understanding allegedly reached with former Curaçao Finance Minister Javier Sylvania.

Ask the questions. Press for clarity. That's the job. But understand what is happening here. Curaçao appears to have lined up in a straight line behind one simple position: they want the chair of the CBCS. St. Maarten, by contrast, now faces the familiar risk of internal fracture at the very moment unity matters most. That would be a mistake.

Because for all the legal nuance, ordinary people can see the political reality plainly. By the simple test of “where yuh from,” court-appointed stopgaps or not, gentlemen agreement or not, Curaçao has effectively held that chair for years through continuity, influence, and control of the institutional terrain. That is the practical truth St. Maarten is confronting, whether or not every decree or handshake captured it neatly.

This is why St. Maarten’s political class must resist the instinct to turn immediately inward and tear each other apart while larger interests move overhead. Accountability is necessary, but so is strategic sense. If there is a national threat, and this increasingly looks like one, politicians here must show they can close ranks around principle even while debating process.

And Emmanuel may have been right about one more thing: this monetary union has been under strain for some time. If reports are accurate, and if Minister Charles Cooper indeed raised the possibility of the union going its separate way during what should have been a governance discussion, then he may have struck the first match on a bridge long soaked in kerosene.

St. Maarten should not panic. But it should not be naive either. This is the time for sharp questions, united purpose, and political maturity. If Curaçao can form a line around its interests, St. Maarten must decide whether it will do the same, or remain as fractured as ever while history is made over its head.

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