Uw ingezonden brief in de Knipselkrant Curacao? Stuur uw brief voor 21:00 uur naar emailadres INGEZONDEN. Wij publiceren uw brief zonder deze in te korten. De redactie van de Knipselkrant Curacao is niet verantwoordelijk voor de inhoud. Ingezonden stukken die opruiende of dreigende taal bevatten worden door ons niet gepubliceerd.

Vandaag laten we Perry F.M. Geerlings aan het woord.

Perry Geerlings, oud-minister van Financiën van Sint Maarten, stuurde – onder de kop ‘Petition on behalf of The Parliament and Citizens of Sint Maarten, (Mis)representation’ – onderstaande brief naar Peter C. Choharis van het (gelijknamige) advocatenkantoor The Choharis Law Group in Washington DC, degene die de inmiddels gewraakte petitie opstelde en uitstuurde naar ‘The Special Tapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance’ en ‘The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent’, beide van de Verenigde Naties (VN):

Dear Sir, I am a citizen of Sint Maarten, Dutch West Indies. Via local media outlets I found a copy of your petition dated March 9th, 2021 to the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and to the Working Group of experts on People of African Descent (‘the petition’).

I am not writing to you to complain about the many errors on facts in the petition. The reason that I write to you is about your statement on the first page of the petition that it is filed on behalf of Parliament and Citizens of Sint Maarten. I would just like to let you know that you do not represent me as a citizen. Perhaps you represent 12 individual Members of Parliament and perhaps some associated other citizens with their own personal gain reasons.

Sint Maarten is a country of laws that externally is represented by its Government, not by the aforementioned 12 Members of Parliament. On the basis of our civil law, the country cannot be bound by obligations that those 12 Members of Parliament might have entered into with you. I therefore kindly request you to clarify publicly who your contracting party to this assignment really is and who do you do (not) represent.

I assume that the rules of professional conduct for you practicing law holds an ethical obligation to be clear about who the client is. And that is certainly not me, not Country Sint Maarten and not Parliament as a whole. Eagerly anticipating your response, I remain, with kind regards.

Perry F.M. Geerlings,
Citizen of Sint Maarten