The past year has proven to have been a difficult one. Not just as the year 2011 but as the actual political continuum of a five years mandate that has taken us into a new venture. This new frame work has tested each one of us as individuals, evaluated us in our respective occupations, in the carrying out of our duties and obligations. It has tested our resilience as a people, our ability to stand against all odds and to bounce back. This new reality has tried our capability to draw a most appropriate blueprint for the design of an adequate administrative system and the setting up of an economy suitable for the development of the territory of Saint-Martin and all its inhabitants.2007 to 2011 has weighed us and proven us and some have been found lacking. But as we stand at the beginning of a new year, as the leader of RRR, I feel that we are justified as a group, as a collective unit, in looking into the future with assurance, because we have been diligent and true, we have been the ones to constantly advocate a mode of living in which all could find the joy of life and the joy of work harmoniously combined. As a group, RRR has always encouraged and promoted a united approach and consideration, it has always defended the common good and every recommendation it made, every bit of advice it gave and every suggestion it has brought to the table always carried the general population best interest in mind and at heart. Nothing mattered more than fostering a spirit of ambition that would pervade our very being as a people, and help us make the duties of constructing a new country a prosperous endeavor.
2012 must be the year when a project for this new community is finally written. Hope must be manifested and it must find substance in the setting up of structures and infrastructures for the further development of our country and of the island Saint-Martin. The present conditions of our country, the looming menaces that threaten, compel us all to approach this new year in particular, and those to follow, with sober consideration and wisdom. Last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice. This next voice to be heard is that of RRR. We have understood that to make an end is to make a beginning.
My fellow citizens, it is time to end the slow and consistent deconstruction of our land, the dying of our economy, the distress of our people and it is high time to begin to erect the new, sustained, and further development of the Collectivité d'Outre Mer of Saint-Martin.
In the midst of it all, we at RRR continue to say that there's hope. We must go on and keep our eyes fixed on the goal until we finally come to a place of conquest, a place of success and general achievement and happiness for all.
As the leader of RRR, my wish for Saint-Martin as a community in this present crisis is that it be repositioned as a strong hub of economic development within a region that is in motion.
My wish is that we find the means to continue to represent the Republic in its grandeur within the new Caribbean region and demonstrate how much of an asset this land and its people can be in the building of the world of tomorrow. In this new Caribbean community we must not be an area of non-development. Our children would not forgive us for that.
I wish that as a people we resolutely opt for an improvement of the collective balances and this includes the need for active partnership between both sides of this island. The future of St. Martin is in the hands of our young people, and we are committed to continue providing the necessary support, guidance and infrastructure that will allow them to develop, and St. Martin to flourish.
The development of young people will always be one of RRR's leading priorities. The time has come to choose the development of economic activities knowing that the conquest of responsibility often costs. We must therefore create a strong economic entity in partnership with those who wish to participate in the building of the Saint-Martin of tomorrow.
None must be neglected! Our seniors, the men and women who have provided us with this golden opportunity today, they too, must feel honoured, respected, regarded highly and valued rightly.
As we begin 2012, my team, the women and the men who stand with me and I are determined to work putting the people of our country first. In the beginning of this New Year and this new era, we at RRR are positioned to build in partnership with every man, woman, young and young woman.
Because of my faith, my wish for all the people of this land, whether unemployed or active, whether ill or in good health, whether young or old, is that we finally give substance to the things we have been hoping for and together, each man or woman in his own capacity, bring about a yet very favourable fate within which every inhabitant, young or old will find the joy of living and the fulfilment he or she deserves.
We could not have been brought out this far to be left and abandoned. God will definitely take us in to our land of promise.
Stay put, stand strong. He is faithful that has promised.
A Happy and Very Prosperous New Year to all!
Alain RICHARDSON