Dear Editor,
This recent backroom meeting, as SMN News called it, between SOL, the Prime Minister, and several MPs is yet another reminder: if you did not know it already, you should know it now. In my view, these politicians do not actually care about finding a real solution. They care about getting glory for selling false hope or using meetings like this for political posturing. Let me explain.
I believe we may be watching something even more troubling: using GEBE as a political instrument to protect certain politicians, reposition others, and possibly change the composition of the government.
Let us look at the players.
On the opposition benches, we have MPs Egbert Doran and Omar Ottley, both of whom participated in the recent meeting with SOL. To be fair, Ottley has consistently championed the GEBE issue. But it is hard to accept either man’s presentation as a potential savior without remembering the government they previously served in.
Their parties had four years in government. GEBE’s problems were not resolved during that period. In my view, the situation became worse.
And please spare us the explanation that Ottley was not the minister responsible for GEBE. This is a politician who embraced the image of being the “minister of everything.” Was GEBE somehow excluded from everything?
Surely, if this issue deserves the attention he gives it now, it deserved the same urgency when he sat around the Council of Ministers table with colleagues who could act.
Then we have the current government.
TEATT Minister Grisha Heyliger-Marten is reviewing GEBE’s fuel-cost calculations and SOL’s pricing through BTP. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Dr. Luc Mercelina has organized his own engagement with SOL and selected MPs.
From what I have read online, the Ministers of TEATT and VROMI signed a ministerial decision to enforce GEBE’s concession and authorize oversight and inquiries through BTP. What this will result in remains to be seen.
And, oh Lord, let me not start with Ludmila de Weever. Apart from a few sound bites here and there, ask yourself: what has she actually, really, tangibly delivered since entering politics in 2020? She left TEATT, a ministry that could have helped address GEBE, and ran to Parliament. She left UP and ran to PFP. Now she has voted against the budget and her own party’s VROMI minister, leaving the public to wonder where she actually stands. A rumor is even circulating that she is forming her own party, and I certainly wouldn't bet against her jumping ship soon. But then again, with Ludi, you never know. And that is precisely the problem. How can the public judge her direction or hold her to a consistent political commitment when, with Ludi, the familiar refrain is: “You just never know”?
Then you have Peggy Ann Dros, also trying to be the savior of GEBE, as though we have all forgotten that she was one of URSM’s founding members. She started with a whole lot of steam, but in my view has become yet another bickering voice, complaining like the rest of us without delivering real solutions. I'd prefer she focus on her job in Labor Affairs, where we already have enough concerns, rather than give us yet another voice on Facebook crying and complaining without delivering the relief people need.
Everyone wants the shine. Everyone wants to be remembered at the next election as the savior. Meanwhile, the people paying the bills are still waiting for relief.
And of course, now you have the Prime Minister, who was already, according to former Minister Richinel Brug, meddling in other ministries. Desperation seems to be kicking in, and now he is doing everything he can to pretend he is coming up with real solutions, even if it means meddling in other ministries or on the opposition benches. He seems to put his own survival above everyone else’s. So we have to look more deeply into why he is making these moves.
According to the published account, the meeting included a URSM MP, Doran from the National Alliance, Ottley from UP, and Ludmila de Weever from PFP, alongside the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
URSM has three parliamentary seats. The National Alliance has three. UP has two. Add Ludmila de Weever's individual support, should she ever choose that direction, and the total becomes nine.
I believe the Prime Minister is, at best, building relationships with opposition members to protect himself or, at worst, outright lobbying to form a new government that would line up perfectly with the nine parliamentary seats represented by that potential alignment.
That would provide a familiar excuse: a new government, a new arrangement, and more time needed.
Meanwhile, the same people would still be paying the same painful bills.
People tend to forget Luc Mercelina’s political history. As a United Democrats MP, he went against his coalition and joined the opposition to pass his motion of no confidence against Minister Emil Lee. Later, he withdrew support from that government and joined a different parliamentary majority. Now, according to SMN News, coalition members urged him to allow BTP’s inquiry to proceed without interference, yet he went ahead with the SOL meeting. To me, the pattern suggests that his own political calculations come first.
Sometimes the simplest answer is the most likely. The simplest answer is that Mercelina and everyone else aren't on the same page, and he'll do what he believes is best for him rather than, as he claims, what is best for the country. My only hope is that we all remember this in the next election.
Rutger Williams.