-PHILIPSBURG:--- Once the pride of St. Maarten, TELEM Group is now the poster child for corporate incompetence, leadership treachery, and government abandonment. The national carrier’s tailspin is not the result of “market forces” or misfortune—it is a disgrace scripted by self-serving executives, a negligent board, and complacent politicians, with the brunt of the suffering forced onto the people of St. Maarten.
The epic decline of TELEM is pinned to two devastating chapters: 2016 and 2023. In 2016, then-CFO Helma Etnel presided over the first calamitous downsizing, hailed as “efficiency.” Instead, it sowed the seeds for the disaster that followed, leaving core issues unresolved and worker morale in tatters.
By 2023, things went from bad to catastrophic. Under the nose of former CEO Kendall Dupersoy and current CFO (and interim CEO) Randel Hato, TELEM unleashed a second round of reckless downsizing. In a gut-wrenching betrayal of loyalty and experience, 90 seasoned staff members were sent packing in the first wave, followed by 84 more in the next. These were not faceless numbers—these were the very St. Maarteners who carried TELEM for years, discarded without regard. In their place? A skeleton workforce hollowed out and utterly incapable of upholding even the most basic customer services.
The consequences of this carnage are everywhere. Calling TELEM today is a lesson in futility—there’s nobody left to answer the phones. Customers who dutifully pay their bills online are routinely disconnected because payments cannot be processed—a direct result of a billing system now in utter shambles. Emails go unread, complaints are ignored, and the “customer experience” is a cruel joke. Meanwhile, critical leadership roles vacated by locals are being quietly filled by individuals from Curaçao, handpicked by Hato himself. This blatant cronyism has locked St. Maarten’s own out of jobs and hope, even as the Board and government look the other way.
Government oversight, meanwhile, exists in name only. As TELEM bled out, desperate for financial rescue, St. Maarten’s government sat on its hands, ignoring pleas for support and blocking cash infusions that could have spurred modernization or even a lifeline for survival. Instead, the gates were thrown wide for outsiders like Starlink, all but guaranteeing TELEM’s irrelevance. This is not just carelessness, it is betrayal at the most basic level, showing utter disdain for the economic security and digital sovereignty of the island.
And what is left for St. Maarten? An economic anchor turned deadweight. Service quality has crashed through the floor, the workforce is devastated, and instead of a proud national telecom, the island is left with a mismanaged, hollowed-out embarrassment. Customers are punished, employees are abandoned, and faith in local leadership is destroyed.
This cannot—and must not—continue. Those responsible for the wholesale dismantling of TELEM’s legacy must be held to account. The government can no longer hide behind excuses or indifference. The cleanup of this catastrophe requires nothing short of a total overhaul—rooting out incompetence, restoring local leadership, rebuilding with integrity, and demanding performance over patronage.
St. Maarten deserves a telecom provider that delivers for its people and stands as a beacon of national pride—not a symbol of everything that has gone so wrong. The time for half measures is over. Real accountability, real reform, and real leadership are the only path forward. Anything less is permission for this disaster to repeat, and St. Maarten cannot bear another round of betrayal.
