“Too Many People Going in Different Directions” Doran Warns Progress Not Reaching the People

GREAT BAY--The way member of Parliament Egbert Doran tells it, the honeymoon period for the current government is over and the excuses have run out. The leader of the National Alliance reflected on the one-year since the Mercelina II cabinet took over the reigns of government and, from his seat in Parliament, the MP paints a picture of stalled projects, muddled decision making, and a Parliament that too often shields ministers from scrutiny instead of demanding answers.

“It is a lot of talk and little to no action,” he says, arguing that across several ministries there is a “go with the wind, go with the flow type of behavior,” without clear vision or direction.

Doran says he is entering this new parliamentary term with a more positive and open minded attitude, because constant back and forth with government will not solve problems for the people of St. Maarten. He stresses that he and his team try to bring solutions alongside criticism, and warns that ego often blocks progress. Looking ahead to 2026, he hopes government and Parliament can collaborate more, arguing that politicians share more common ground than differences if they all genuinely want progress for the people.

At the same time, he is blunt that the country has not gotten a fair return on what it has paid MPs and governments since 10-10-10, and that overall satisfaction with political performance is low. He does not claim to have achieved everything he set out to do, but says he can point to concrete results: starting the payment of justice workers’ placement and retroactive rights, signing key VROMI advices and projects that boosted the economy, and approving more than 170 homes that are still on paper.

Those accomplishments matter to him more than being the “youngest minister” or “youngest MP.” He insists, however, that no single party or politician can “save St. Maarten” alone, and that the small size of the community demands more people who match their words with action, which is why he feels justified in speaking strongly about how Parliament is being run.

“Believe in something” versus drifting ministries

For Doran, the core problem is leadership. He accepts that ministers can be conservative or progressive and that they can disagree on direction. What he cannot accept is leadership without conviction. “I firmly believe you have to be a believer of something,” he says. “It could not be in line with what I want, but believe in something and champion it.”

Right now, he argues, that is missing in “the majority of the ministries.” He sees no clear long term picture, no concrete steps that show how the country will get from promise to result. The government, he says, is still referring to what previous ministers did or did not do, but “the time gone, that is what they had done; now you run out of things to say and you run out of ideas.”

The Marketplace: permit signed, vendors still in limbo

Nothing illustrates his frustration more than the Philipsburg Marketplace. As Minister of VROMI, Doran says he signed the building permit that should have allowed construction to begin. He recalls key meetings with stakeholders, including brought Royal Caribbean and Port St. Maarten representatives. They agreed on a concrete plan and biweekly follow ups. The permit was issued and he signed an agreement to use the old government building grounds for temporary tents.

He advised that the temporary arrangement be set at six to seven months, not three, understanding that construction projects often run longer than planned. According to Doran, almost two years later the vendors are still in temporary quarters “in the back of God yard,” with little foot traffic and weak sales.

He says a highly publicized groundbreaking took place just before the election, with “prominent figures” posing at the site. Since then, he claims, activity has only flared up when pressure mounts: some wood moved, an excavator on site, then silence again.

In his version of events, money was never presented as the obstacle. Design changes were. He says the original design was approved by all stakeholders and fully permitted, yet the current minister wanted to change it. After criticism, he received letters saying government would go back to the original design. His question now is simple: “If you are going back to the original design, why haven't we started yet?”

Beyond the construction delay, he is also disappointed, in fact angry, about the lack of relief for vendors. He tabled a motion in Parliament for financial support, modeled on the COVID SSRP relief that was channeled through the St. Maarten Development Fund. The idea, he says, was to use an existing vehicle that already knows how to disburse funds quickly and accountably. To date, in his view, vendors have received no meaningful compensation, only some waivers of fees. “You disenfranchised them for over a year and that is still happening today,” he says.

Mullet Bay and the search for clarity

Doran also returns often to Mullet Bay. He has long argued that government should pursue every avenue to secure the property for the people of St. Maarten.

He points out that the country is a shareholder in the Central Bank and helped rescue Ennia, and that this should translate into a seat at the table when decisions are made about assets that affect St. Maarten. He says he submitted a motion over a year ago requiring the responsible minister to update Parliament monthly on steps taken to secure Mullet Bay, even if only by letter or memo. The motion was rejected as “not feasible.”

Recent public debate about changing valuations of Mullet Bay, including figures of 85 million versus over 100 million, raises more questions for him. He says he does not know who did those valuations and has not seen evidence that they came from government. What he keeps asking is where, in the budget, funds have been reserved to buy land if government indeed has a first right of refusal. “All I am asking for is clarity,” he says.

A Parliament that shields ministers

Much of Doran’s criticism is directed not only at ministers, but at the way Parliament is being chaired. He argues that the current chair of Parliament “shields and protects” ministers by not calling requested public meetings and by accepting blanket claims of confidentiality on documents and advice. He points to urgent public meetings requested by at least three MPs, which by the Rules of Order should be scheduled within four times 24 hours, or within 14 days if the chair rules the request non urgent. In his view, these rules are routinely ignored.

There are also replacement regulations, he notes, that allow another minister or the Prime Minister to appear when the primary minister is unavailable, so repeated postponements because a minister “cannot make it” should not be a reason to delay. For him, if Parliament cannot get answers, he says, then public money and public decisions are effectively beyond scrutiny.

Transparency

For Doran, transparency is where many of the current government’s problems converge. He points first to the Soul Beach project, where Parliament has requested but still not received the legal or financial advice linked to more than one million in public funds. Each time MPs ask, he says, the response is that the advice is confidential. These are government funds, he argues, and therefore fall under open government principles. Withholding the advice is not only unusual in his view, it goes against the spirit of transparency that the law is meant to guarantee.

He links this pattern to the controversy surrounding the nomination of Mr. Jairo Bloem to the Central Bank board. News of that appointment, he notes, could only have come from within the Council of Ministers, since those meetings are closed to the public, and resistance first emerged inside government and the coalition before the opposition raised its own concerns.

In court, according to Doran, Bloom stated that all coalition leaders knew of his appointment, and to date none has publicly denied it. Doran also challenges the idea that a finance minister can single handedly appoint a Central Bank director; in his reading of the charter, the board must nominate and the ministers of St. Maarten and Curaçao must approve. He is particularly troubled by the allegation that Bloem reviewed his own advice related to his appointment and by what he sees as a process that did not follow the rules. “It leaves a lot to be desired when you talk about the ethics and the integrity of this current government,” he says.

VROMI Matters

When Doran speaks about VROMI, he points to a mix of unfinished plans and weakened execution. He says he left detailed proposals for affordable housing behind Belvedere, aimed at families who do not qualify for social housing but cannot afford market prices, with one, two and three bedroom units around 170,000 US dollars and a ten year no resale clause to prevent speculation. Those plans, he argues, have gone nowhere while demand for both social and affordable homes keeps rising.

He contrasts his own approach as a young minister, working alongside long serving staff in the yard and on the roads, with what he now describes as a “total disconnect” between the political level and crews on the ground, and says this is reflected in stalled road works and capital projects. According to Doran, about 10 million guilders in road funding and a multi year plan to expand home connections to the Illidge Road wastewater treatment plant have not been followed through.

He extends that criticism to World Bank and NRPB projects, noting that roughly 65 percent of them once fell under VROMI and citing Marie Laurence school as a case where he signed a building permit years ago but students remain scattered in temporary locations. He questions why local contractors are now losing bids to foreign firms when “everything you see built on St. Maarten was built by St. Maarten people,” and raises red flags about the price of NRPB funded Fire Department vehicles, including a Hilux pickup he says cost over 114,000 guilders compared to local quotes of 50 to 60,000.

The way compensation was handled around the dump relocation also troubles him: in his account, workers and operators in illegal setups were paid, while at least two legal property owners with rental agreements received nothing, then were told to “take them to court.” For Doran, these examples together show that VROMI’s core responsibilities in housing, infrastructure, environmental management and fairness to residents are not being met.

“Too many people going in different directions”

Asked for his overall view of the current government, Doran avoids a simple “everything is bad” line. Visitor arrivals and economic activity are holding, he notes, and taxi drivers, restaurant owners, hotel workers and others in the industry are still recovering some ground.

What troubles him is where the benefits go, and the structure behind them. He points to taxi drivers who pay high monthly fees to license holders, while a small group controls multiple plates and companies. In his eyes, that is part of a larger pattern in which “too many people [are] going in different directions,” leaving the wider population feeling little real progress.

“They say when you know better, you do better,” he says. “I have sat in the position. I did not know everything going in and I did not know everything leaving, but I learned a lot. All I try to do now is bring that knowledge so we can move forward.”

For Doran, that means finishing projects already designed and funded, respecting the Rules of Order in Parliament, and putting clarity and fairness back at the center of major decisions, from Mullet Bay to the marketplace. Whether the current government will take that message on board is another question. For now, he insists, “the honeymoon is over,” and the public deserves more than talk.

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