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By Will Johnson
It must have been from my mother that I inherited the love of politics. From a very early age it certainly seemed to interest me. My mother was an ambitious woman who saw the political process as a means of advancement for her children. She was a Simmons. I later traced her ancestry to Commander Peter Simmons and his wife Rebecca Correa. The latter was the daughter of Moses Correa the only local person of the Jewish faith. Only daughters he had and they all married gentiles and lost the faith but not the genes. From my mother's line of the family, I am the son of Alma Simmons, who was the daughter of James Horton Simmons, the son of Charles Simmons, the son of Peter Simmons, the son of Solomon Simmons, the son of Commander Peter Simmons and Rebecca Correa, the daughter of Moses Correa.
Isolated on this small rock her ambition must have been implanted in those old genes going back to the Middle East.
At the age of nine I remember following the march between Windwardside and Hells Gate which was organized in support of Saba's first Senator Charles Ernest Voges. I found it all very exicting as well as the elections of l95l.
During my years in Brakkeput on Curacao (l955-l960) the brothers of the boystown made sure that we were politically involved. Angel Salsback on the 50th anniversary celebration of the existence of the boystown reminded all present how we were introduced to democracy. The Executive Council of the Institute at one time or another had people such as Minguel Pourier and others who served as well. Chief of Police in Brakkeput for a while was my friend Victor Monsanto but the boys rebelled beacuse he took the job serious and was too strict. Mervin and Aurelius Scott, Max Pandt, Ben Vlaun, Lou Halley, Louis Van Heyningen and others come to mind who were leaders in Brakkeputs Executive Council.
My first real participation in direct politics was in l962.I had started working at the Postofice on St.Maarten in l960. I took over the stampwindow from the late Jimmy Halley. Since it was the only place on the island which sold stamps and also used by the French side, before Christmas I knew all of the then 3500 people living on the island. By the way I also remember when St.Martin had 83 cars half of which were never on the road because of a lack of parts.
One of my regular customers was Mr. Joseph Lake Sr., who on July lst, l959 had started the weekly mimeographed paper The Windward Islands Opinion. It was through his encouragement that I started submitting articles to the paper. This immediately got me in trouble with the political establishment. Nevertheless Claude saw potential benefits to himself to use me as one of his field men.
In l962 he faced a very difficult election when he decided to run for Senator.
I remember as if yesterday Claude pulling up around dusk in front of Capt. Hodge's Guesthouse under his cups and telling me to get my so and so ready as I had been transferred to Saba for four months. I did not question his word, threw my suitcase together and went down to the pier got on board the Antilia and went to Saba.
The Democrat Party on Saba was in trouble at the time. The popular young Administrator Henry Every had been transferred and was one of the candidates against Claude. He was expected to sweep Saba.
I had been given no instructions. I made the decision to support my own Thomas Van Hugh Hassell. He was the first man of colour from Sabato have succeeded in the Antillean Civil Service. He was also the godfather of my brother Freddie. Something in itself remarkable for Saba in the early l930's when Freddie was baptized. Van Hugh's white sister was married to Wim Lampe then Lt. Governor and this must have initially had something to do with Van Hugh getting a government job. His climb to the top though was his own.
Anyway I took off enthusiastically campaigning for Van Hugh. Who told me to do that. Those who were paying lip service to Van Hugh were at the same time complaining me to Claude that I was campaigning against him.
My father was not with me though. He was a friend of Henry and there was no changing his mind. It is from him that I learned to respect the land. I did not plant when I was young. I did read once that a tablet had been found in the city of UR and was dated 3500 BC and which read: "He brings disaster upon his nation who never sows a seed, or lays a brick, or weaves a garment, but makes politics his occupation." Now you know why I do my planting.From early on I realized that politics was a questionable occupation more than five thousand years ago already. To compensate I try and sow a seed from time to time.
The l962 election results speak for themselves. At the beginning of the campaign Claude did not stand a ghost of a chance against the combination of Voges, Lopes and Every.
The end results were as follows: DP 893 WIPP 747. A win of l46 votes for DP.
The totals were one thing. The individual results were another story. For Claude individual votes under him could spell trouble later on. I did not know all of this at the time. I started to discover that something was wrong when upon return to St.Maarten I had to lug my suitcase up the beach to where I lived whereas Claude and Clem were there at their usual Lido bar headquarters and were well aware of me passing by.
Reconsider here. The party won by l46 votes and Van Hugh Hassell got l52 votes on Saba. Who brought in those votes for him? Also Van Hugh was going back to Aruba. Empty handed by the way. The Ministers job promised to him was not forthcoming. For four years (l962-l966) Claude supported a government with minimal support of l2 parliament members. You telling me that Claude could not get a Minister?
Just for the record here are the l962 election results:
| WIPP |
St.Maarten |
Saba |
St.Eustatius |
Total |
| Lopes, Hugh I |
113 |
7 |
212 |
332 |
| Voges, Ch.E.W. |
75 |
21 |
6 |
102 |
| Every, Henry C. |
22 |
231 |
2 |
255 |
| Donker, A.T. |
2 |
11 |
0 |
l3 |
| Schmidt, Albert |
0 |
0 |
5 |
5 |
| Hazel,Cyril J. |
35 |
0 |
5 |
40 |
| Total |
247 |
270 |
230 |
747 |
| DP |
St.Maarten |
Saba |
St.Eustatius |
Total |
| Wathey, A.C. |
457 |
11 |
28 |
496 |
| Hassell, T.V.H. |
11 |
152 |
8 |
171 |
| Woodley, C.A. |
4 |
4 |
133 |
141 |
| Halley, G.B. |
50 |
4 |
1 |
55 |
| Peterson, C.C |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
| Anslyn, W.C. |
7 |
21 |
0 |
28 |
| Total |
530 |
193 |
170 |
893 |
Claude was more interested in the upcoming Island Council elections for l963 and worrisome to him was the fact that the party had lost both on St.Eustatius as well as on Saba.
In l962 I could not vote I was not yet 21. In l963 I could vote but could not run as one had to be 23 back then to run for office.
In l963 I continued to support the Democrat party and learned a great deal from Claude and Clem in that election on St.Maarten.
By l966 the voting population on St.Maarten had increased a great deal. While the WIPP headed by Hugh Lopes still won on Saba on his native St.Eustatius he lost to the DP with 379 for the DP and only 8l for the WIPP.
In that election I supported my then brother-in-law Reinier van Delden who was the number three candidate in that election for the DP. The top five vote getters in l966 were:
| Claude Wathey |
945 |
DP |
| Austin Woodley |
317 |
DP |
| Hugh Lopes |
208 |
WIPP |
| Eugenius Johnson |
103 |
WIPP |
| Reinier van Delden |
93 |
DP |
In l967 there were no Island Council elections. I travelled to Saba and St.Eustatius with Claude wand helped to engineer a non election.
I felt guilty afterwards and told Mr. Lake that if another election came around that I personally would oppose the Democrat Party if no one else had the guts.
And with that bit of "old time story" the letter to myself will continue and culminate before March lst 2007.
Sometime in the future I would like to try my hand at some serious writing. This is not literature. The Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk defined literature. I hope to arrive there some day. He wrote:
"The writer who shuts himself up in a room and goes on a journey inside himself, will over the years discover literature's eternal rule; he must have the artistry to tell his own stories as if they were other people's stories, and to tell other people's stories as if they were his own, for that is what literature is."
This is my story but that of others as well.
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