Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius Moving to Establish Direct Ties with the Netherlands

Bonaire---Oct. 4, 2006----They have no comprehension of the “jealous” feelings reigning on sister islands Curaçao and St. Maarten. Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius are going ahead to realise direct ties with the Netherlands. Their goal: creating a better life for their citizens, with or without the bigger islands.

Bonaire’s Commissioner Reginald “Yonchi” Dortalina said the trajectory of the smaller islands and that of Curaçao and St. Maarten, which are seeking country status within the Kingdom, were “totally different.”

“It is not fair. You always hear that we are ballast. Now that we want to go, they want to hold on to us. Let us go. If you hold on to me and help me, I could agree, but if I have financial problems and you don’t help me, then you have to let me go to the one that can help,” Dortalina said.

Saba’s Commissioner Will Johnson said Curaçao and St. Maarten were “deceiving themselves.” Instead of seeing the smaller islands as a threat, they should see them as an example, he said.

Johnson implied that the constitutional process had been St. Maarten’s agenda with that island being the first to have a referendum in 2000. “They more or less forced us to have a referendum. St. Maarten has been leaning back on everybody to get separate status for them,” he said after the bilateral talks with the Dutch Government in Bonaire Tuesday.

Statia’s Commissioner Roy Hooker said he was taking no heed of jealousy statements. “They (Curaçao and St. Maarten, ed.) have been traitors to the smaller islands. It was the two more economically stable islands who pong on their chest. They cut us off, threw us to the dogs and said find your way,” he said.

Hooker said the smaller islands were now finding their way. He said it was not right for Curaçao and St. Maarten, which he said had so many resources, to put their “failures at the door” of the smaller islands.

“We are suffering up to now because of what they are doing. We need a solution and when we go to them, there is no solution to be had. They don’t think about the smaller islands. They only think about themselves,” he said. Hooker said that if they had to drag the Netherlands to the table “kicking and screaming” to assist, they would do so.

The smaller islands have been suffering, and that is why they decided to “take the bull by the horns” and to directly approach the Netherlands, said Johnson. “After all, we are responsible to our people to look after their needs. Curaçao and St. Maarten have to solve the problems for themselves. We can’t wait any longer,” he said, adding that they had already been waiting since St. Maarten’s referendum.

Johnson said the smaller islands had already had a “negative experience” when Aruba left the Antillean constellation in 1986 and the smaller islands became dependent on the Solidarity Fund, a system that had not worked properly and had never been formalised. “What they expect us to do? Our people’s wish is direct ties. That is what we are working out,” he said.

The Netherlands, said Johnson, has been “reluctant” in assuming its responsibilities, as stated in the Charter, to tap the Central Government on its fingers and tell Willemstad it hasn’t been “acting correctly” where it comes to the needs of the smaller islands. “We know and we see that a lot of money is being spent, wasted in Curaçao. All we are asking for is equal treatment,” he said.

Johnson questioned how NAf. 2 million of the Telecommunications Bureau could have been given to University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA) as a gift, while the Central Government only lent Saba money, charging interest, so the island could pay its medical bills and its civil servants’ vacation allowances. He said the Minister of Finance also hadn’t cooperated in solving the issue of the Solidarity Fund.

According to Hooker, members of the Antillean Council of Ministers have been thinking “insular” lately, looking out only for the interest of their island, and with the majority of the ministers coming from Curaçao, the Central Government has gotten an “insular feel.”

Dortalina said Curaçao and St. Maarten had an example to work with: Aruba. The smaller islands, however, have to work on realising a new concept. “We have to create the direct ties that now don’t exist. That means we have to move fast to keep up so we can be ready for the others,” he said, referring to the target date of July 2007 to realise new relations in the Kingdom.

Bonaire Island Council member Ramoncito Booi (UPB) said especially Curaçao had no right to complain. He said Curaçao was “already the Netherlands Antilles” with the “political force” being there. “They should not be in a hurry,” he said, implying that a new status would have more disadvantages than advantages.

“We have a problem with the Antillean political structure and a Curaçao that is not taking care of our problems. We have to look for other solutions and fast. The Netherlands ultimately is responsible for us and we are holding it to that,” said Booi.

Direct ties of Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius with the Netherlands are starting to take shape as talks in Bonaire on Monday, Tuesday and again today, Wednesday, progress. Parties are fine-tuning the agenda and preparing a document for next week’s mini-summit in The Hague.

There is no stopping the three smaller islands. The islands, to which the Netherlands is already referring as the K3, the K standing for Klein (“small” in Dutch), are determined not to wait for the other two islands in the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao and St. Maarten, to work out their desired status to become countries within the Kingdom.

Bonaire is going for a municipality status, with special circumstances and adapted to the local situation, what they call “sui generis.” Bonaire would rather not speak about integration or association.

Saba, on the other hand, is more comfortable with the status of association.

St. Eustatius is not giving it a name yet, but agrees with the advice of the Dutch Council of State that suggested the structure of an extraordinary public entity tailored to the local situation of the islands.

Whatever it will be called or how it will be formalised, important for the three islands is that direct relations benefit their people. The suffering at the hands of Willemstad has to stop, said the three Commissioners of Constitutional Affairs Reginald “Yonchi” Dortalina of Bonaire, Will Johnson of Saba and Roy Hooker of St. Eustatius.

They clearly conveyed that message to the Dutch delegation headed by Minister of Administrative Reform and Kingdom Relations Atzo Nicolaï. Bonaire had bilateral talks Monday afternoon, Saba and St. Eustatius had their individual discussions with the Dutch Tuesday morning.

Commissioner Johnson said several issues had been discussed with the Dutch. He mentioned Saba’s financial problems, what the structure of the new relations would look like and the islands’ right to self determination, which in Saba’s and Statia’s opinion should not be tampered with too much. Thrash out

Johnson said the sessions in Bonaire especially served the purpose of “thrashing out” and getting a “feel” for what the smaller islands want in anticipation of next week’s mini-summit. “All we ask for is equal treatment,” he said. He said the smaller islands needed The Hague to intervene. The Netherlands, based on the Kingdom Charter, has enough authority to do just that, he added.

Commissioner Hooker said the talks had been “good.” He told the Dutch that the time had come to come to a conclusion on this matter, he stated afterwards.

“The Minister, of course, is looking at the formalities. If there is anyone who has tried hard to keep the Antilles together, it has been Statia. But there comes a time when you have to go on, take what is there and build what is best for our people. We made it clear that no one should be able to stop us now from progress,” he said.

Hooker said that whatever agreements came out of the meetings in Bonaire and in the Netherlands would have to serve as a working document, a “white paper to go forward,” giving body to the direct relation. Active role

He said the smaller islands had decided to take on the active role, demanding that the Netherlands act. “This thing about having to wait and hear what the others have to say is no longer acceptable. We need change. We have been talking and talking and things have been getting worse,” he said, referring to what the smaller islands call neglect by the Central Government.

The islands are looking for a balance in sharing responsibilities with the Netherlands. Commissioner Dortalina mentioned The Hague’s guarantee function. On the other hand, the islands should have the possibility to look after certain of their own affairs like the infrastructure and the daily running of government.

Responsibilities that the islands have difficulty in carrying, like finances, police, Customs, education and public health, would be in the hands of the Netherlands/Kingdom.

Bonaire is proposing a study into the level of facilities on the islands to see what investments will be needed to improve this. He stressed that Bonaire differed greatly from Dutch municipalities, mainly because of its location and culture. “We can’t be equal to a municipality,” he said. This means that the structure would have to be adjusted to the local situation, using elements from Dutch municipalities. He said it was important that the people in Bonaire could live under acceptable circumstances.

Bonaire’s Island Council member Ramoncito Booi said his island agreed in principle with incorporating Bonaire in the Dutch structure, making use of article 134 of the Kingdom Charter. The municipality “sui generis” style would offer different possibilities.

Then the levels of facilities could be defined, which would have to be reflected in a budget. Debts would have to be paid and investments made to create sustainable economic and social development, said Booi. He said Bonaire agreed some 80 per cent with the Council of State. Not restrictive

The three islands share the common feeling that their relations with the Netherlands should not be restrictive and should give them room to grow constitutionally and economically. “There should not be a ceiling. We should be able to expand ourselves, meet our potentials. People have to see there are possibilities,” said Hooker. Johnson said there should even be the possibility of going independent should the people want that in the future.

The islands agreed that the Kingdom/Netherlands should have the possibility of having some authority, some form of representation. The Council of State suggested a government commissioner, a council to facilitate the integration and a joint Governor who could also serve as Commissioner of the Queen.

Johnson said Saba had a “problem with this Governor business.” He suggested having direct contact with the Dutch Minister of Home Affairs, similar to the system of British overseas territories.

The talks in Bonaire close off today, Wednesday with a plenary session. Nicolaï and his delegation then travel on to Curaçao. There they will meet with Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage and Governor of the Netherlands Antilles Frits Goedgedrag before boarding a plane back to the Netherlands the same evening.