THE HAGUE--The Kingdom Council of Ministers on Tuesday morning approved the appointment of Eugene Holiday as Governor of new Country St. Maarten and Frits Goedgedrag as Governor of Country Curaçao.
Current Acting Lt. Governor Reynold Groeneveldt has been appointed as Acting Governor of Country St. Maarten, it was stated in a press release issued by the Dutch government Information Service RVD.
Both appointments are effective October 10, 2010, the date that St. Maarten and Curaçao officially attain the status of countries within the Kingdom.
Goedgedrag is currently Governor of the Netherlands Antilles. His current replacement, Adele van der Pluijm-Vrede, was appointed as Acting Governor of Country Curaçao.
The approved proposals were submitted by Dutch caretaker State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten.
The Kingdom Council of Ministers also took a number of other decisions relating to the process of constitutional reform. The Constitutions of Curaçao and St. Maarten were approved and a large number of Kingdom Decrees endorsed.
These decrees included the taking over of monetary loans, the legal succession of civil rights, method of determination of the minimal size of the police forces of the islands, the legal position of the members of both the Joint Court of Justice and the Public Prosecutor's Offices, the legal succession of the Social Insurance Bank SVB, the settlement of the property of the Netherlands Antilles and the SVB.
The decisions were important to clear the way for the debate in the Second Chamber Tuesday evening on the Implementation Kingdom Decree to amend the Charter.
Commenting on his appointment, Holiday stated on Tuesday that he was "greatly honoured" to serve in the function as Governor for country St. Maarten. "I am deeply humbled by the confidence placed in me by the Government of St. Maarten and the Kingdom Council of Ministers to carry out the tasks and responsibilities of first Governor to uphold the constitutional state and to serve the people of St. Maarten in this critical and all-important period in history of my beloved island."
"In the spirit of the people of St. Maarten and in the tradition of the Kingdom, I am hopeful and confident that with help of God we will continue to take St. Maarten forward, building a strong, stable, responsible and just society. I thank those who have played a role in making my appointment possible, in particular my family, my beloved mother and father, and my lovely wife," he said.
Holiday has been the President of Princess Juliana International Airport since February 1998. Before that, from 1987 to 1995 he was Deputy Director Monetary and Economic Affairs of the Bank of the Netherlands Antilles and Managing Director of Windward Islands Airways Winair from 1995 to 1998.
