THE HAGUE--Member of the Second Chamber Ineke van Gent of the green left party GroenLinks said on Monday that the motion of Dutch Parliament to promote homosexual emancipation in the Netherlands Antilles or Aruba wasn't meant to meddle or patronise.
Van Gent stated this in response to the final declaration of the Bi-partite Parliamentary Consultation Kingdom Relations held in Bonaire last week, in which the Parliaments of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba denounced the Second Chamber's motion in question. According to the Aruban and Antillean Parliaments, the motion was "constitutionally unacceptable," also contents wise.
The two Parliaments decided that they would strongly urge their respective governments to ignore the motion, which was carried by a broad majority in the Second Chamber last month. In the motion, Van Gent and Johan Remkes of the liberal democratic VVD party requested Dutch Government to ask the Antillean and Aruban governments to research the effects of homosexual emancipation in their countries.
Van Gent told The Daily Herald on Monday that she didn't agree with Chairman of the Antillean Parliament Pedro Atacho who had said that, through the motion, the Netherlands was meddling in autonomous affairs. "It is not my intention to meddle or patronise. I am simply looking out for the interest of homosexuals on the islands," she said.
"Hopefully this will not turn out to become too big of an issue, because that would be a waste of energy and time, said Van Gent. "I don't want this to become a prestige struggle between the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. That gets us nowhere," she said.
In that sense, she agreed with Member of Antillean Parliament Reginald Zaandam of DP Statia, who stated late last week that there were more pressing and important matters than the introduction of same-sex marriage on the BES islands Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius, and researching homosexual emancipation.
According to Zaandam, the Dutch should also make an effort to supply the Statia people with running water, to give the people an acceptable old age pension with vacation benefits and to realise decent and affordable housing.
"I agree with Mr. Zaandam. I have always said that there are many other things that we should tackle. Let's get it done together," said Van Gent, who has been clamouring for Dutch investments in the social structure of the islands.
