Appointment sparks
unrest at newspaper
WILLEMSTAD--The appointment of a third director at Amigoe caused some unrest within the Curaçao newspaper, not in the least because it concerns Datasoft of PAR board member Willem da Costa Gomez, who has been in the news after it became known he had been given 35,000 guilders a month as the director of the Curaçao study financing foundation SSC when PAR was still part of the Island Government.
In addition, the appointment was announced by shareholder representative Jacky Voges, who is also one of the three directors of Leeward News Holding NV, without the knowledge of the other director Ingrid de Maayer while she was in the USA on business.
While other media were reporting, “PAR has entered Amigoe,” the editorial staff asked for an urgent meeting, in which Voges strongly rejected the idea that the appointment could lead to political influence on the paper. He said it was the editorial staff that determined the content and any appointment to the editorial staff was made in consultation with Editor-in-Chief Mike Willemse.
The latter was satisfied with the guarantee and said the Amigoe was not a PAR paper and never would be. Those sentiments were echoed by De Maayer who for 18 years has been managing the paper, which has done better than ever in the last few years.
Nevertheless, Voges considered the appointment necessary to modernise the organisation with an emphasis on collective responsibility. For this reason, an uneven number of directors is preferable, while Voges will soon celebrate his 76th birthday and De Maayer, who remains operational director, may retire in about 2½ years.
That Da Costa Gomes is all over the news because of his salary Voges called “an inconvenience.” He said it was the result of a non-politician becoming involved in political things, but it had nothing to do with his appointment at the paper.
Amigoe stated in its Tuesday editorial that PAR could not defend the salary at SSC and that the paper would continue to question such appointments, as was the case with MSL Island Council member Cesar Prince becoming the new director of Wega di Number Korsou.
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