Sarah: ‘Managing mechanism
needed for after country status’
PHILIPSBURG--The matters that are “conditio sine qua non” for St. Maarten to obtain country status should be separated from all that can be taken care of after the December 15 target to attain country status.
A mechanism should be put in place to manage unresolved matters in the newly emerged situation.
Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams told The Daily Herald she believed Kingdom parties should be discussing how to manage the situation after December 15.
She was reacting to Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten’s report to the Dutch Second Chamber in which she said the various constitutional change processes were behind schedule.
“It’s a pity that the State Secretary gave such a report to the Second Chamber while the political discussion on realistic planning hasn’t taken place yet. Now things have gone haywire,” the Commissioner stated.
She said Dutch technocrats had already made their point of view known that December 15 was not feasible for them. “However, parties agreed that once the realistic planning was done how they should adjust, but we have not had the chance to do that.”
Wescot-Williams travelled to Curaçao on Monday and had a meeting with Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage on the constitutional change process. Tuesday evening she and Curaçao Commissioner of Constitutional Affairs Zita Jesus-Leito met with Bijleveld-Schouten.
Wescot-Williams has a scheduled meeting with the State Secretary today, Wednesday, before flying back to St. Maarten.
She said that while the legislation and policies of utmost importance to attain country status had not been separated from the rest, the current discussions on, for example, the target date would continue.
Comparing the situation to when Aruba stepped out of the Antillean constellation, she said the Netherlands Antilles hadn’t been dismantled then and it remained the entity with which Aruba kept dealing until all matters were regulated.
That’s why, she said, the same way it has been determined that status change will take place by December 15, it has to be decided that a mechanism has to be put in place to manage matters afterwards. “St. Maarten feels that not everything has to be in place and worked out before attaining country status.”
As an example Wescot-Williams said the Social Insurance Bank SVB was one of the matters that could be regulated after attaining a new status. “Even if St. Maarten sets up its own social security, it will not be functioning as soon as we attain country status and the SVB will continue to handle social security aspects for St. Maarten. A mechanism should be in place to manage matters in this new situation.”
She also pointed out that it had been agreed in the February 2007 accord that all parties would do their utmost to put legislation and policies in place for St. Maarten and Curaçao to attain country status by December 15, 2008. “And every partner has the duty to make the efforts necessary to realise this,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Curaçao Executive Council has announced it will hold on to the December 15 target date. Jesus-Leito told the Amigoe newspaper that the island would continue to do everything in its power to make the target date. “We will evaluate how the process can be sped up and if we cannot make it in time with all the trajectories we will try at least to get as much as possible done.”
She said the direction group that was assessing the different trajectories still needed some weeks to finalise its work.
Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage stated that she had always said that to her having things well regulated was more important than on what exact date the new status would go into effect.
“We always had the point of view that we will wait until the direction group is ready with its assessment,” she said. She talked to Bijleveld-Schouten on Monday about her report to the Second Chamber.
The Prime Minister kept hope alive that certain aspects of the constitutional change process would go into effect on December 15.
