December 15 is
official holiday
PHILIPSBURG--With fourteen votes in favour and only three against, Parliament has agreed to a law amendment making December 15, Kingdom Day, an official holiday in the Netherlands Antilles.
However, several Members of Parliament made use of the opportunity during yesterday’s public meeting to vent their discontent about the relationships within the Kingdom. In the end, though, the fact that parties had agreed in the governing programme to introduce a Kingdom Day made coalition parties keep all noses in the same direction.
Curaçao-based parties MAN and Forsa Kòrsou opposed introducing a Kingdom Day. Forsa Kòrsou leader and Parliamentarian Nelson Navarro said there was nothing to celebrate, considering the current state the Dutch Kingdom was in.
He said that an autonomous Curaçao would be obligated to stay within the Kingdom based on the existing democratic deficit and the Dutch Government’s reluctance to contribute to the emancipation process on the island.
Eunice Eisden of the MAN party concluded that the Central Government was wasting time by using its experts to draft legislation to introduce a Kingdom Day instead of working on making December 15 (the target date for constitutional change) feasible.
She also rejected proposals by Dutch politicians to introduce measures against Antilleans living in the Netherlands, such as the measure to send back Antillean youth and the database for Antilleans, which both show that the Dutch don’t have the best of intentions for the Netherlands Antilles.
“It may very well be possible that on December 15 Antillean youth will be sent back to the islands. It would then be explained as an “unfortunate coincidence,” Eisden said.
Faroe Metry of the PNP party also pointed out the more strained relationships within the Kingdom. He referred the PVV party which has made it a normal thing to continuously insult the Antilles and its citizens.
Metry also made remarks about the new party Proud of the Netherlands TON of former integration minister Rita Verdonk. “Who has to be proud of the Netherlands, the European Dutch, according to TON, because we are the non-natives?” Metry wondered what sense it made to make such distinctions within the Kingdom.
For Dwigno Puriel of MAN the Netherlands Antilles once again proved to be the clowns of the Kingdom. “No other country in the Dutch Kingdom has passed legislation to make Kingdom Day an official holiday. Not the Netherlands and not Aruba,” Puriel said.
He did not see why it was necessary to have drafted such a law at this moment, considering the state of relations within the Kingdom, especially the way the Dutch have been treating the Antilles regarding the constitutional change process. “It would be the same as if mice decided to make Cats Day an official holiday.”
Windward Islands Members of Parliament also voted in favour of the law. Reginald Zaandam of DP-St. Eustatius said it had been agreed in the governing programme to institute a Kingdom Day and he would vote in favour. Ray Hassell of the WIPM (Saba) and Erno Labega of DP-St. Maarten both stated that they had no objections to instituting a Kingdom Day.
