Advice requested on organisation
to finalise dismantling of Antilles
PHILIPSBURG--State Secretary Ank Bijleveld-Schouten has asked the Council of State for advice on the possibilities of establishing an umbrella organisation to deal with dismantling the Netherlands Antilles once the islands have attained their new status.
However, this request is nothing new, as Constitutional Affairs Minister Roland Duncan launched such a proposal in 2006.
Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage said last week after the Council of Ministers had met with the Executive Council of St. Maarten that the idea was to discuss this proposal during the political consultation scheduled for May 22. The Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao and St. Maarten agreed to establish a steering group that has been requested to present a realistic plan for attaining country status.
This decision was based on the advice of Dutch technocrats that the December 15 target date for status change would not be feasible. Members of the Dutch workgroups proposed December 2010 as the new target date.
Both De Jongh-Elhage and St. Maarten’s Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams said a new date should be set during the political consultation of May 22 and agreements should be made on the main matters that should be in place for attaining country status.
According to the Commissioner, it’s impossible to expect that all details pertaining to the upgrading of the St. Maarten Police Force should be in place before the island could attain country status, to mention one example.
De Jongh-Elhage referred to Aruba as an example, stating that it had taken 20 years to settle the division of assets and liabilities between Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles.
She also stressed that it simply was not feasible for new parliamentary elections for the Netherlands Antilles to be held in January 2010.
Duncan told The Daily Herald in an interview in October 2007 that no government was needed to dismantle the Netherlands Antilles. He made his statement before the November 2, 2006, summit in The Hague after which the now famous final accord was signed. Then the target date of July 1, 2007, for status change was still on the table.
Duncan stated: “If the islands will obtain their new status by July 1, 2007, a governmental body won’t be needed to handle the dismantling process. We can appoint a person or group of persons to handle the process.” However, he expected stiff opposition to his point of view and although he repeated his statement on several occasions after that, it was never taken into serious consideration until recently.
Duncan explained that the process would be ongoing for years to come. “You will have desks, chairs and other materials which we will have to divide among the islands, burn or whatever. There will be rental agreements that have to be handled, court cases that will continue. However, these issues cannot stop the islands from obtaining their new status. Not even the division of assets and liabilities can stop the process,” he said.
