Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops was to appear before the Second Chamber of Parliament in the Netherlands today, Wednesday, to discuss conditions for COVID-19 financial support to Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten, including the strongly opposed kingdom “consensus” law to establish a Caribbean Reform Entity (CRE) that is to supervise and direct far-reaching restructuring measures in areas such as the economy, labour market, fiscal system, etc. He sent a letter to the legislature (see related story) defending decisions taken on this issue and basically sticking to his guns.
None of the Dutch Caribbean governments have yet agreed to The Hague’s approach for a third tranche of soft liquidity loans, although Aruba is said to be closest. All three Parliaments in any case rejected the new requirements they consider an infringement on the autonomy of their respective countries and have requested the intervention of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as Chairman of the Kingdom Council of Ministers.
The latter will meet Friday on the current proposals and there appears to be little room for negotiation. That would be a pity, because the people on these islands and their hard-hit tourism economies stand to suffer extreme hardship without continued wage subsidies to prevent widespread business closures and mass layoffs.
In his letter Knops wrote that the three Caribbean countries currently cannot handle their autonomies. He also said the customary ways of cooperation and aid were unsuitable to deal with the enormous challenge faced due to a combination of “defaulting governments” since 2010 and the coronavirus crisis.
The state secretary has a point. The track record of the political establishment in the former Netherlands Antilles when it comes to governing the territories is not great, with a significant number of proven or alleged irregularities as well as rampant opportunism leading to elections practically every two instead of four years and thus promoting instability.
Then again, other than possibly voting for the wrong persons, the population should not be punished for the shortcomings of its leaders or – for example – even failure to diversify the economy. These are young democracies and similar problems have also occurred elsewhere, including Europe.
It may be called comparing apples and oranges, but when the great North Sea Flood of 1953 hit the Netherlands the island communities mobilised what help was possible, no questions asked. They did not first suggest damming in so much water to create new land below the sea level might have been too risky or even irresponsible at the time.
