The 70th anniversary of the Kingdom Charter gave rise to quite a bit of reflection and evaluation. Signed on December 15, 1954, it made former colonies the Netherlands Antilles and Suriname partners in the Dutch kingdom, but with the government in The Hague continuing to have the last say due to a so-called basic rights guarantee function.
Former Antillean Prime Minister Maria Liberia-Peters during her speech at a panel discussion regarding the topic in Curaçao on Sunday provided an interesting perspective. “We now too easily blame the Netherlands and the charter for things that go wrong.”
She made a plea to politicians to step outside their comfort zone and view the charter in its correct historical context, keeping in mind that it is not an eternal document. “We judge the charter based on current reality. That is why it is important to continue to provide information about the reality and the history of the charter.”
Liberia-Peters further noted that with the dissolving of of the Netherlands Antilles on 10-10-10 “we have become smaller and the Netherlands has become larger.” What has the autonomous status brought us, she wondered. “Nine cabinets in 14 years. Are you going to tell me that the articles of the charter have hindered our development, when we have had nine cabinets in 14 years? There is no continuity. We keep ourselves happy, but there is no growth.”
She referred, among other things, to the speech from 1942 in which Queen Wilhelmina mentioned “relying on our own strength, but with the will to support each other.” That statement was made at the time of the exile of the royal family in London, while the Second World War was still in full swing.
“The Second World War was in progress and we had to investigate how Curaçao could be governed after the war. It was in this process that the late Statesman Moises ‘Doktor’ da Costa Gomez played an important role. In all these discussions about the charter, this historical context must be taken into account,” according to Liberia-Peters.
In other words; the charter may not be perfect, but has to be seen in light of circumstances at the time. Moreover, it can hardly be blamed for most problems facing the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname today. That dubious honour falls to local politics.
