WILLEMSTAD--The Dutch Parliament Second Chamber’s decision to bypass the Netherlands Antilles Parliament to engage in direct talks with the Island Councils in no way deters the process of constitutional change, said President of Parliament Pedro Atacho.
The Antillean Parliament is ready and prepared to be part of the Dutch Parliament when the time comes to debate the Consensus Kingdom Laws associated with dismantling the Antilles and forming Countries St. Maarten and Curaçao and Dutch public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.
The Dutch Parliament made clear on Wednesday that it didn’t accept the conditions of Atacho for a meeting in Curaçao late February.
Atacho had written to Second Chamber’s Permanent Committee for Antillean and Aruban Affairs NAAZ asking for the Antillean Parliament to meet with NAAZ for informal talks prior to the formal handling of the first set of Kingdom Consensus laws late March or early April.
This, however, won’t happen, said NAAZ chairman Willibrord van Beek on Wednesday. And so the Antillean and Dutch Parliaments will only meet in a formal setting during the handling of the Kingdom Consensus Laws.
NAAZ bypassing the Antillean Parliament and meeting only with the Island Councils is “its good right,” as it is the right of the Island Council, which is autonomous from Parliament, to be part of the meetings, Atacho said.
Atacho told this newspaper that the motion to bar Member of Dutch Parliament Hero Brinkman of the Party for Freedom PVV from the Antillean Parliament still stood if he didn’t apologise to the people of the Netherlands Antilles for calling “the majority of the people a band of corrupt crooks” during his last visit to Aruba. He had also insulted Aruban politicians.
The Antillean Parliament President said that the people of the Antilles should in no way think that the issue with Brinkman is clouding the constitutional process because Parliament will be part of the Second Chamber debates on the change of the Kingdom Charter.
“It is a very awkward situation though, because Mr. Brinkman apologised to the bartender whom he had hit while drunk, but there is no apology for the Antillean community,” Atacho said.
Democratic Party (DP) Parliamentarian Erno Labega views the move by NAAZ as another way to sabotage the bipartite meetings because the Second Chamber does not want to put pressure on Brinkman to apologise.
Labega added that, instead of pushing for an apology once and for all, NAAZ has opted to use Parliament as a “scapegoat” by claiming the terms for informal meetings are not acceptable. “This was just an excuse to make other arrangements.”
