Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and Minister Ernst Kuipers speaking after Monday’s event.
~ Reiterates: We’re not at stage to accept or deny apology ~
PHILIPSBURG--Financial aid and loans provided thus far by the Netherlands to St. Maarten can never be conceived of as part of reparations owed as a result of the apology for slavery past, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs affirmed on Tuesday.
Jacobs made the remarks at University of St. Martin (USM) on Tuesday following Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s apology for slavery past made in The Hague and the subsequent remarks from Dutch Minister of Public Health, Wellbeing and Sport Ernst Kuipers at USM.
“Reparations and aid as a result of crises are not to be discussed in the same breath in a sincere apology,” stated Jacobs, who referred to the apology as “abrupt and forced.”
“Historically, with regards to exercising our own agency and self-determination within the Dutch Kingdom structure, we’ve been in the position to exchange colonial obedience for aid and loans. This was the case after the onslaught of Hurricane Irma in 2017 and the COVID-19 pandemic. I would only hope that a truly sincere apology would include the right to self-determination and agency. When working towards a new decolonial age of equity and equality, one should not be punished for colonial disobedience,” stated Jacobs. “The government and people of St. Maarten will not be placed on the spot today to accept or deny the apologies,” she said later in her speech.
Jacobs also firmly reiterated that St. Maarten is not at a stage to either accept or reject Rutte’s apology. “Today, I stand by that statement, despite the manner in which the Dutch press attempts to spin the narrative on this topic to justify those in the Netherlands who seek to undermine this statement apology and exact political control.”
She felt that the dialogue on a topic of such enormous proportions was not properly executed.
“Repeatedly this sentiment has been conveyed that it is in poor taste to move full steam ahead with the apology before proper dialogue has taken place, without proper respect for the feelings of the people who you want to apologise to, descendants of those who endured the most devastating crime against humanity. Yet today, here we are. Hearing a statement heretofore shrouded in secrecy as to the real motives, need for haste, and significance of the chosen date,” Jacobs said.
“My questions remain, Why the haste? Why the sudden change of heart? Why no proper dialogue with us as descendants of the enslaved to determine what a meaningful and sincere apology should minimally contain? How do these actions taken without regard for how they will be experienced enhance/diminish the fragile relationship within the Kingdom?”
A scene during Monday’s event
Touching on the issue of reparations, she said the manner in which reparations are addressed is equally as important as what needs to be addressed. “In other words, an apology cannot be crafted according to the terms of a mere Eurocentric paradigm. To do so, would not only be an exercise of colonial obedience, but also a failure to truly understand and empathise with the sentiments of the human persons who have historically been relegated as property – thus less than human.”
“Therefore, it is imminent that the tools and language used in the discourse surrounding an apology for the atrocities that was the enslavement of our ancestors, and the subsequent reparations be in one that our general public understands.”
The Government of St. Maarten is in the process of establishing an advisory committee on slavery past, atonement and reparations to ensure true research, engagement and discussions by and with the people and diaspora communities in St. Maarten. “This will ensure that we have a clear vision of what the full damage is, and can articulate what actions will be necessary to repair said damage. So, for St. Maarten, the statements made today are but the beginning of dialogue in which we must and will play a leading role.”
She alluded to unconfirmed reports that the Netherlands has proposed to create a fund of 200 million euros for awareness and education and the investment of 27 million euros to construct a slavery museum. Built on European soil, she said this institution is meant to bring awareness to the Dutch atrocities during their golden age to the general population of the Netherlands. “Ostensibly, such an enterprise can be conceived as an admittance of ignorance regarding the subject of slavery and colonialism. How can a nation admittedly ignorant of their own colonial violence determine the conditions for an apology, let alone reparations? How can a nation be sorry for something they admittedly know little to nothing about and have only recently seen the need for the current actions? Again, we see here a demonstration of Eurocentric thinking whereby it is dangerous and irresponsible to root an apology in Eurocentric dogma and entitlement,” stated Jacobs.
She said what was the golden age for the Netherlands was an apocalypse for the people. “We must be allowed the time and space needed to reconnect with our histories beyond coloniality as a precursor to setting the conditions for reparations. Under the purview of institutionally induced amnesia through colonial streams of pedagogy, how can we know what to negotiate for, if most of us cannot remember who we are? The issues and real implications of an apology and retribution are far more complex than any one of us can conceive alone. Therefore, I am reaching out not only to my own brothers and sisters in the Caribbean, particularly those in CARICOM, and the CRC who are ready and willing to assist in this process, but also to our brothers and sisters on the African continent.”
She said many ancestors were shipped by the Dutch to and from places beyond the nations addressed in the apology. “In other words, the Dutch owe an apology to more than just their Dutch Caribbean counterparts. By only addressing the apparent vestiges of Dutch imperialism in the contemporary political landscape, this apology fails in actually addressing the past while erasing the true scope of their colonial violence. It is with this thought, that I look forward to the outcome of the investigation of the King into the royal family’s contribution to the period of enslavement of Africans, and the transatlantic slave trade.”
She stressed that trust is built, not demanded and indicated that apologies without action only serve to absolve the perpetrator of guilt with minimal repercussions. For the apology to be sincere, she said it must come with the realisation that slavery and colonialism have impaired the affected people’s economic and social development.
