Dear Editor,
The people of St. Maarten so-called owe a debt to the Dutch government in the amount of some Ang. 900 million of which I understood we are paying Ang. 12.7 million annually. This means mathematically that at this rate it will take us around 75 years to repay this so-called debt which will take us to the year 2095. As we can see this is unattainable and unrealistic. Based on these figures I believe the only realistic request or demand to make is debt cancellation.
This dilemma is not only experienced by St. Maarten but all the islands that form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It also the reality for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean countries.
Debt cancellation is a moral obligation that should be met by the former and now neo-colonial powers. To paraphrase what I read, they are issuing us loans while they are the ones who created the dependency based on the condition they left us in after slavery.
The financial institutions they established such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (masters of the structural adjustment plans created to control economies) including other financial institutions were created to replace the former colonial system and institute another. Today I call it modern slavery.
The cry for debt cancellation is not something of today but its origin goes back many years. The late revolutionary and former President of Cuba Fidel Castro said in a speech delivered on August 3, 1985, at the United Nation General Assembly held in Havana Cuba, and I quote: “It is now clear that the collection of this debt, that the unjust system of economic relations is the most flagrant and brutal violation of human rights that one could ever imagine”; end of quote.
I also want to paraphrase another revolutionary and former President of Burkina Faso the late Thomas Sankara who was assassinated at the age of 39: when you owe this amount of debt you have surrendered your autonomy.
The same Thomas Sankara at such an event held in 1987 in Addis-Ababa said, and I quote; “We think that debt has to be seen from the perspective of its origins. Debt’s origins come from colonialism origins. Those who lend us money are those who colonized us. They are the same ones who used to manage our states and economies. These are the colonizers who indebted Africa through their brothers and cousins, who were the lenders. We had no connections with this debt, therefore we cannot pay it.” End of quote.
He refers to these persons coming in as technical assistants, or in his words “technical assassins”. He also referred to statements by the then-Prime Minister of Norway Ms. Gro Harlem Brundtland, who is claimed to have said that the whole debt cannot be repaid.
The late president Mr. Thomas Sankara also said, and I quote: “Debt cannot be repaid, first because if we don’t repay, lenders will not die. That is for sure. But if we repay we are going to die.” End of quote.
Some might ask why I am broaching this subject, and my response is because without debt cancellation we will be completely recolonized. But we have to request such with a united front. We need the cooperation of Aruba and Curaçao to make this request. Will they? We need debt cancellation, not debt repayment.
George Pantophlet
Member of Parliament
