Today’s report out of The Hague may disappoint some local independence advocates. A Dutch delegation apparently was told by the United Nations (UN) Decolonisation Committee in New York that the Netherlands, Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten must themselves give content to their mutual relations.
In other words, the UN is not getting into discussions on ties within the kingdom. The Caribbean countries can opt to leave, but the former coloniser cannot make them do so unilaterally.
The latter also confirms that frequent statements by politicians in The Hague about “kicking out” the islands, etc., should not be taken too seriously. On the other hand, looking towards the UN to play referee between the kingdom partners is probably in vain.
The international community’s involvement would start only if future constitutional talks lead to a clear choice for full political independence, which would, of course, have to be voted on in a referendum first. Dutch parties VVD and SP support a looser structure in the form of a commonwealth, but caretaker Kingdom Relations Minister Ronald Plasterk (PvdA) again indicated that he prefers maintaining the current structure.
Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands) are now obviously part of the Netherlands, which puts them in a different position. They have to negotiate any desired changes directly with the Dutch Government unless a majority opts for independence.
In Curaçao, observers say the fact that PAR unequivocally declared its commitment to remain in the kingdom during the campaign might have contributed to the party’s recent election victory. MFK, KdNT and PS had all spoken out strongly in favour of independence after their effort to stop an early return to the polls was blocked by the Governor and Kingdom Council of Ministers.
In doing so, those three parties may have scared off quite a few voters. Like it or not, it seems many at least on that island prefer to keep Dutch and consequently European Union (EU) passports not just for themselves, but also for their children and grandchildren.
