Not everyone will probably be jumping for joy over Saturday’s front page headline that financial supervision has proven its success. After all, some spoke out strongly against this safety measure negotiated with the Dutch Government as part of the agreement to dismantle the Netherlands Antilles per 10-10-10, for Curaçao and St. Maarten to become autonomous countries within the kingdom.
The opponents argued that no such provisions had been made when Aruba gained its separate status in 1986. However, one cannot overlook that – contrary to back then – sorely-needed relief provided by the Netherlands for an Antillean debt of no less than five billion guilders was part of the deal seven years ago.
Moreover, in the end Aruba too ran into budgetary problems and had to accept a similar Kingdom Financial Supervision with oversight from its own version of the committee CAFT (see related story).
Of course, the huge national debt of the former Netherlands Antilles had been created mostly by the former Island Territory of Curaçao and the – no longer existent – Central Government in Willemstad. Nevertheless, St. Maarten politicians were part of practically all the ruling federal coalitions under whose watch such a huge national debt was allowed to accumulate.
It’s also true that St. Maarten did not get its complete share of the debt relief, but this was mostly due to administrative shortcomings. The fact that locally full contributions were not always paid to the then-public-sector pension fund APNA (now APS) and social insurance bank SVB (now SZV) didn’t exactly help create an ideal starting position for the new constitutional entity either.
Against this background, many actually felt comfortable with a certain degree of external control on public finances. The fact that Country St. Maarten had major budgetary issues since it came into existence up until last year would seem to indicate they were right.
It’s one thing to want more freedom and authority, but quite another to also carry the great responsibilities that come with them in a manner that best serves the long-term general interest.
