Dear Editor,
The Democratic Party wishes to respond to an article in the newspaper of last week Friday. In this article Clyde Van Putten from the PLP makes several remarkable statements. His quest for more independence for Statia he bases on a mandate that he claims he has received from the people in the referendum 2014. The DP believes that for once and for all it should be known that the outcome of the referendum held in 2014 was invalid because the required percentage of eligible voters to make it valid did not turn out. It is therefore rather ridiculous and misleading that Van Putten continues to try and make everyone believe that the people of Statia through the referendum have opted for more independence.
Further, Van Putten States that instead of more constitutional independence, Statia received higher financial and administrative supervision. Conveniently he forgets to mention that this supervision is implemented because of the extremely poor performance of his government at that time and again fails to meet legal reporting deadlines, is unable to run a proper administration and does not shun nepotism and favouring of family and friends.
On top of this there are the many reprimands from BZK and negative advices from CFT this government has received since taking office for not adhering with their financial administration to the applicable laws and regulations. In this light, whereby it has become crystal clear that his government cannot deal with the basic tasks and principles of running our island, it is even more remarkable that he believes that the island needs more independence.
According to Van Putten the higher supervision is slapped on them through the influence of DP councilman Koos Sneek. The DP and the councilman take this as a compliment. Apparently according to Van Putten, they are better able to get their message across to the government in The Hague. Van Putten should have learned his lesson that usually one can get further through proper communication, negotiations and compromise rather than with his trademark name-calling, aggressive confrontations and accusations.
In the article, he furthermore misinforms the people about who is paying for the cost of the process manager. This cost, some 80,000 dollars is for the account of the ministry. The stumbling block to appoint Blackman, however, is that Van Putten wants to pay him substantially more than that. The extra cost is for his government and he needs to prove that he has the budget to do so. (A copy of the letter from the ministry to support this is in possession of the newspaper)
Contrary to what Van Putten stated, the funds (6 million euros) for the roads have not been made available for the simple reason that up to today no proper plans are submitted for road improvement by his government. His commissioner, in her town hall meeting last Thursday even confirmed this. Instead of blaming others he should explain to the people why his government is taking more than nine months to present these plans.
Unfortunately, even though he claims he has all those years of experience, Van Putten still does not understand the difference between a motion and an island council decision. It is true that the coalition has voted for a motion not to extend the contract of the registrar but there has never been an island council decision. A motion is a wish; it is not a decision.
Regarding his opinion about NuStar and the harbour fees the company must pay, the future will prove where this will end up. A 2.7-million-dollar offer made by NuStar remained unanswered. This proposal would have been sufficient to solve the financial difficulties the island is in and it would secure economic stability for the years to come.
The hostile and aggressive approach of Van Putten is basically putting our economy and many jobs at risk. It appears that the councilman is not aware that many if not all local businesses in Statia, one way or the other exist through the presence of the oil terminal. His dangerous games can jeopardize the future and the livelihood of these businesses as well.
Democratic Party of St. Eustatius
