Dear Editor,
Now Emsley Tromp has been benched pending a criminal investigation - and although nothing has been proven yet, where there is smoke there is fire! It is time to contemplate whether the people of Sint Maarten should not break with the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Let that bank just be the Central Bank of Curaçao.
One of the reasons Sint Maarten wanted to be independent was to be freed from institutions in Curaçao, but somehow that central bank remained in place and Sint Maarten kept the Nederlands Antilliaanse Florin or Antilliaanse Gulden (ANG). Some say that was for sentimental reasons, well nonsense, dump those sentimental reasons in a sinkhole.
Sentiments have nothing to do with it. It is about money.
Civil servants get paid in ANG. and banks make lots of money exchanging that into dollars in a country, where a lot of shops have dollar accounts, so you have no choice. The official rate of the ANG. to the dollar is 1,77. So for one dollar, one pays ANG.1,77. However, most banks make you pay ANG.1,82. This is not entirely the bank’s fault, because on every exchange 1% from ANG. to dollar 1% goes to the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten to keep the ANG. in place, and so Tromp can make sure his girlfriend gets 3 million dollars. The rest goes to the bank, so they make tons of money.
I say done with it. Done with being cheated at the gas station, when the ANG. is on the display and you pay too much in dollars. Done with an expensive Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten and an unnecessary reconstruction of its office in Phillipsburg. Done with the corruption. Done upholding an obsolete institution and currency. Done with no less than three currencies on a small – but beautiful – island.
Put the ANGXIT) on the agenda! ANGXIT is the way to go! Political parties, the elections are coming. Follow Saba and Statia and let us have the dollar as the official currency. Follow the advice from the SER.
Simpson Soualiga
Alias used at author’s request.
