Dear Editor,

When your house is on fire you do not fight about who is to blame or how the fire may have started. Before you do anything else, you try to minimize the damage and then you try to extinguish the fire.

Burning houses. That seems the best way to describe the current situation on Sint Eustatius (Statia) and Sint Maarten: Caribbean parts of our Kingdom. The Statian government has been sent home by Secretary of State Knops. According to the Dutch government, this is due to an administrative culture best characterized as lawless, and severe financial mismanagement. Politicians on sister island Sint Maarten are similarly accused of corruption and bribery by the Mafia, not only by other politicians, but also by their own electorate.

A well-known example is that of the Italian chief of gambling Francesco Corallo, who is accused of maintaining close ties with Theo Heyliger, one of Sint Maarten’s political leaders. At their turn, these and other local politicians accuse The Hague of neo-colonial intentions. The house is on fire. Poverty and unemployment on Statia and Sint Maarten are increasing, while those in charge on both sides of the ocean are fighting about who is to blame. They conveniently forget what their task is: making sure that all Dutch citizens can lead a decent and dignified existence. For good order: citizens of these islands are also citizens of the Dutch Kingdom.

What makes the situation even more horrifying is the literal fire that is burning on the dump at the centre of Sint Maarten. Schools and corporations have had to shut down while local residents have to keep their doors and windows closed. A dark cloud is covering the sunny island. And again people are discussing who is responsible: who or what caused the fire? Was it done intentionally? But as we already indicated, the fire needs to be extinguished before this discussion can take place.

This fire can only be doused when representatives from different departments (the departments of Environment, Public Health, Infrastructure, and Finances) from Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Aruba and the Netherlands, work together. Such a Kingdom-wide, management group, based on equity and solidarity, should also include experts from the corporate and the academic worlds.

The management group is tasked with wisely spending the money that has been made available for the reconstruction of Sint Maarten in public-private partnerships. This sustainable development will transform Sint Maarten into an environment-friendly and financially profitable tourist island.

But this plan does not only concern Sint Maarten. This cooperation should lay the foundation for a Dutch Caribbean that takes the lead in social, ecological and economic development, both regionally and internationally. Under the guidance of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Netherlands has become renowned for its abilities to adjust landscapes to the force of water and to protect her people. Their knowledge and expertise should now be made available to also make the Caribbean infrastructure resistant to the destructive forces of hurricanes and earthquakes.

A similar approach shall extinguish the figural fire that is burning on Statia. Professionals and politicians of the BES-islands, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the Netherlands should be selected to collectively fight poverty and develop a well-functioning daily administration. Experts from the island itself should play a prominent role in this. Selection and strategy development lie with the Kingdom Government: The Dutch Cabinet complemented with the plenipotentiaries from Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten.

This Kingdom Government is accountable to a Kingdom Parliament that is in dire need of being established. It will emanate from the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation (IPKO), through which Caribbean and Dutch parliamentarians now meet each other twice a year. This is not nearly often enough. Moreover, the Kingdom Government is currently not accountable to the IPKO which leaves this institution rather powerless. By collectively extinguishing the fires on both Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten, we can finally give shape to an equal and democratic Kingdom.

Dr. Francio Guadeloupe (University of Amsterdam).

Jordi Halfman (University of Amsterdam)

Nicole Sanches (University of Utrecht)

Co-signed by:

Prof. Dr. Monique Volman (University of Amsterdam)

Dr. Yvon van der Pijl (University of Utrecht)

Dr. Guiselle Starink-Martha (University of Amsterdam)

Sanne Rotmeijer (KITLV, Leiden)

Lisenne Delgado LLM (University of Curacao)

Oldine Bryson (former head of the SER, Sint Maarten)

Benjamin Ortega (head of the St. Maarten Development Movement)

Dear Editor,
Caribbean Progressive Alliance (CPA), an association formed during a meeting of COPPPAL on St Maarten, in May 2017, with as members organizations from the remaining non-self-governing countries in general, globally and regionally, with a particular emphasis on the islands of the former Netherlands Antilles. Counted among our growing members are Puerto Rico, San Andres, Providenciales and US Virgin Islands, BVI, and the French and Dutch overseas territories.
CPA has followed with consternation and disbelief the treatment meted out by the Dutch government on the people of the former Netherlands Antilles, especially the BES islands of Bonaire and St. Eustatius. Over the past seven years, the Dutch government has done everything within its power to frustrate and obstruct the proper functioning of the duly elected governments on these islands.
Through instruments such as but not limited to instructions to the Lt. Governor, overreach by an appointed Kingdom Representative , who is a civil servant, with authority bestowed by the Dutch government to block and or delay any legitimate actions of government that the Dutch don’t approve of.
Additionally, the Dutch government has proceeded to anchor these islands into the Dutch Constitution against the wishes of the peoples as expressed in referenda held on both islands.
The Dutch government, while not living up to any agreement or complying with its obligations vies@vies the islands socially, economically or politically, have decided unilaterally without dialogue or consultation with the duly elected government of St Eustatius to put aside the will of the people, via a measure of higher supervision, and administer the island by an administrative commissioner appointed by the Dutch.
This action is not in keeping with the principles of democracy or in accordance with the United Nations Charter, which prescribes a full measure of self-government.
CPA vehemently opposes this undemocratic and draconian action of the Dutch government, in the unjust take-over of the St Eustatius government and the setting aside of the duly elected members of the Island Council and the appointed commissioners.
For the good order we wish to make perfectly clear, that we condemn and reject this action as illegal, draconian and without merit or justification, and we stand in solidarity with our sister island in its struggle for justice and the right to a full measure of self-government.
We shall therefore seek redress in cooperation with St. Eustatius by all legal means available to us.

Caribbean Progressive Alliance
James Finies

Six months after the Van Putten-Statia incident, financial mismanagement, abuse of power, fraud, theft, embezzlement of public funds, widespread corruption, favouritism, personal intimidations, threats, insults, and extensive administrative neglect, caused the Dutch government to intervene with direct rule from The Hague. Van Putten’s worst fears were realized, not by Marines but by parliament. With a sigh of relief, the population of victims may see a temporary end to gangster-rule on the island.

In case you missed the incident, Statia’s PLP-leader and Island Councilman Clyde van Putten, had egged on his audience at a political rally to “kill and burn in the streets” Dutch Marines who arrived with humanitarian aid after hurricanes Irma and Maria. The populist politician misled his followers by stating that the real reason for the landing of Marines was to occupy the island. Statia is an administrative territorial entity, incorporated into the Kingdom of the Netherlands, since 2010, with a population of about 3,500.

On neighbour island St. Maarten, a scam played out as local contractors jumped on the bandwagon to make some good money with heavily-inflated invoices by providing real, or fake, clean-up services to the local government. The St. Maarten-kleptocracy was already on display to the world, when hundreds of looters cleaned out electronic stores directly after Hurricane Irma. In defence, many thieves claimed that flat-screen televisions were a primary need consumption to care for their suffering families.

Rising crime in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe prompted France to send in police reinforcement. Once again, police reinforcements have become almost an annual intervention ritual. Britain and Canada warned tourists in Montego Bay, Jamaica, to stay inside resort premises, as authorities declared a state of emergency to battle violent gang activity, and shoot-outs mostly related to the widespread narco industry.

These are only a few examples of how ethics and morals, historically already a weak attribute of the Caribbean, continue to deteriorate ever further; anarchy and crime rule in the Caribbean. The mini- and micro-states are hotbeds of evil. The end is not in sight, but it takes two to tango. If Caribbean islands elect to exist as gangsterdoms, there is no reason for the rest of the world to intervene. We in the civilized West can easily seal the Caribbean off, and leave them to stew in their own juice. But that is also exactly the weak spot. The West is using the Caribbean as a transit route for the drugs they are addicted to, for shady financial transactions, and money they need to hide and launder.

Corruption of ethics started ever since European countries issued licenses for privateers, pirates, buccaneers, corsairs and filibusters, licenses to get rich quickly, totally opportunistically with situational ethics in the playground of the Caribbean archipelago; the moral order exists in reverse. A real clean-up of the Caribbean can only start in the U.S. and Europe.

Jacob Gelt Dekker

Columnist for Curaçao Chronicle

Dear Editor,
On behalf of Sint Maarten Pride Foundation, I recently delivered a letter to His Excellency Governor Holiday. In that letter Sint Maarten Pride requested the intervention of the governor in the situation with the dump. Pride also asked His Royal Majesty King Willem-Alexander to intervene and the letter was also sent to the Dutch representative on the island.
Sint Maarten Pride has no faith in our local government to find solutions and so called upon the Governor and the Kingdom to intervene. This situation has gone beyond local politics.
This letter was publicised in the newspapers as well as on several social media sites. The response from the public, residents and tourists alike, has been overwhelmingly positive. It is clear from those responses that not only PRIDE, but the community at large, has lost faith in our government officials to solve this problem.
As I write this Letter to the Editor, I can see the fires still burning. Kudos to our brave fire personnel who have been fighting this day and night.
The truth is, however, that they are woefully under-equipped to handle landfill fires of this magnitude.
In fact, this dump has taken over our lives and is completely unmanageable. I personally, along with many others, including PRIDE, have been warning about this for years and years and years. And nothing, nothing, has been done.
There is a discussion about this being arson. This is an old story and, in my opinion, is used as an excuse by government to deflect blame from themselves. The statements government needs to be making are statements about solutions, not about causes. The fires can start for many reasons. People need to educate themselves on outdated land-filling methods, which is what we have. If a landfill is not properly maintained, these fires are what occur. Google it!
I believe at this point we need outside intervention and professional advice. As a major public health concern this issue isn’t going anywhere until a modern-day solid waste solution is finalized. All interested parties need to come together to make this happen. Stop the bickering between yourselves and the politics, and join together to get something done.
Our people are being poisoned by this monstrosity and yet our politicians and government officials sit and have already started the blame game. There is plenty of blame to go around, and I blame every party and every elected official that has ever sat in government and done nothing about this dump. It has never been a priority for any of them, and we the people of St Maarten are paying the price.
How sad is it that the Nature Foundation is the one handing out masks? That the Nature Foundation needed extra donations to buy more masks? Kudos to them, but why isn’t our government handing out masks? Why does it take an NGO to shoulder that responsibility?
It is time for the people of St Maarten, and tourists too, to stand up and say we are not taking this anymore. Please write letters to Governor Holiday and letters to King Willem-Alexander (through the Dutch Representative Office of Chris Johnson). Demand an immediate solution!

Barbara Cannegieter