The Dutch St Maarten Opposition government, NOT the people, want Independence from Holland. They want to keep their Dutch European Passport and all the perks and fringe benefits… But they want FULL independence, and more money🤷♀️ One today
‘Sint Maarten wants to remain connected with the Netherlands, but without administrative interference from outside’
03/17/2021 5:57 PM Interior, Politics Author: Fatma Yalgin
‘Sint Maarten wants to remain connected with the Netherlands, but without administrative interference from outside’
The Parliament of Sint Maarten has filed a complaint with the UN against the Netherlands. According to parliamentarians, the Netherlands would act ‘neocolonial’ and ‘racist’ in providing corona aid, by attaching conditions to that aid.
The main pain point in the 30 million euros corona care that the Netherlands is offering. To ensure that the money goes to the right places, the Netherlands wants to set up a new supervisory body as a medium of exchange. If Sint Maarten does not reform properly, funding will stop.
External interference
“It is clear that discrimination is an issue in the Netherlands,” said Xavier Blackman, party employee and adviser to Grisha Heyliger-Marten, Member of Parliament and one of the initiators of the indictment. Blackman explains that the petition is a logical consequence of business. “You must ensure that it does not affect the emergency aid to other countries in the Kingdom.” According to the indictment, more has been arranged in the field of care, education and corona support for European Dutch people.
Whether submitting the complaint is a means of ultimately becoming completely independent? The advisor is quite certain about this. “You have different forms of ‘being independent’. We want to remain associated with the Netherlands, but without external interference from the administration. It also appears according to the statutes that self-government is the highest good. With a supervisory body you give back sovereignty. That’s what we are here for. against.”
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Serious allegations
Not everyone sees the petition as the right means. “This is not so much to do with racism or neo-colonialism, but with structural reform,” said Perry Geerlings, former minister of finance of Sint Maarten. “We’re trying to get the country back on track. Whether this really stems from neo-colonial sentiments, I don’t know, but I think the truth is somewhere in the middle.”
A view of the sea
Perry Geerlings (L) of the Democratic Party, in parliament on the island of Sint Maarten.
This is also not the first time that the administrative interference of the Netherlands has been viewed from a critical perspective. In 2019 , St. Eustatius filed a case because there would have been, among other things, ‘maladministration’ and ‘favoritism’. “Since Hurricane Irma, we’ve been in debt to rebuild the country,” explains Geerlings. “We have also made agreements about this, to improve the Antillean administration. The Netherlands has the resources and the network to assist us. So what’s wrong with paternalism?”
‘Shut up or fuck off’
At the moment the question remains where the submitted complaint and petition will end. “Most importantly, we complete decolonization,” said Xavier Blackman. “From the Netherlands it is often a matter of ‘shut up or fuck off’, but it is more nuanced.”
“You also cannot half-finish a house and then give the keys”, says the adviser. “The facilities must be complete and complete. If you introduce that supervisory body, the decolonization process is not complete. And St. Maarten still lives in half a house.”
https://eenvandaag.avrotros.nl/amp/sint-maarten-wil-verbonden-blijven-met-nederland-maar-zonder-bestuurlijke-inmenging-van-buitenaf/