THE HAGUE--The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament voted on Tuesday for the motion by Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party (SP) and André Bosman of the liberal democratic VVD party calling for an investigation of the flow of money between criminal organisations and the governments of Curaçao and St. Maarten.

 

A broad majority of the Second Chamber voted in favour of the motion, which Van Raak presented during a short follow-up meeting last week Wednesday, following the general debate with Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk on March 31 about the level of governance in the Dutch Caribbean countries.

 

The motion called on the Dutch Government to facilitate an investigation into the (illegal) flow of money between the under- and upper-world in Curaçao and St. Maarten, between these countries and with countries outside the Kingdom. Specific attention was requested for the influence and actions of the (illegal) gambling industry on the islands.

 

Preferably this investigation would be carried out together with the governments of Curaçao and St. Maarten, but the Netherlands should move to carry out the investigation on its own if the two countries do not want to cooperate, according to Van Raak and Bosman.

 

“We will embrace integrity and fight against the bad money as long as the Kingdom carries the responsibility for good governance. If possible, we will do this together with the islands, but if they don’t want to, the Kingdom will have to assume its responsibility and go ahead,” said Van Raak in a reaction.  

 

Bosman was especially critical of St. Maarten’s attitude when it comes to cooperation to improve integrity in government and to get bad money out of politics. “If they say no again, it will only confirm that St. Maarten’s politicians don’t care about integrity,” he told The Daily Herald. “They have nothing to fear if they have nothing to hide, so I say show what you’ve got.”

 

According to Bosman, St. Maarten should take with both hands the Netherlands’ offer to strengthen the law enforcement capacity. “We are offering the capacity to investigate the flow of money, to clean up the mess and get rid of corruption,” he said.

 

He said the investigation could be part of the joint justice plan on which Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the Netherlands are currently working, but it also could be a separate investigation.

 

Van Raak suggested involving the United States in the investigation. “This is an international fight. It for sure is too big for the islands, but probably also for the Kingdom. It is generally known that the islands are being used by criminal organisations. It is high time to close the faucet of bad money. We are not doing this because it is our hobby, but because we carry the responsibility for good governance throughout the Kingdom,” he said.

 

Ultimately the people of St. Maarten benefit from clean politicians and a transparent government, said Van Raak. “I hope that we can finally do something for the people who started to lose hope of a cleanup in politics and an end of the activities by criminal organisations,” he said.

 

He immediately requested a response from the Dutch Government after Tuesday’s voting. “I want to know from government how it intends to carry out the motion now that it has been passed,” he said. Van Raak did so to ensure a quick follow-up by government and Minister Plasterk, and to prevent the motion from ending up in a bottom drawer.

 

Plasterk voiced no objections to the motion when it was presented last week. At the time he even suggested broadening the scope of the investigation by focusing not only on the gambling industry, but also including drugs-smuggling and trafficking in women.

 

The minister said he considered the motion an encouragement to continue what government was doing, which was to press for a stronger law enforcement system on the islands.

 

A second motion of Van Raak, co-signed by Gert-Jan Segers of the ChristianUnion and Peter Oskam of the Christian Democratic Party CDA, to arrange a closed-door hearing of the Second Chamber with informants about the reported major theft of data from Curaçao Security Agency VDC in 2011, was rejected.

 

The motion, which was supported by most of the opposition parties, called on the Dutch Government to contact the Curaçao Government to see how this hearing could be arranged. Minister Plasterk advised against this motion during last week’s debate. He said the VDC was an autonomous affair of Country Curaçao and he was not becoming involved.

 

The Daily Herald