Deliberation in Aruba on new status Antilles

December 23, 2008 7:19 AM

Parliamentarians from the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba will meet in Aruba from January 5th through 9th during the semiannual Parliamentary Deliberation Kingdom Relations (POK).  The meeting is held as part of the collaboration between the three parliaments.

The emphasis this time is again on the political renewal of the Neth.Antilles and the consequences of the international credit crisis for the economies of the Kingdom.  There will be a press conference at the end of the five days’ deliberation to elucidate the results of the meeting and the Final Declaration.

Other than five Upper House-members, also nine Lower House members are expected from the Netherlands.  The composition of the delegation from the Lower House includes again among others the controversial Dutch parliamentarian Hero Brinkman of the extreme right Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV).

A POK that was to be held in Curacao last year, was canceled at the last minute, due to Brinkman’s ‘offensive statements’ about the Antilles.  He called the Antilles a ‘pack of thieves’ and said that the islands must be put on sale for 1 euro on Markplaats.nl (an auction site) .

Aruba regretted the fact that the POK failed, but was in solidarity with the Antilles.  The suggestion was to move the POK to Aruba, but didn’t count on enough support.  The next POK last June was held in the Netherlands, but this time without the PVV-spokesman ‘Antilles and Aruba’, because the smaller parties take turn participating in foreign deliberations.   But the PVV still managed to convince the Dutch Parliament to let Brinkman participate again this time, ”blackmailing”, as the small democratic party D66 put it.  This party sends her party-leader Alexander Pechtold to Aruba.  Other Lower House-members that go to Aruba are: Van Bochove (CDA), Schinkelshoek (CDA), Leerdam (PvdA), Dijsselbloem (PvdA), Remkes (VVD), and Van Gent (GroenLinks).

(Source: National newspaper Amigoe)

19 December, 2008