THE HAGUE--One should not get panicky when the Kingdom Government invokes the guarantee function to improve integrity or financial management of the governments in the Dutch Caribbean.

 

Because it is a "regular instrument," but one that should be used cautiously.

 

Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk stated this in his speech at Monday's symposium for the sixtieth anniversary of the Kingdom Charter. The symposium, held in the hall above Ridderzaal, where Queen Juliana signed the Charter on December 15, 1954, was organised by Open University, with the support of Tilburg University and the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations BZK.

Plasterk explained that Curaçao and St. Maarten had a more direct relation with The Hague after the elimination of the extra layer of government, the Country the Netherlands in 2010. "Let's not get panicky about that, because it is just a regular instrument." He said the guarantee function, anchored in the Charter, should not be used randomly, just because one of the countries wants it to be invoked to address a situation based on the request of one country.

 

Plasterk said the Kingdom Government used the guarantee function three times to intervene after the new constitutional relations went into effect in October 2010: the first time in Curaçao in 2012, when, according to the Kingdom Government, the country's finances were about to derail; the second time for St. Maarten in September 2013 to improve integrity of the local government, and again in July 2014 in an effort to curb Aruba's financial crisis. Intervention was done through an instruction.

 

The minister agreed with the symposium chairman Prof. Dr. Ernst Hirsch Ballin, a former minister of Kingdom Relations, who said in his welcoming remarks that one should not wait to use the guarantee function after the fact, when the damage had already been done. He said the Aruba situation had been "borderline" and that it had proven positive that outsiders, the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT, had gotten involved.

 

Hirsch Ballin said the sixtieth anniversary of the Charter was a good reason to reflect on the future of the Kingdom. He said the Kingdom was not a still water, but a moving water stream. "It is amazing how we tend to stick to the values of sixty years ago, as if nothing has changed in the world," he said.

 

At times there have been "strong tension fields" within the Kingdom in which the guarantee function and the absence of a dispute arrangement often played a big role. In Hirsch Ballin's opinion, the guarantee function should be used in a more preventive manner and not after the damage had already been done by imposing harsh intervention in an effort to correct the things that went wrong.

 

Hirsch Ballin questioned the use of instructions to the governor as was the case in Aruba and St. Maarten. "Tensions run high and it all comes down on the shoulders of the governor. There is a maximum to that," he said.

"The guarantee function is mainly a joint responsibility of the countries in the Kingdom, one that requires a joint formulation of objectives," said Hirsch Ballin.

 

He reminded the audience, consisting of some 250 persons, that the Kingdom was a joint constellation and that it was imperative to stand united in this world. Hirsch Ballin said he hoped the symposium would result in the formulation of a joint objective, so the Kingdom would not be about frictions and negotiations anymore.

 

Plasterk said the current Kingdom constellation was his point of departure. He said he wasn't convinced that the commonwealth structure proposed by the liberal democratic VVD party and the Socialist Party (SP) was a better construction. He said this decision was up to the overseas countries, and not the Netherlands.

 

The minister said that in general people were proud of the Kingdom, a constellation consisting of four autonomous countries, sometimes with different opinions, but always on the basis of respect and mutual understanding.

 

"For me the Kingdom is both about hope and being intransigent. Being unbending, where it comes to good governance, proper financial management and integrity. Hope for a fruitful cooperation. The Kingdom is a product of solidarity," said Plasterk, who expressed the wish that the countries would keep working on a bright future for the next generations. "I hope to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Charter in forty years."

 

The daiily Herald