News from The Hague
The Hague, March 21st, 2013
Today a letter was sent from the Permanent Committee for Kingdom Affairs of the First Chamber to the Minister of the Interior concerning the following.
Some time back a proposal was made without consulting the islands to change the Dutch Constitution and to make Saba a permanent entity of Holland and with third world status. A bicycle status in a Cadillac economy. Our Commissioners Chris Johnson and Bruce Zagers just returned on Sunday from a week of meetings with the Parliament and the Government of Holland. The islands had been protesting for some time already that they had been promised to have an evaluation in 2015 on our new status, before any changes could be made in the constitution.
Today’s letter from the Upper House of Parliament to the responsible Minister states that:
” The committee, after discussions with the governments of the public entities, has decided to defer the proposal to change the constitution until the evaluation of the new constitutional structure within the Dutch Kingdom will have taken place in the year 2015.”
In other words there will be another opportunity for those complaining about the relationship with the Netherlands to perhaps via a referendum have their say. If I am still around I will be anxious to see how many of the complainers will vote for independence . And in the meantime congratulations are in order for our two young, educated Commissioners, Chris Johnson and Bruce Zagers, for this and a number of other achievements while on their mission to The Hague last week.
I know the hardships of having to serve ungrateful people, leaving your families behind and going up into a very cold winter week to represent your island. Some of the members of the 2nd Chamber of Parliament were also referring to statements made by Commissioner Chris Johnson to the Chamber last week. And they were doing this in a positive way towards his statements and person. The time is not now for me to get rank with some people, that can wait, but what cannot wait is a bit of positive news to encourage our young people to continue to serve their island and its people. CIAO.
The Saba Islander 