Today politics shows who belongs to the new generation and who knows the history of Aruba and knows the history of Aruba and know what was the struggle Aruba has gone through to achieve and get to where we are today with our anthem, flag, our shield and our own currency and Central Bank.
Of course politics is an art, but besides that the political knowledge and history of a country is very important to know where we come from and where we are going. Today we can see after Aruba had a Financial Supervision Law because of the mismanagement of the cabinet of by Mike Eman in which the people themselves decided to remove the government to bring about change and to structure the public finances, nor a year after the people themselves called for a change in the government of AVP the pandemic entered Aruba. A pandemic that was not a light situation, but a pandemic of such a high degree that caused a shutdown of Aruba to protect its people.
The truth is that Aruba is not a country with its own economic pillar of production, but the only economic pillar is tourism and that also had to be shut down during the pandemic where each of us here in Aruba could not do anything without the help of the Netherlands which is the one who takes care of us and according to the statute that we have to work together and help each other in times of need.
However, this is the case during pandemics where unpopular decisions have to be made to save lives. Not allowing the country’s insecurity to escalate into chaos, there could be money every month for people to eat and take care of their health during the COVID pandemic that has swept the world. These were the most difficult moments that Aruba faced itself under the leadership of cabinet Evelyn Wever Croes who could not fail to take strong decisions to safeguard her people.
If we had to pause and think for a moment, if these decisions had not been made, what would have happened to this country, what would have happened to each of us if there had been no food on the table?
Aruba has a different status from Curaçao and St. Maarten, each of these islands needed and received Dutch aid. However, the status of each country in the negotiations is different and each can attend the negotiations differently. In the case of Aruba at a time when the pre-pandemic era was already over, Aruba received a LAFT and a KB from the cabinet of Mike Eman, and the confidence of the Netherlands was already shaking at the time, the Netherlands simply wanted the safety of its money back and the country’s management was serious which was not the case with the AVP government.
In a short time before it was possible to repair the bad finances left behind by the AVP, COVID came and the Netherlands had to help Aruba, but due to the mismanagement of the AVP and the mistrust they already had, for this reason the Netherlands itself put enormous pressure on Aruba. The one who got the pressure is the MEP government, although the one who did the most damage is cabinet Mike Eman.
Thus COHO was introduced to the islands where each COHO was different, but the one in Aruba the Netherlands wanted to practically remove the autonomy of Aruba. This did not come easily and this did not succeed either as the Aruba parliament did not accept it. So they started negotiations and changed the COHO to an underlingeregeling at the time which put the Netherlands on the street that Aruba has its own parliament and its laws and must respect it. Thus was achieved the underlingegeling and that the negotiations continued and that the parliament retained its authority to make its own decisions in Aruba.
However, the negotiations have not ended here, the financial supervision of the Landsverordening Aruba tijdelijk financieel toezicht (LAft) has remained on the table and today there is a Rijkswet Aruba financieel toezicht (RAft) which is on the table until these moments.
However, both the Netherlands and Aruba are at the table to reach better deals on how to pay back the debt incurred during COVID that was not requested or needed to be incurred if the pandemic had not occurred. Although the statute says that the Netherlands and Aruba must help each other in times of difficulty, this is not the case at the moment with the Netherlands and Aruba.
Aruba does not lower its head and ask for help, but would like to pay its debts fairly. However the Netherlands in turn if it was a good mother it would have to help Aruba in the difficult moments as the statute says, but the Netherlands has shown its face with Aruba and does not do this, but is willing to give a refinancing to Aruba between 3 to 6 percent which is double of what they get the money back to help Aruba, this is a situation that Aruba dislikes and where it is unfair that the Netherlands wants to come double on Aruba’s head and pushes Aruba in different ways and positions to take it, but Aruba voted for a Minister who knows how to stand up for his people and this is exactly what he is doing to reach a fair solution to help Aruba and he does not get it and the first thing he would do is assume free management and put the statute in the difficult moments and help the other countries not to do what the Netherlands is actually trying to do.
The struggle of the Prime Minister continues at the table and the Netherlands saw that this could not remain strong and gave space to negotiate, but at the same time gave Aruba 30 million extra, which supposedly the Netherlands would be the motherland that would be able to help Aruba in difficult times, this is the scenario of the abuse of power that the Netherlands is doing in Aruba.
In addition to this, it may be noted that some politicians have personal anger and do not worry about harming Aruba, others shout loudly that they want to be proud but have no vices, others are well studied and perhaps the history of what Aruba has gone through is not of their interest, and other politicians who have a contradictory thought about the status and position of Aruba in the Kingdom, are to regret that such policies are in politics.
But if we look at the real politicians who have a broad knowledge of the history of Aruba and their ancestors fought for today we all enjoy the Aruba that we have standing together and side by side to fight against RAFT, even though politically they are not friends, but the thought is on the same line, which is MEP, AVP and former minister Otmar Oduber.
