It makes sense that when you are borrowing money you have to pay. However, the conditions under which The Netherlands wants to force us to pay is unacceptable and should be unacceptable for everybody who loves the country. It is clear that at no time can we speak of a consensus since all the parliaments, including the Dutch parliament disapproved the process towards the COHO law and RAFT.
COHO was removed from the table but still the Netherlands can’t explain why RAft has to stay. In order to understand a little better, the Evaluation Advisory Commission that evaluated the RFT concluded in a report that the supervision of the Rft on Curacao and Sint Maarten (the same one they now want to impose on Aruba) obstruct the social-economic growth of the Islands. An economy that cannot grow means a stuck economy, an economy where you cannot invest, an economy where you will not be able to generate more money to pay our debts.
As already mentioned, it makes sense that at the time of the loan we have to pay back and there are conditions attached to it, however it is misunderstood how these conditions go so far to take away the authority of the Aruban Parliament. If it was not for the pandemic that ravaged the world, at no time would we have to knock at the door of the Netherlands to borrow money! This money was intended to keep our country above water, for the government could pay the FASE, Wage Subsidy and provide financial support to smal and medium companies. We are an autonomous country, the supervision we have now works. We are the only country in the Kingdom that has surplus, our debts have been reduced by up to 88.3% this year being that at the end of 2020 it was above the 100%.
With responsible governance the people can see how we can ourselves, so why put everything in the hands of the Dutch House of Representatives and Minister of Finance of the Netherlands? They certainly do not understand the context of our country and are not interested in the true development of our people either. It is misunderstood how there are politicians, stakeholders and other people who claim to love Aruba, scream for the government to sign the raft as it is now. You don’t have to be a supporter of the MEP party to be against the raft, you have to be an Aruban who really loves his country, who trusts its professionals and who can take the cap of Aruba before those of your political party of choice.