THE HAGUE - The Dutch political party BIJ1 wants an end to the current unequal relationship between the Netherlands and the Caribbean islands of the Kingdom.
Sylvana Simons' party wants to continue the decolonization process of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom in order to give the residents of Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba more say and the right to self-determination.
This is stated in the party program of BIJ1 that was presented this weekend in connection with the upcoming parliamentary elections on March 17, 2021. "It is not the Netherlands that should decide, but the residents of the islands themselves."
Some other notable points from the party program:
-The Kingdom Council of Ministers, in which seventeen Dutch ministers and only three plenipotentiary ministers of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, have to be abolished.
-All countries within the Kingdom retain their internal autonomy for shaping their societies. The Netherlands will no longer dictate from Europe how the islands should be governed.
- There must also be a parliamentary inquiry that charts the extent of the self-enrichment of the Netherlands at the expense of the islands during the colonial period.
-The Netherlands pays reparations for the ecological degradation of the areas through colonial exploitation.