Majority in Parliament
approves 2008 budget
WILLEMSTAD--The Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles approved the 2008 budget late Wednesday evening with fifteen votes in favour and four against. National Alliance (NA) Member of Parliament Frans Richardson voted in favour of the budget, while parliamentarian for the Democratic Party Erno Labega did not vote.
However, Labega presented a motion to the floor of Parliament that was accepted unanimously.
The budget of more than NAf. 1.5 billion was balanced and Finance Minister Ersilia de Lannooy spoke of an historic fact, as it had been a long time since government had presented a balanced budget to Parliament.
This was the main reason for the FOL party to vote in favour of the budget, said parliamentarian Getmar Caldera.
Faroe Metry said the PNP faction also would support the budget, because it would bring solutions to financial problems of the country.
The Forsa Kòrsou political faction wasn’t too impressed with the fact that the budget was balanced. Parliamentarian Glenn Camelia said the budget was balanced based on “uncertain factors,” indicating that there was no surety on the debt relief the Dutch government had promised.
The MAN faction too voted against the budget law proposal. Dwigno Puriel and Eunice Eisden had problems with the tone of the meeting and said government showed a lack of respect for Parliament. According to Eisden, government had been inconsistent in answering questions of Parliament, inconsistent in its management and inconsistent in its policy.
However, the tone of the meeting wasn’t a reason for the PAR party not to approve the budget. Glenn Sulvaran said the budget was balanced, it had been drafted in time, Parliament had discussed it in time and it complied with budgetary norms. He said furthermore that the policy reflected in the budget was a continuation of the 2007 transition accord and anyone who had agreed to the 2007 budget could not vote against the 2008 budget.
After the voting on the budget, Parliament unanimously agreed to two motions brought to the floor. One of these motions was co-signed by Labega. This motion basically asked the support of Parliament for the efforts of the Justice Committee of Parliament to address the problems of car theft in the Netherlands Antilles.
However, Labega was also the centre of hilarity in Parliament on Wednesday. In the second round, Labega fiercely attacked the NA political faction and questioned why the party had attended the budget meeting, but posed no questions. In the middle of his critique, President of Parliament Pedro Atacho interrupted him and requested him to sign the speakers’ list which he had forgotten to do.
This was cause for laughter among all Parliamentarians and Atacho adjourned the meeting for 30 seconds so Labega could sign the list before continuing with his dissertation. The DP Parliamentarian apologised for what he called his “beginner’s mistake.”
Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage made it abundantly clear during the debates that the constitutional change process would not be stopped.
Finance Minister Ersilia de Lannooy twice, in a very emotional tone, heavily criticised the way Aruba was dealing with the Netherlands Antilles in the entire process and said Aruba still treated Antilleans as foreigners. She was irritated by appeals made by several Members of Parliament for government to actively involve Aruba in the constitutional change process.
To show that Aruba treats Antilleans as badly as any foreigner, she presented the example of a man who had been admitted to the hospital in Aruba with a stroke. “Instead of sending the man to Colombia for treatment, they told him his residence in Aruba had expired, so he would have to wait till his condition improved for Aruba to send him back to Curaçao so Curaçao could pay the expenses of sending him abroad for treatment,” De Lannooy stated.
According to the Minister, it was eventually the Dutch representation in Aruba who paid for the man to be transferred, based on the fact that he was a Dutch citizen. De Lannooy strongly believed the Aruban motives for treating an Antillean in such a manner had been racially induced.
“It all had to do because the man was of black complexion and had ‘nappy’ hair. I can say this because I’m of black complexion and I have ‘nappy’ hair,” an irritated De Lannooy said.
She presented newspaper articles as well in which Prime Minister Nel Oduber said that with the debt the Antilles had, the Netherlands would never give the islands an autonomous status. Justice Minister Rudy Croes too made only negative comments about the Antilles, she said.
She also pointed out that Aruba had prevented the Netherlands Antilles from attaining a more favourable OCT (Overseas Countries and Territories) status in the past.
