If the process is delayed by three months after the target date of January 1, 2010, let that be the case. We cannot go on and on shifting the date forward and never reaching our goal. No country in the world has had every detail in place in order to execute its full internal self-government status once the people have expressed their right of self-determination. Let's just get on with it!
St. Maarten was given the status of Island Territory back in 1983 with Saba and St. Eustatius up to the present. The island has been functioning since then under that legal status based on the Islands Regulations of the Netherlands Antilles (ERNA).
The island has a functioning legal system, judicial system, police force, etc etc. Let's just get on with it. The people have spoken loud and clear back in June 2000. The term of the current Antillean Parliament ends on March 26, 2010. On March 27, 2010, let Country St. Maarten be born!
Much can be done between now and then if everybody works diligently to get this thing done. The suggestion by Dutch parliamentarian Marijke Linthorst to have St. Maarten grow into its new status as country must be considered dead on arrival.
Linthorst proposal goes back to the colonial period and is typical Dutch European thinking. The Labour Party senator suggests a ‘heavyweight commissioner on behalf of the Kingdom Council of Ministers who would prepare and execute the necessary improvements.
Such a proposal will only further delay the people's wishes. St. Maarten needs its financial resources in order to continue to develop the socio-economic well-being of its people. A further delay is only hurting the people. The developmental challenges of our island nation are tremendous and we need our own resources that go to Curacao every month to remain here.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) recently called upon administering Powers, Non-Self-Governing Territories and the UN body tackling decolonization to continue working together to accelerate the process of eradicating colonialism.
The Curacao referendum is over and the results are well known. Let's get on with it and have country status delivered in 2010.
Roddy Heyliger
