Philipsburg: --- The executive council of Saba has decided that they are going to secede from the Netherlands Antilles so says Leader of Government Chris Johnson in an interview with SMN News.
The process is expected to begin as early as Tuesday when a letter is presented to the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende; the letter will be presented to Henk Kemp, addressed to the Prime Minister. Johnson said the contents of the letter are to inform the Dutch Prime Minister that Saba intends to secede from the Netherlands Antilles. Johnson made clear that the island would not be holding any form of referendum neither would they be seeking to go independent. He said Saba is in their full rights to expedite this process since it was done before. He said the last time this was done was in 1921 when Limburg declared succession from the Netherlands. He said Sabans believe they can leave the Netherlands Antilles as country especially in light of the calls by Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles Emily de Jongh-Elhage to hold parliamentary elections in January.
Johnson said it is clear to him that the PAR party in Holland who is acting moderate are top heavy with politicians. He said in Curacao there are four layers of government namely, parliament, council of ministers and the island and executive council, and this party would stand to loose at least 10 to 15 political positions if they leave the Netherlands Antilles as a country. Johnson said the people has to face reality because Curacao or namely the PAR would never allow the dismantling to take place even if they smile and say everything is going to be fine for the smaller islands.
Johnson explained that Saba has other alternative since that island is the only one within the constellation that had a stable government for the last two years, while Curacao had a very close referendum, while St. Maarten and Bonaire had new executive councils while in Statia a motion of no confidence was presented against the Lt. Governor Hyden Gittens.
The leader of government said the decision taken by his executive council is not an easy one but they are fully prepared to leave the Netherlands Antilles. He said they see no more reason to stay in the process neither should they continue to fool themselves. He said his government looks as succession as a legal alternative to remove themselves from the country of the Netherlands Antilles. He said they are proud of the steps they have decided to take because that does not mean they are leaving the Kingdom; instead, they are seeking to have direct ties with the Netherlands, reason why the letter was addressed to Prime Minister Balkenende.
Johnson said his faction would take this proposal to the island council within another month for ratification. He said the island intends to take some symbolic steps by November this year, which marks the 5th anniversary since Saba, held its referendum. During this period, they intend to withhold the turn over taxes from the island territory, which sends this money to the Central Government and the removal of the Antillean flags from all government buildings. The flag he said would done symbolically, however all of this would depend on the answer given to them by the Prime Minister Balkenende.
Another objective to all of this Johnson said is to bring this matter to the international front since Saba went three time already to the United Nations. He said even though they are the smallest island they were able to change the manner in which the negotiations were taking place.