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Saba requests experts to help with secession
by The Daily Herald
Posted: Sep 2, 2009 13:44 UTC
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~Wants higher supervision on Central Government~
THE BOTTOM - The Saba Government has asked the Dutch Government for one or more constitutional experts to advise the island on how it can legally secede from the Netherlands Antilles and cement direct links with the Kingdom Government as desired by its people.
This request, along with another for “a measure of higher supervision” to be placed on the Curaçao based Central Government and the Antillean Parliament, would transfer all authority to the island territory by no later than January 1, 2010.
These requests were made in a letter to Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende informing him of Saba’s secession plans. Saba Commissioner Chris Johnson delivered the letter to BES Commissioner Henk Kamp in the Government Building Tuesday morning.
According to the letter signed by Lt. Governor Jonathan Johnson on behalf of the Executive Council, government has reached the conclusion that there will never be change in the relationship with the Central Government and the new status as desired as it will never get the approval of the parliament of the Netherlands Antilles.
“Because of this political reality, which has been made almost undeniable by the recent actions of Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage, the Executive Council of Saba sees no other alternative than to begin the process of secession from the Netherlands Antilles.
De Jongh-Elhage announced that there will be an election for the parliament of the Antilles as prescribed by the constitution in January despite political agreements with the islands that elections would be postponed to allowed the process of constitutional change: country status for St. Maarten and Curaçao and Dutch public entities for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (BES).
Government asked the Dutch Government to meet its obligation to Saba as mandated by various resolutions on decolonization by the United Nations.
The legal option, as proposed, is to have Saba removed from the country of the Netherlands Antilles in the Statute of the Kingdom, and have it placed under article 134 of the Constitution of the Netherlands as a special public entity.
The island government requested that this move is guaranteed by the Netherlands to take place no later than October 10, 2010.
Without guarantees in these areas, Saba government sees no other alternative than to start steps to secede from the Netherlands Antilles. This will mean that the Executive Council will present its position to the Island Council in a Motion of Secession. If this is approved, the following steps will have to be taken: Stop the financial transfer of the Turnover tax to the central government and symbolic lowering of the Netherlands Antilles flag on all government buildings in November on the fifth anniversary of the referendum.
“There are those who will say that all of Saba’s concerns are like a tempest in a teapot, but we live in that teapot, however small it may be, and we are therefore quite concerned as to what is to become of us. We appeal to you to take the responsibility of the Netherlands seriously where it concerns the obligation to assist Saba in seceding from the Netherlands Antilles,” the government said in its letter
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