PHILIPSBURG/WILLEMSTAD — Finally it has become clear what the Dutch State Secretary Knops means with his “lowering of 12.5 percent on the total package of labor conditions of all employees in the civil service and the (semi) public sector,” the Antilliaans Dagblad writes in an analysis. He calls this a generic condition that he imposed on May 13 on the governments of the Caribbean countries of the kingdom for receiving the sorely needed liquidity support.
Knops puts this joker only now, fifty days later, on the table; only after the riots in Willemstad and elsewhere in Curacao and after an urgent appeal by a group of prominent Dutch citizens reality hit him during a debate last Wednesday in the permanent parliamentary committee for Kingdom Relations. Knops explains that the 12.5 percent does not apply – or even better: does not necessarily have to apply to every individual civil servant or person working in the public sector, but that the government decides how to achieve savings on the total personnel costs.
Couldn’t he have said that sooner? Does Knops not read newspapers that have outlined the various contraction-scenarios? And where were the civil servants, spokespeople, advisors and functionaries of for instance the Representation of the Netherlands? Couldn’t they have brought up, sometime during the past seven weeks, this other interpretation of this “unconditional” condition? That the “method of the cheese knife” is not the only option?
The question remains whether the relevant sentence is indeed open for more than one interpretation. This would mean that the civil servants and the ministers of the governments in Willemstad, Oranjestad and Philipsburg have dropped the ball and that the decision-makers have said yes and amen too easily, without questioning whether certain groups of civil servants could be excluded from the 12.5 percent cut. It remains unclear what the better option is: a higher cut for middle and higher salaries in the civil service; 30 percent or 40 percent? Is that what Knops meant? This would not be without consequences either, because it could result in an exodus of higher educated civil servants, people the countries sorely need during this crisis. On the other hand it is clear that actions and measures by the Rhuggenaath-cabinet are executed excruciatingly slow.
The fact remains that it was – intentional or unintentional – a remarkable action by Knops and his assistants this week. There have been enough opportunities to sound the alarm sooner; like last week, when all hell broke loose in Curacao and Knops expressed his concerns to Prime Minister Rhuggenaath. Knops did not say anything about the possibility to exempt vital professions at a moment when civil servants from all ranks expressed their dissatisfaction; among them were nurses and teachers, followed by employees of the government-owned garbage collector Selikor. These are all vital professions.
When the debate in the media and in the political arena in the Netherlands started about the social unrest in Curacao, yes that is when last Wednesday the explanation came in the Second Chamber. It was up to the governments to decide how to save 12.5 percent on the total personnel costs. This is what we call a nice move.
Keep it decent!
We should constantly be alert against muddling the kingdom relations due to (mutual) tensions; they are always there during a crisis but they can result in irritations and even in conflicts. We have to prevent that these tensions are fueled by certain members of the Dutch parliament (or by Caribbean parliamentarians), who are political lightweights in their own country, but have a field day with the Antilles-dossier.
It is okay and even justified that they are critical of the slow pace at which the governments in the Caribbean part of the kingdom react to the corona-crisis and the implementation of necessary structural reforms. But the tone is too often overbearing and even insulting. Some of them went one step further last week by pointing their poisonous arrows at prominent people in the Netherlands who had called on Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is also the chairman of the Kingdom Council of Ministers, to approach the corona-victims in Curacao, Aruba and St. Maarten with a warm heart and compassion combined with cool logic.
The way André Bosman and Ronald van Raak – the well-known duo – attacked without any respect the letter writers is unworthy for a member of parliament; they create the impression that the constructive opinion of influential people like Hans de Boer, Roger van Boxtel and Nout Wellink does not count. It almost seems like they do not want the islands to have friends of the Antilles in the Netherlands. But above everything these parliamentarians put a strain on the relationships within the kingdom – and they are not only political. Please, keep it decent gentlemen!
https://antilliaansdagblad.com/nieuws-menu/commentaar-ad/21830-analyse-fraaie-draaibeweging
