In an interview with Mr. Raoul White, member of the Dutch party GroenLinks/PvdA, he shared his opinion on the current situation regarding the Kingdom Act. He stated that he believes every autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands must have equal rights, and that maintaining this equality is essential.
Analyzing the current situation, in which consensus was required but not respected by one party, Mr. White believes that Aruba could have handled the matter in a better way.
Mr. White indicated that he is familiar with the Kingdom Act, as it has been discussed in several debates. Therefore, he believes that now more than ever, work must be done on establishing a dispute settlement mechanism (“geschillenregeling”), since that mechanism could serve as the platform to assess and manage the current situation — one that may involve a struggle for power. Consequently, this would create more equality within decision-making processes.
When asked why he thinks Aruba and the Netherlands have still not reached an agreement on the dispute settlement mechanism, Mr. White explained that the responsible officials in the past did their utmost to achieve it, but that — as far as he recalls — the process stalled on Aruba’s side.
After that, there was a change in the political constellation in the Netherlands, which once again affected the process. The current caretaker cabinet in the Netherlands is more critical of the relationship between the Dutch Caribbean and the Netherlands, and it views the situation quite differently from the previous administration. This, he said, has consequences for reaching an agreement.
In summary, Mr. White said that if Aruba had agreed to the dispute settlement mechanism that was on the table under the previous cabinet, it likely could have been implemented by now. However, the political changes in the Netherlands may have come at an unfortunate moment, and that is possibly the reason why a dispute settlement mechanism still does not exist. Nonetheless, he emphasized that it is crucial to continue working on this as soon as possible.