The State Secretary of Kingdom Relations publicly declared that since 10-10-10, Aruba “no longer has a Status Aparte” and that is why we must be treated equally to Curaçao and Sint Maarten under the Kingdom Act HOFA (Rijkswet HOFA).
This is constitutionally incorrect
Aruba’s Status Aparte was hard-won in 1986. It gave Aruba its direct autonomous position within the Kingdom, 24 years before the others obtained something similar. The fact that Curaçao and Sint Maarten acquired a comparable status in 2010 does not mean that Aruba lost anything. It means that the others caught up to what Aruba already had.
What the State Secretary is proposing is this: the same obligations, but not the same benefits. HOFA demands the same restrictions from Aruba as the others, but without the debt restructuring, without the economic support that they did receive. Aruba must carry the same weight, but without the same support. We must comply with the same rules, but without the same reward. And if something goes wrong, Aruba will face the same consequences, but without having been given the same starting point. This shoe does not fit all three of us equally. Forcing a foot into a shoe that is not its size is not discipline, it is damage!
Aruba’s local financial supervision is working. The LAft has been in effect since 2015. There is no valid reason to elevate this into a Kingdom Act (Rijkswet).
The State Secretary’s statements are living proof of the weak argument being used to try and justify what constitutionally cannot be justified.
“I have always been and remain against a Kingdom Act on Financial Supervision,” Tromp-Lee concluded.
HOFA is unacceptable! (Literally: HOFA cannot be!)