In the current public debate in Aruba, we see a recent trend where government leaders launch national calls for the people to “make Aruba clean.” This message, wrapped in an attractive layer of patriotism and good citizenship, seems innocent at first glance. However, analyzing the situation from a journalistic, legal, and administrative perspective, this call reveals an alarming deviation from constitutional and governmental responsibility.
The central question every citizen must ask themselves is a simple yet powerful one: Is it really the people’s job to keep Aruba clean, when the citizen already pays taxes for these services to be executed professionally?
The Aruban is paying for a service that does not arrive or is not delivered properly
In a state governed by the rule of law, the relationship between citizen and government is based on a clear social contract. The citizen fulfills their fiscal duty by paying taxes, land taxes, and other financial burdens; in exchange, the government has the legal and ethical OBLIGATION to provide infrastructure, security, health, and efficient public services, including maintaining the cleanliness of our country.
The operational work teams of the Department of Public Works (DOW) and SERLIMAR are assigned the tasks to ensure that the island remains clean, orderly, and maintained. The funds to pay this personnel, the equipment, and the execution of the work come directly from the citizen’s own pocket, which the government manages. Now, is it being well managed? Has the government ensured that these departments are optimal to provide the service the people deserve, or has it choked the department? If it choked it, why actually?
When a government asks the people to take to the streets to lend a hand in general cleanup, this is not an act of governmental kindness; this is evidence of a failure in management. The question is:
• Why do DOW and/or SERLIMAR not have the necessary equipment and tools?
• Where is the citizen’s tax money going?
• Are DOW’s work teams not being adequately controlled by managers to fulfill the task for which they receive a salary?
The transfer of responsibility: From obligation to charity
A government that fails its governmental departments, and consequently fails the people, opts for a strategy of “shift of blame” and emotional manipulation.
When state infrastructure fails due to mismanagement or budgetary negligence, rulers use the charisma of “kindness” to make the people themselves solve problems that the government itself is obligated to resolve.
When a citizen is forced under social pressure to do the work they already pay the government to do, what we can call a double moral and financial charge occurs: the citizen pays taxes for the service, and then must invest their own physical time and energy in executing that task. This removes responsibility from the politician and places it on the shoulders of the ordinary citizen.
Journalistic conclusion
The national call to “make Aruba clean” is a distraction from the true administrative disease plaguing our island. Love for Aruba is indisputable; each of us loves our land. But love for our island cannot mean the acceptance of governmental negligence and administrative incompetence.
A country is not guided by using the people as free labor to patch up the holes of mismanagement. The solution is not for the citizen to go out and clean the street, but for the government to fulfill its legal obligations and duties, give DOW and SERLIMAR the necessary budget and tools, and carry out strict controls so that the people’s tax money works for what it is intended. It is time to demand real accountability, instead of allowing sentimentalism to cover up poor governance and privileges for private companies, while the people themselves have their own two state companies into which the government itself is not putting money.