To the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and
vice minister-president, Mrs Kajsa Ollongren,
To the Minister of Social Affairs Mr. Wouter Koolmees
The president and members of the Parliament of the
Netherlands
The president and members of the Senate of the Netherlands
PO Box 20018
2500 EA the Hague, the Netherlands.
Subject: After 156 years of slavery-abolition-law
Dutch cabinet officially recognize and regrets being accomplice but denies
decolonization and right to self-determination to the descendants
Honorable Parliamentarians,
We commend your cabinet’s recent historical declarations on
July 1, 2019 in commemoration of July 1, 1863, 156 years after your
government’s proclamation of the abolition law, finally a sign, a sprout, of
compassion and humanity towards the descendants, the diaspora of our
dehumanized ancestors, and victims of your criminally inhuman economy.
The Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations Mrs.
Ollongren stated “that the government cannot turn back time, but deeply regrets
that slavery is part of our common history” and the Minister of Social Affairs
Mr. Koolmees confessed: “...That is not only the stories about the past that
hurt, but that today's indifference can do that just as well”. These
declarations have lit a flame of hope again in this deepest everlasting dark
historical tunnel of Dutch unconsciousness about the racism part of their
economy.
We all know that the abolition law of slave trade in 1814
and the1818 law that made participation a criminal offense led up to continued
discussions in your parliament. For more than half a century, they debated not
the humanitarian beliefs or feelings of shame about this form of commerce, but
a defense of the Dutch rationale of economic pragmatism, condemning slavery in
theory, but allowing its continuation in practice up to 1863 and beyond. And up
to now all your governments have kept yourselves and yours and our peoples in a
state of cognitive dissonance through cultural, educational, legal, and
colonial manipulation, denying the fact that your government was one of the
cruelest colonizers in the world’s history.
In the light of the cabinet’s official recognition of the
crimes against our ancestors and thus accepting the responsibility of being the
continuation of your predecessors’ racist and economic crimes committed against
us, the descendants of the victims, we would like to kindly request you the
following:
As it took almost two (2) centuries for your government to
recognize and regret that what you did to our ancestors was wrong, criminal and
inhumane, we are afraid it may take a similar time-span, another two (2)
centuries for your government to apologize, a natural logical human deed.
That as your government seems not to be in the state-of-mind
to apologize due to the reasons mentioned above and we would not like to start
a discussion with you on reparations as that is impossible in the current
colonial occupation you hold us, we would like to ask you and your government
that same simple question as your first chair of your first national assembly,
during the Batavian constitutional debate, Pieter Paulus asked in 1796: “In
which way all human beings can be considered equal?”.
Yes, the same question remains today 222 years later : “In
which way – Are we, your so-called
“Kingdom partners”, who were as recent as October 10, 2010, annexed,
re-occupied, re-colonized, and embedded in your constitution under unequal
rights against the our free will, - considered equal human beings?
We truly hope that the two honorable Ministers, same as
Pieter Paulus was called “apostle of humanity”, they will be called the
“apostles of decolonization” and not yet another modernized version of Piet
Hein personified by colleague state-secretary and ex-military Mr. Knops who
could be portraying Piet Hein, but now by terrorizing us all in the Caribbean
with his WIC-VOC mentality and approach and who abuses his powers by unilateral
legal actions with your approval.
We wholeheartedly feel that our wish to decolonize is not
unrealistic and is as real as Mrs. Ollongren realization that time cannot be
turned back as she declared. Born in the former Dutch colony Sumatra to
Finnish-Swede parents, she possesses a diluted Dutch-ancestral-colonial DNA and
her M.A. in history gives her all the possibilities to understand colonialism
and its only cure: decolonization. A
same miracle we expect from Mr. Koolmees with his doctor degree in social and
institutional economics and as researcher at The Dutch Economic Institute he
surely must understand that the mayor part of the riches and wealth which he
and his government inherited and benefit today, was acquired through the
colonial-slavery-criminal-economy tainted with the blood, sweats, and tears of
our ancestors. No wonder he clearly admitted that the indifference today is as
cruel and painful as the past, because as an expert he indeed knows.
Finally, we herewith kindly request you to cease being an
accomplice to the continuation of Dutch colonialism, declared a crime against
humanity by the United Nations and to follow up on your recent brave
declarations. Our King Willem-Alexander, as a non-political symbol of Dutch
colonial legacy, could lead the re-conciliation and healing process by
apologizing with humanitarian compassion and not matter-of-factly based on
Dutch economic rationale. In this process, we advise you to reevaluate the role
and actions of Mr. Knops. The damage he has done so far to your carefully
fabricated humanitarian philanthropic world image can hardly be undone other
than through a genuine declaration of remorse followed by an immediate
resignation.
To summarize all the
above: if you indeed recognize that colonialism is a crime and regret that your
government is participating in and supporting it, then please follow up and
respect our Bonerian 2015 and Sint Eustatius 2014 referenda, expressions of the
voice and free will of our people that
legally and democratically rejected the imposed colonial structure. And please,
comply with your UN Charter obligations and resume the decolonization process
by respecting and restoring our inherited and acquired sacred and fundamental
human rights of self-determination and self-governance.
We thank you for your attention and look forward to your
compliance, as hope is all we need, that, “one day, we shall overcome”,
Respectfully yours,
James Finies
President We Want Bonaire Back
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