SXMElections.com

THE HAGUE--The Parliaments of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the Netherlands debated on Wednesday about establishing parameters for common norms to safeguard and improve integrity of the governments in the Dutch Kingdom.

In the presence of Dutch National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen, the delegations talked about the importance of integrity, how integrity is perceived in the Kingdom and how to achieve more integrity in the governments and parliaments of the Kingdom.

Integrity is about one’s own behaviour, being transparent and consistent in one’s actions, said Van Zutphen. He stressed that it was important to have a structure in place for checks and balances and to have honest discussions with each other about norms and values.

St. Maarten delegation leader independent Member of Parliament (MP) Leona Marlin-Romeo said the key word was “values,” which she said could differ per country and per household. “Integrity is about a person doing the right thing when no one is watching. Government has to make sure that checks and balances are in place. Accountability is not only for Parliament, but for the entire community. It is a cultural thing,” she said.

Member of the Curaçao Parliament Hensley Koeiman of the MAN party referred to the abuse of power and corruption. He said it was important to have a solid structure in place to safeguard integrity, because “sometimes people had an extendable conscience.”

Member of the Curaçao Parliament Elmer Wilsoe of the PS party said the countries and most political parties had systems in place to assess whether a prospective politician complied with integrity norms, “but that doesn’t prevent a person from committing mistakes later on.”

The Curaçao and Aruba delegations made a case to set common norms for integrity in the Kingdom. Wilsoe said he was “tired” of the continuous accusations. “We can keep accusing each other of corruption and not living up to integrity standards, which keeps creating tension, or we can try to jointly set parameters, integrity norms to be carried out under the responsibility of each country. Let’s move forward together,” said Wilsoe.

Member of the First Chamber of the Dutch Parliament Sophie van Bijsterveld of the CDA party said integrity always should remain a topic of discussion. “I am not tired of this topic. We have to continue discussing it, no matter how difficult it is. We have to keep improving integrity together,” she said.

MP Andin Bikker of Aruba’s PDR party said the countries should stop the continuous accusations and arrive at common norms, create a framework and set a joint code of ethics. He said integrity would always remain an agenda point.

“We should set joint integrity norms in the Kingdom and commit to stick to them,” said MP Rene Herdé of Aruba’s AVP party.

MP Xiomara Ruiz-Maduro of Aruba’s MEP party called for cooperation and sharing of knowledge. “We are here to make things better together. The entire Kingdom should uphold integrity. Let’s create a general standard,” she said.

Leader of the Aruba delegation and President of the Aruba Parliament Marisol Lopez-Tromp of the AVP party said it was important to set norms as Parliaments. “Parliament is always under a microscope, especially in small communities,” she said.

St. Maarten MP Sarah Wescot-Williams of the Democratic Party said that before discussing a Kingdom framework for integrity, the Parliaments first should make an inventory of laws and regulations that are in place in the individual countries to safeguard and improve integrity, and should exchange knowledge in this area.

The Dutch delegation submitted a proposal on paper to establish an Integrity Chamber for the Kingdom, to be secured in a Kingdom Law. The initiator of that proposal, Member of the Second Chamber Roelof van Laar of the Labour Party PvdA, said his initiative was aimed at jointly giving content to a new way of governing.

Van Laar said the Kingdom Integrity Chamber could mitigate the invoking of the heavy General Measure of the Kingdom Government (“Algemene Maatregel van Rijksbestuur” AMvRB) by investigating and advising on possible integrity violations. He proposed to send the paper to the governments of the four countries of the Kingdom, who could discuss it at the upcoming Kingdom Conference in Curaçao.

The island delegations were not in favour of drastic action where the Kingdom Integrity Chamber was concerned. They wanted to take time to consider the proposal carefully and to seek legal advice on it. Wescot-Williams said the establishing of a dispute regulation (geschillenregeling) should come first before deciding on the format of a Kingdom Integrity Chamber.

Member of the Second Chamber Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party gave the issue a different twist. He said it made no sense to keep talking about integrity as long as there was no clarity on where political parties on the islands received their money from. “We have to close the faucet of bad money,” he said, asking for support to carry out a joint investigation of the flow of money between the underworld and upper-world.

National Ombudsman Van Zutphen said it was important to give follow-up to talks and to set concrete steps on integrity. He also suggested that parties look at ways of cooperation to improve integrity and to exchange experiences, “because corruption takes place on both sides of the ocean.”