Letter to Netherlands Minister of Kingdom Relations
and Vice Minister-President Mrs. Kajsa Ollongren
from
James Finies, president Foundation We Want Bonaire Back
__________________________________________________________________
Subject: Minister Kasja Ollongren first introduction to
the island of Bonaire
Honorable
Minister Ollongren,
As you landed
in Bonaire and firsthand experienced a modernized version of a Dutch colony
where the Bonaire peoples are governed in a status not of their choosing. An
island where the Dutch government is blatantly continuing violating the Charter
of the United Nations, international law and fundamental human,
self-determination and democratic rights of the peoples. An unprecedented
showoff of hypocrisy to pretend to the world that the Dutch stand in defense of
human rights and democracy where your government does not respect the
democratic voice and decision of the peoples that never chose to be annexed
nor integrated and embedded under unequal rights as second class citizens in a
colonial status and to be ruled by the Hague. A status that was overwhelming
rejected with a No-vote of 66% in the last referendum of 2015 and the recent
island council election where your government denied the people of St Eustatius democracy and could not vote,
the people of Bonaire protested and boycotted this election as never before and
continue showing their unhappiness towards a system of government which is
against the wishes of the peoples.
As never
before I write this letter with a lot of positivism and hope for our peoples of
Bonaire that you as the new minister of Kingdom Relations with your first
working visit and introduction to our island will understand our situation and
our struggle contrary to all your predecessor ministers of Kingdom relations.
All prior ministers and your accompanying state-secretary Mr Knops and us could
never reach an understanding or consensus on the most simple fundamental aspect of humanity
that we 'all are born equal in rights
and dignity' and we Bonerians have the same right to be as free and as equal
and as human as the European Dutch.
I expect that before coming to our island, and as my previous letter to you in March 2018
kindly asked you, to take note of my various previous letters to the Dutch
government in which I am informing your Government that your dictatorial
un-democratic course of action infringes against your own agreed treaties and
the international legislation.
Your visit
fuels us with reborn hope to be freed from this illegal colonial status imposed
on us on October 10, 2010. The reason we put our hope back in a Dutch minister,
in your honorable, is because of the compelling facts that you are completely
different then your predecessors and you would be able to understand and feel
our pain and help us:
You
studied and have a MA in history and have the capability to look into our
common colonial history and understand this hidden dark truth where the Dutch
being a insignificant fishing village became one of worlds richest nations
through piracy, smuggling and slave-trading. Your travel-partner mr Knops
publicly proclaimed to me during his first visit to Bonaire that he don't know
nothing about our collective colonial past and treaties and human rights and
this illegality does not seem to interest him either.
However recently Mr Knops
admitted based on continued criticism of the Advisory Council of International
Affairs (AIV) in violation of the Fundamental Human Rights in the Kingdom that
your cabinet has decided to change course, and that Human Rights treaties will
now apply not only in the European Netherlands , but also in the Caribbean
Netherlands. This good news increases our hopes. Our hope is now fully fixed at
you as besides your capability to study and understand the history, what is
more compelling, is that your father - a Finnish-Swede - was born in a Dutch
colony, in Sumatra and lived and understood colonialism and that in the 21st
century, anno 2019, colonialism is a crime against humanity declared by
the international community and United Nations.
As all previous Dutch ministers
and statesmen have shown no human-feelings towards us as they see us as as
not-equal and not-as-human as themselves and as colonized peoples this could be
a deficiency either by mis-education of
human values or could be transferred by Dutch-ancestral-DNA. Your ancestry that
your are not Dutch but Finnish-Swedish could save us from the current course of
systematic eradication, ethnic cleansing of the Bonerians.
Above
arguments that you may possess human compassion towards us contrary to your
predecessors, we appeal on your humanity not to be accomplice with this crime
against humanity and be at the wrong side of history and according to above
recent proclamation that your cabinet will change its course and respect our
Human Rights to start immediately by respecting and restoring the first and
most fundamental human rights of self-determination and right to
self-governance of the Bonaire and Statian peoples.
Respectfully
yours,
James Finies,
president Foundation We Want Bonaire Back
