The book, Self-determination Denied, has as its main objectives: to document and commemorate events that transpired between 2010 and 2020; inform about important decisions, situations and actions that led towards the illegal annexation of Bonaire; and document the consequences of the change of status imposed on Bonaire. It will further shine light, desecrate and encapsulate the persons, politicians, leaders, the players, their actions, and all that led to the betrayal and annexation of the Bonaire people on October 10, 2010 going forward to October 10, 2020.
The people of Bonaire never chose this change of status termed “public entity” and also referred to as “special municipality”. On the contrary, Bonereans used a referendum to express their overwhelming rejection of the imposed status under unequal rights in the Dutch Constitution.
The book will reveal the atrocities committed against our people, the social inequality, the oppression of our rights, and the suppression of our culture on Bonaire. Imposed laws, policies, regulations, and taxes rob our people of their natural food resources and inherited land and leave them destitute. Local Bonerians, now a shrunken and displaced population, have become a minority group on their own island in less than a decade.
Further the book, Bonaire Self-Determination Denied, will summarize Nos Ke Boneiru Back trajectory to re-list Bonaire back on the Non-Self-Governing-Territories list of the United Nations that started in 2016, when Mr. James Finies spoke as the first Antillean in the Special Committee on Decolonization. History has shown us that only international exposure can free our people and guarantee the right of self-determination to the whole Dutch colonies in the Caribbean; Sint Eustatius, Saba, Bonaire, Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten.
