ORANJESTAD- The party leader of Democratic Party of St. Eustatius, Adelka Spanner has sent out a press release to give her views on the discussions regarding the return to full democracy on the island. Spanner, overall, notes that it is important that the island in the present day does not forget what preceded the political intervention by The Hague.

“During the Island Council debate of last week one would get the impression that we are not on the road back to full democracy, but this is simply not the case” says Spanner. According to the DP leader a first step has been taken by electing a new Island Council.

Spanner says that she finds it important to note why the intervention happened in the first place. She also states that the majority of the members of the Council were responsible for the intervention.

“To date the wrongdoers have not come to terms with their actions or openly admitted any wrong doing at all. In contrast they have campaigned and continue to claim that these accusations are false. This leaves the National government no other alternative than to work on building and strengthening the Government Organization to withstand the actions of a possible future rogue government”, according to Spanner.

While we push to return to normalcy let’s not forget how we got here

Strange

Spanner also notes that there are certain strange developments happening on the island. “For one it is questionable why the largest represented faction is not the one spearheading this charge. They are the ones primarily accused of the infractions. They won a majority of seats in the Island Council yet they seem to be unable or willing to take the lead”.

Spanner also has some thoughts about Councilman Sneek. “Independent party Koos Sneek fought tooth and nail together with DP Statia for a transition period leading to a smooth transition back to full democracy thereby pushing for the extension of the intervention that would have ended in March this year. This same Councilman is now complaining that the intervention is taking ‘too long’.

Spanner notes that the desire to ‘jump steps or advance phases’ is similar to the attempt of the pre-intervention Government to put aside the WOLBES and the FINBES as these phases are the main part of this transition law.

Return to full democracy

Spanner states that The Democratic Party is in favour of improving the level of the Government organization in a sustainable way. “We agree that the organization must be able to withstand a Rogue government. We are willing to negotiate a faster transition based on the quicker execution of the 12 criteria required to advance to the next step”.

Spanner also says that her party supports the attracting of additional temporary manpower to get this done as well as the training and upgrading of a pool of prospective Island Deputies and future Island Council members. “We do not support the return to a pre-intervention situation here on Statia. We should not seek to destroy or teardown our local people just because the National Government intervened on Statia” Spanner says she and her party wants to continue efforts to build the Government organization and invest in our civil servants, upgrade our laws, policies and procedures and advance toward a more self-sufficient and sustainable Statia.

“While we push to return to normalcy let’s not forget how we got here”, says Spanner in conclusion.