The Dutch Second Chamber plans to evaluate the significance of the Parliamentary Consultation of the Kingdom POK which takes place twice a year between the three Parliaments in the Dutch Kingdom, said Dutch delegation leader Willibrord van Beek on Sunday, after returning from Aruba where POK was held last week.
"It is time for an evaluation. We have to talk about the manner in which we continue these meetings," van Beek said at a press conference at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. However, he did not say beforehand that POK will be eliminated because the last three POK meetings were not very fruitful. "Important issues remain, issues that we cannot just dismiss and say that we will not discuss them," he said.
In January and June 2008, the POK had not been very successful with the meeting in January last year. It was cancelled. This time POK came very close to failure as a result of member of the Dutch delegation, Hero Brinkman of the Party for Freedom PVV. Arubans were very upset about statements that Brinkman made on American TV. Twice he called Aruba’s government corrupt on FoxNews. "People were deeply offended," said van Beek, who immediately issued a press release following the broadcast to make clear that Brinkman spoke for himself and not on behalf of the Dutch delegation.
When for the third time Brinkman insulted Aruba’s government, by calling Justice Minister Rudy Croes a liar during the meeting on Friday, the Dutch delegation asked for an adjournment to have a serious talk with Brinkman.
Van Beek explained that during the adjournment, the Dutch delegation asked Brinkman the reason he had not discussed his intention to make insulting statements during Friday’s meeting internally first. "He said he hadn’t done so because he knew we wouldn’t agree with him. At that moment, something broke in the delegation. We told him that the delegation had stood by him the entire week. But now he had crossed the line of decency. We told him that he needed to apologise, not only to Aruba, but also to us," said van Beek.
Brinkman refused to apologise and as a result, the MP was expelled from the Dutch delegation. van Beek said he had to take this decision because Brinkman had gone too far. Van Beek also did not want to go home empty-handed for the second time after last year’s cancellation. He said he had continuously seen to it that Brinkman could express his own political views, even though his opinion was not shared by the rest of the Dutch delegation.
Van Beek said he was not trying to keep anyone out of the delegation. He said he did not have a personal problem with Brinkman. "We had a talk before I left," said Van Beek, who confirmed that Brinkman will remain a member of the Second Chamber’s Permanent Committee for Antillean and Aruban Affairs NAAZ. He said the delegation would give accountability for what happened in Aruba.
He said the atmosphere of the meetings in Oranjestad had been very tense and difficult. Besides the issue with Brinkman, there were also some challenging issues on the agenda to deal with, such as constitutional reform and the position of Antillean and Arubans in the Netherlands.
"It was tough," said van Beek. He lamented on the course of events and said that for him too, the week had been a "disappointment." Even after the incident with Brinkman on Friday was resolved, the situation in the room remained very tense when parties had to wrap up the customary Final Declaration. The remainder of the Dutch delegation returned to the Netherlands Monday morning.