Host the weekly radio program "Changes" Mr. Dave Levenstone on Monday evening during his program made a special appeal to the Island and Executive Council of Saba to start holding discussions with the Island Government of St. Maarten on various areas of common interest.
Levenstone said that with each one of the islands going their own separate way he feels that the islands authorities needs to start sitting down and holding serious discussions on areas of general interest especially to the people of Saba.
Saba is suppose to become a public entity of the Netherlands but that does not mean that we should not have a good working relationship with the government of the new country of St. Maarten. After all the islands will remain islands and they will be still in close distant and the only thing that will be changing is the status.
The people of Saba will still have to make use of Princess Juliana International Airport, the Dr. A.C. Wathey harbor, the St. Maarten Medical Center, Smitcom, UTS and even the large grocery suppliers and there needs to be some sort of discussions going on between the Island Council of both islands.
We will have to continue to make use of just about everything on St. Maarten and there should be talks ongoing. It is good going to Holland and holding discussions but the authority of the Island Government of Saba should not be put aside and just depend on the Netherlands to hold any discussions on our behalf. The people of Saba elected a government to represent them on all issues and our government should not be depending on any dutch man to talk on their behalf with the Government of St. Maarten.
We need to know will our people will still be able to travel to the island of St. Maarten freely and also be able to seek work on St. Maarten and live there without any problems.
Levenstone said that he strongly feel that there should be discussions taking place between the three windward islands after all no future relationship should be able to bring us apart form cooperating with one another. We have been together as islands for too long to now let our cultural and family relations drop just because of a new status.
Levenstone said that he looks forward that within short that the government of Saba would extend a formal invitation to the Government of St. Maarten and St. Eustatius to meet in a formal setting on Saba and discuss mutual areas of cooperation. We already have the protocol that was signed several years ago between the Commissioners of Education of the Windward Islands this should be brushed up a little bit and put back in force. Several years ago we also discussed the Economic Union this to should come back on the table for discussions, Dave said during his program on Monday evening. We will continue to make use of the facilities on St. Maarten and negotiations should be ongoing now for a smooth transition.