Leader of the Democratic Party of Saba Mr. Dave Levenstone on Monday afternoon issued the following statement in regards to some statements that were made by the President of the WIPM party of Saba in regards to the ongoing constitutional changes.
Levenstone said that he is very much shocked to hear Mr. Will Johnson talking about Saba being part of any constellation in which Saba has been taking up into the so called BES. The people of Saba never voted to be part of any BES structure, the people of Saba voted for Saba to have direct ties with the Netherlands in free association. The people never voted to integrate neither did they vote to form any BES structure. From the offset the people of Saba were told and promised by Will Johnson that the option that was placed before them at the referendum was to be similar to that of Anguilla.
As far as I see it Johnson even went along to change Willemstad to Kralendijk. Just take a look at the amount of Quartermasters etc. on Bonaire with the Dutch Commissioner even residing on Bonaire.
Whatever the Government of Bonaire decides to do on their island should be left up to them to decide and nobody should be making statements hoping to influence the outcome of whatever Bonaire is going to do. I do not see why the referendum on Bonaire should have any consequences for Saba in particular, we did not vote with Bonaire at the time of the referendum we voted as an entity called Saba.
I am of the opinion that Will Johnson and his team has negotiated bad for the island of Saba and now he is looking for some sort of scapegoat and is doing as if Bonaire is holding back Saba from getting what it did not vote for in the first instance. During the campaign leading up to the referendum Mr. Johnson promised the people of Saba all sorts of things and now that he realizes that nothing that he promised them is becoming a reality, he wants to through sand in the eyes of the Saba people once again and coming with this threatening issue about Wilders and his party. Nobody on Saba votes for Wilders or any other party in Holland so why is he trying to use this as a scapegoat.
One can imagine that we have a parliamentary election coming up and Johnson needs to have something to try and mislead the Saba people with once again. he realize that he cannot sell this whole integration business so he is now using the Wilders issues as a scare tactic in order for people to get worried and follow him blindly once again. Nobody on Saba is worried about Wilders and his party in Holland.
Pure scare tactics is now being used with the hope that people will fall for that nonsense talk. Johnson instead of making an issue out of this whole matter should be informing the people of Saba about the high fuel clause that GEBE is charging the consumers. He represents Saba on the board of directors that is what people want to know about. Not about Wilders.
People on Saba is lost to know exactly what they will be getting come October 10th 2010. To date neither Will Johnson or his party can come plain and explain the people of Saba what they will be achieving with this new public entity status. Will Johnson promised the Saba people that they would have been receiving the same social benefits like in Holland and now that he realizes that he has fooled the people he want to come with all type of smoke screens and trying to throw the blame on everyone else. Sabans should not drink that old bush tea talk anymore and should request Will Johnson to go home and take care of his garden and let those younger politicians run the affairs of the island in peace. He has served his time but still wants to be up and down telling people that he is adviser. Adviser with bad advice against the Saba people. We don’t need no John Compton on Saba at this point and time.
In ending the only BES constellation that he know is a former Curacao musical band name BES. Levenstone said that he know that Johnson cannot accept the fact that the Democratic Party of Bonaire and Anthony Nicolaas is in control on Bonaire, he would have preferred to have Ramoncito Booi and them there to continues selling out the islands for a few thousand euro’s. The people of Saba should be also afforded the opportunity in a referendum to also express if what they have been tied up into by Will Johnson is what they really want for Saba?
I really question the fact that Mr. Johnson is speaking as if he is elected to speak on behalf of the entire Island Council of Saba. I have never in my life span hear of an adviser of the Government acting as if he is elected and speaking and making decisions on behalf of the duly elected Government. I have warned people that this Government would be working based on a remote control system and it has come to reality. This nonsense about party president means absolutely nothing in our democratic process. Only in a dictatorship we hear and see such things happening. Fidel out but still wanting to run the show from outside.
Dave Levenstone.