To: President and Members of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands, Minister of Kingdom Relations,
Governor of Bonaire, Mr Rijna, Island Council Members of Bonaire, The Government of Bonaire
Bonaire, March 27, 2017
Dear Colleagues,
Herewith we refer to our last letter objecting to the Dutch Parliament elections as organized on our islands Bonaire and Sint Eustatius, whose peoples never choose the Dutch Parliament as their representatives or as their legislators. This Dutch election our islands is to be considered an ill-conceived referendum, a camouflaged, illegal democratic trap, and attempt to legalize the current illegal Public Entity constitutional structure, which has been rejected in referendums by the Bonaire people in 2015 and the Statia people in 2014 respectively. Both results were ratified by the democratically elected representatives of Bonaire and Statia as legal democratic decisions by their peoples.
Your intention to use our people’s voluntary participation in your Dutch elections as consent to legitimatize your illegal annexation and illegal representation of our peoples by your Dutch parliament and further your unprecedented , undemocratic, and inhuman intentions by the recent scheduling by your minister Plasterk for the new government to finalize the embedding of Bonaire and Sint Eustatius for eternity in your constitution, was massively rejected by our people on March 15, 2017. The Dutch government deliberately set out to manipulate our people through an aggressive propaganda campaign to go vote. This was headed by the local Dutch government administration agency, the RCN, and politicians who campaigned on the island. Notwithstanding their efforts and the efforts of their collaborators on Bonaire: the business sector (employers threatening workers), former and current political leaders of the major political parties in government and opposition (MPB, UPB and partial DP), and the media the voter turnout was only 22%, which has to be accredited mainly to the open immigration policy for European Dutch invading and repopulating Bonaire since 10-10-10.
A democratic trap : 12,000 local voters in Bonaire exercise little to influence compared to the 13 million European voters in the Netherlands for the 150 seats. For a seat you need approximately 70,000 votes. Bonaire a nation, which has its own culture and traditions, language, norms and values and identity and the alienable right to self-determination with less than a one thousandth chance to representation in the Dutch parliament to defend and maintain these rights. For comparison purposes and to put this result in perspective to understand and respect what happened: 82% Dutch European voters turned out to elect their representatives and here 77% of the Bonaire eligible voters rejected this unfair legal attempt. This would mean 10 million European Dutch voters not voting and protested against this illegal annexation and occupation by Dutch overseas colonial rule.
We are deeply concerned that the people of Bonaire and Sint Eustatius are presently governed, against their wishes, contrary to democratic norms, and under a status of political and economic inequality. We are reaffirming the continued applicability of international law doctrine on self-determination and decolonization, including the provisions of Chapter XI on the “Declaration Regarding Non Self-Governing Territories” to both the territories of Bonaire and Sint Eustatius. We will continue to seek the support of the international community and the United Nations and therefore, and because we as the people to whom these rights belong are not respected with regard to our democratic and human rights, we have no other option than civil disobedience and resort to our inalienable natural laws to ensure our existence as Bonaire and Statia peoples until the Dutch government and its local collaborators respect, protect, and comply with our inherited, acquired, and inalienable rights.
Sincerely,
James Finies, Nos Kier Boneiru Bek
C.c. United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, COPPPAL, Government and Island Council of Sint Eustatius, Brighter Path Foundation