Venezuelan crisis exposes democratic deficit in our Kingdom

Residents of islands in the Caribbean directly experience the threat of rising tensions between the US and Venezuela, but cannot determine their own position in the conflict. This is partly due to a democratic deficit in Dutch politics.

For weeks, tensions have been rising in the Caribbean because of American attacks on alleged drug boats and the build-up of a US force off the coast of Venezuela. The crisis poses a direct security threat to our Kingdom, because the Leeward Islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao are only a few kilometers from the Venezuelan coast. The fear is that the islands will be dragged into a possible conflict or will have to deal with a disruptive stream of refugees from Venezuela.

Although the islands experience this threat directly, they cannot determine their own position in the conflict. Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands, so Bonairean administrators only have limited local tasks. Aruba and Curaçao may be autonomous countries in our Kingdom, but foreign affairs and defense are responsibilities of the Kingdom government.

Because that government overlaps almost completely with the Dutch government, outgoing ministers Ruben Brekelmans (Defense) and David van Weel (Foreign Affairs) are primarily responsible for navigating the Venezuela crisis.

No voting rights

The problem with this is that these ministers are only accountable to the Dutch Senate and House of Representatives, and for both Houses residents of Aruba and Curaçao do not have the right to vote. So there are no Aruban or Curaçao representatives in parliament who can represent the interests of their island in this crisis, or who can ask questions to the ministers on behalf of their populations. Aruba and Curaçao do have their own parliaments, but they do not have the right to control the Kingdom government.

This democratic deficit in our Kingdom has been seen as a problem for a long time, but no action is taken to solve it.

The democratic deficit now leads to the strange situation that debates about the Venezuelan crisis take place between Dutch ministers and Dutch MPs in The Hague, almost 8,000 kilometers away from the Caribbean.

Aruban and Curaçao parliamentarians cannot control Brekelmans or Van Weel, while their actions can have dramatic consequences for these islands. Of course, the ministers have regular consultations with the Aruban and Curaçao governments, and of course members of the House of Representatives ask concerned questions about the islands, but from a democratic point of view it is not easy to defend that representatives of the islands themselves do not have that possibility.

Suffrage

Last year, the Council of State recommended that residents of Caribbean countries should be given the right to vote for the Senate and House of Representatives. This solution could reduce the democratic deficit, but because of the small population of the islands, it is highly questionable whether Aruban and Curaçao politicians would be able to secure their own seat in Parliament. A better alternative would therefore be to give Aruba, Curaçao, and also Sint Maarten to the north their own seats in the Senate and House of Representatives. That would only be two or three seats, but at least the Caribbean voice would be heard.

An interesting example is Denmark, where the autonomous Faroe Islands and Greenland each have two reserved seats in the Danish parliament. The Arctic faces similar geopolitical tensions to the Caribbean, but Greenland's representatives in the Danish parliament do have the opportunity to question and hold the Danish defense minister accountable.

Geopolitical storm

The democratic deficit has not been solved overnight, and the islands are now in the middle of the eye of a geopolitical storm. In the short term, it is therefore crucial that members of the Senate and House of Representatives are aware of the lack of Aruban and Curaçao representation in parliament, and try to represent the interests of the islanders in this crisis as well as possible.

In the longer term, Dutch politicians should work together with their Caribbean counterparts to find a solution to the democratic deficit, so that in the event of a future crisis, the Caribbean voice in our Kingdom can be heard properly.

Published via The Volkskrant

𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘝𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘴 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘺 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘥𝘰𝘮 𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦.

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