THE HAGUE–The Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament wants clarity from Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops about the intentions to demolish the St. Maarten Agricultural Research and Development Center of Denicio Wyatte.
Parliament’s Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations, on the request of Member of the Second Chamber André Bosman of the liberal democratic VVD party, during a procedural meeting on Wednesday decided to request a letter from the state secretary, who was in St. Maarten on Monday and Tuesday.
According to Bosman, the objective is to bring attention to this matter and to put pressure on the St. Maarten government, in particular Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI, Miklos Giterson, to support Wyatte’s initiative and to abandon the demolition plans which may proceed as soon as today, Thursday.
Bosman expressed his discontent about the government’s intentions. “What bothers me deeply is that the St. Maarten government thwarts a positive initiative and destroys it, instead of supporting it,” he wrote, in motivating his request for a letter from the state secretary.
Member of Parliament (MP) Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party (SP) wholeheartedly backed Bosman’s request. “We are not the St. Maarten Parliament, but this upsets me. I have noticed before that there is little support from the St. Maarten government for good initiatives by citizens, and that these are even thwarted. It is important for St. Maarten to set the right priorities,” said Van Raak.
Bosman and Van Raak visited the Agricultural Research and Development Center when they were in St. Maarten in January 2016 for the Inter-Parliamentary Consultation of the Kingdom IPKO. “Rene ‘Koto’ Wilson invited us to visit the districts, to see the schools, the infrastructure and he also brought us to Wyatte’s project.” Both MPs got a positive impression of Wyatte and his sincere efforts to develop agriculture in St. Peters.
Bosman said he had deep appreciation for Wyatte’s undertakings. “He decided to prepare the rocky soil to grow organic vegetables and fruits. School classes are visiting the project and learning about growing healthy, local food. The community is involved, which is a good thing. A project like this should be cherished, not destroyed,” he told The Daily Herald after Wednesday’s meeting.
The fact that the three concrete structures of Agricultural Research and Development Center were built without a permit shouldn’t be a reason to destroy this project. “There are enough other illegal structures on the island which remain untouched. Here you have someone who is working for the good of the people. And what does government do? Crush it. I think that is not a correct decision,” said Bosman.
In his opinion, Minister Giterson should concentrate on other, much more urgent issues, such as tackling the toxic and burning dump, creating a sustainable waste management system, having the roofs of people repaired and fixing the infrastructure.
“Demolishing the Agricultural Research and Development Center was totally wrongly set as a priority. It costs negative energy in a time when the energy should be focused on positive things,” said Bosman.
The St. Maarten Agricultural Research and Development Center is scheduled to be demolished on or any time after Thursday, September 6, on Hurricane Irma’s anniversary. According to Wyatte, St. Maarten has already taken a great loss from a natural disaster and if this “man-made disaster” of demolishing his project should occur, the country would have taken “a great, significant loss” towards building back a better, stronger, more resilient island.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/80313-dutch-parliament-supportive-of-denicio-wyatte-s-project
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