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PETITIE ZELFBESCIKKINGSREFERENDUM OP BONAIRE

Voorgeschiedenis:

Op 10 september 2004 werd op Bonaire een niet-bindend referendum gehouden.

Uitslag referendum

Optie	Stemmen	Percentage
A: binnen de Nederlandse Antillen blijven	853	15,94
B: een directe band met Nederland	3.182	59,45
C: een autonoom land binnen het Koninkrijk	1.290	24,10
D: volledige onafhankelijkheid van het Koninkrijk	27	0,50
Blanco en ongeldige stemmen	106	1,94
Opkomst	5.458	57,24

Bron: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonaire

Op 11 oktober 2006 bereikte Bonaire (samen met Saba en Sint Eustatius) een akkoord met de Nederlandse regering over een rechtstreekse band met Nederland. De Nederlandse Antillen zijn op 10 oktober 2010 ontbonden en Bonaire, gelijk aan Saba en Statia, als openbare lichaam zoals bedoeld in artikel 134 van de Grondwet ingericht.

Het was de bedoeling dat er ook nog een referendum zou worden gehouden op 15 januari 2010, dat na veel politieke ophef – zowel op de Antillen als in Nederland – niet doorging. Uiteindelijk werd er na overleg met de minister van Binnenlandse Zaken, Piet Hein Donner toch een referendum gehouden op 17 december 2010 die door politieke partijen is geboycot.

Inmiddels heeft de Nederlandse regering het wetsvoorstel strekkende tot het opnemen van een constitutionele basis voor BES aangenomen waarbij Bonaire, Saba i Statia definitief in Nederland geïntegreerd zullen worden als bedoeld in het door de regering voorgestelde nieuwe artikel 132a van de Nederlandse Grondwet. De procedure wordt nu in de Eerste Kamer voortgezet. Dit alles gebeurd zonder zonder de zelfbeschikkingsreferendum te houden. Wij vinden dit gang van zaken onacceptabel.

Why is the peoples’ right of self-determination emphasized to this extent? Because if the right of self-determination of people as a group is not secured, then the basic right of each individual in the group will not be secured.”

In het licht van het voorafgaande is de bevolking van Bonaire van mening dat ze hun recht op zelfbeschikking niet hebben uitgeoefend. De bevolking heeft immers geen bewuste keuze kunnen maken over hun toekomstige politieke status. De keuze voor directe banden is een andere dan de keuze voor integratie, die zelfs niet voorlag als keuze. Noch heeft de bevolking de kans gehad om zelf hun eigen economische, sociale en culturele ontwikkeling ter hand te nemen. Volgens de Resolutie 1541 van de Verenigde Naties moet iedere wijziging van een status “een vrijwillig uitgesproken wens zijn van de bevolking van het betreffend gebied die handelt met volledige kennis van de wijziging van hun status…”

Wij teken daarom deze petitie.

Esta Dushi

THE STORY BEHIND “Esta Dushi”:

During the World War years of 1940-1945 wrote Pedro Pablo Medardo de Marchena the lyrics of this song in captivity in the camp on Bonaire. In that concentration camp, he wrote a dozen or more lyrics about the physical beauty and to be in romantic love with an unattainable woman. The lyrics held a plea in favor of the Papiamento against the exclusively use of Spanish and English in the ‘tophit’. The written on silver paper from cigarette boxes collection was entirely unknown until they discussed them and is private kept on Bonaire. ‘Esta dushi’ is one of his songs and was made famous as ‘Bula waya’ by the Puerto Rican singer Daniel Santos. It goes about his desire to jump over the fence of the camp and get acquainted with the beautiful woman he regularly saw walking at the other side of the fence. The melodie is of the song “Ay mi a subi un ceru” in the song book ‘Nos ta Canta”. This piece of history is available for download at AmazonMP3 (USA), iTunes Store and through the various download portals worldwide.

The tragedy of Bonaire

Many of you may never have heard before about Bonaire, haven’t been there yet and also do not know where it is located. In order to understand the background of my songs I will give a short introduction to the history of the island where I was born; my island.

Bonaire is not really far away from Venezuela and “was” a Dutch colony.

As I mentioned in the story behind the song Mi Deseo, after the slavery abolition in 1863, most slaves have received a plot of land. They cultivated the ground with sorghum and maize and celebrated the harvest festival, the Simadan, singing Remailo in freedom. But 5 years later, on september, 1^st 1868, is the island of Bonaire (Government plantation including Klein Bonaire) was divided into seven large lots and in the context of “empowerment” on charge of the Governor of the colony of Curaçao (and dependencies, which under Aruba and Bonaire) very large parts thereof has been sold in public to the highest bidders. So a large part of Bonaire was privately owned in lots. Just to mention the Plantation Bolivia, Planation Washington, Planattion Slagbaai, the salt pans etcetera etcetera and as the seventh and the final lot Klein Bonaire, all this “subject to the coastal strip who remained at general interest “publicly available”; the current dive sites. So Bonaire is ceased to be a large government plantation. The reason for this was that it has become clear that an official business without slaves was too cumbersome and also too expensive for the maintenance of the island. The song Bye Bye Mairi on my cd-single Grandi Grandi Grandi is dediacted to one of those dive sites. Years ago, Klein Bonaire was owned by Harry Belafonte. He was so inspired by it that he wrote the song “Oh Island in the sun”. Was he singing Jamaica Farewell on his Banana Boat sailing to Klein Bonaire? Around the turn of the century, he sold it to the island administration of Bonaire. Grupo Piedra di Bonaire gave with the CD album “Ban Kuid’e” (1997) a helping hand to get  it done. But Mathilda took his money and run to Venezuela. Also Angelina was there with her concertina. Anyhow, Klein Bonaire is now a protected landscape area since 2001.

After being a Dutch colony Bonaire became since 1954 together with the other islands, Curaçao, Aruba, Saba, Statia and Sint Maarten, the Netherlands Antilles. An autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

In his joy for the end of the colonial status and enthusiasm for the obtained autonomy in 1954, after eight years of negotiations, Boeis Haile composed a number of songs which expresses the joy to finally have its (the Netherlands Antilles) own national anthem and a flag. The song “Himno di Bandera” is one of them. He also had a great admiration for the island of Bonaire and composed the waltz Bonaire. This song is on Music from Bonaire produced in 1998 by me and has till now for many people on the island a special meaning. 

 This country, the Netherlands Antilles, is on October 10th, 2010 (10-10-10) dissolved, all of its constituent islands remain part of the kingdom under a different legal status and the problems began.

In short, it comes to the point that in 2004 in preparation for the dessolving of the Netherlands Antilles a referendum is held. The population has chosen for “direct ties” with The Netherlands but the interpretation would be determined in a further following referendum. It has not come so far because the government of The Netherlands decided to annex Bonaire without a self-determination referendum as enshrined in the resolutions 1541 and 1514 of the United Nations. The government assumed that “direct ties” was meant integration and found that it was not desirable to wait on the outcome of the referendum. Very odd that the Government of Netherlands “direct ties” would have misunderstood because in 2009 with the acknowledge of the government they was working on preparations to organise a referendum before 10-10-10. Unfortunately, this has not happened. The custom Dutch law was introduced and since then, there is confusion and it goes bad on the island.

The inhabitants are afraid of losing their cultural identity and the character of the island Bonaire.

 The songs on my albums are for the preservation and promotion of the intangible cultural heritage of the Netherlands Antilles.

For more history visit: http://globedivers.org/2013/01/09/bonaire-history-women-of-bonaire-salt-trade-governors-and-famine-juan-mateo-and-pedro-ortiz-1634-1648/#comment-3161

There is a book published about that issue known as “De Tragiek van Bonaire”; The Tragedy of Bonaire.

Music from Bonaire has been made possible through the generous support of the Bonairian business center.

Supported by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Netherlands Antilles and Aruba I have produced the album “Kunuku” in 2011.

And now let the music play. Download Music from Bonaire at the various download portals worldwide. 

Y ahora que sigue la fiesta con Music from Bonaire. Descargalo ahora en AmazonMP3 (USA), iTunes y varios otros mas mundialmente.

http://williamanthony.bandcamp.com