THE HAGUE--The Curaçao Government is angry at producers of the Dutch TV programme Brandpunt for suggesting that the island is becoming a dictatorial state and that Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte is under mafia influence.
Curaçao's Minister Plenipotentiary in The Hague Sheldry Osepa came to the rescue of Schotte, who was in India at the time of the filming of Brandpunt's reportage in Curaçao last week. Osepa called the 15-minute item, which was broadcast on Dutch TV on Sunday, "highly objectionable" and announced that Willemstad would leave no stone unturned to correct this.
According to Osepa, the producers didn't keep to the journalistic rule of allowing someone who is being accused of something to tell the other side of the story. He also said that institutes in Curaçao such as Parliament were properly functioning and as such there was no question of a dictatorial government.
Osepa further said that Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Liesbeth Spies had stated in the programme that no information of the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD had been leaked by the Curaçao Intelligence Service VDC.
Osepa's remarks have irked Member of the Second Chamber Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party SP. He has posed written questions to Minister Spies on Monday on what he qualified as "threatening" remarks by Osepa.
Van Raak was one of the persons who were interviewed for the TV programme. In the interview he said it seemed that the mafia had sent Schotte to strip the VDC to see if there was damaging material. He called for an isolation of the Schotte cabinet. "We should not work with this government anymore," he said.
Osepa doesn't agree with Van Raak's statements, but he is angrier at two former PAR Ministers in Curaçao, David Dick and Omayra Leeflang, for their remarks to Brandpunt journalist Foeke de Koe.
Leeflang said in the interview that Schotte was committing an administrative "coup" by replacing people at government departments and government-owned companies who were critical of his administration. Dick spoke of Schotte's court convictions.
Osepa denounced that Leeflang and Dick were deliberately bringing down their island. "In The Netherlands and Europe we are working tirelessly on the promotion of Curaçao as a tourism destination and these efforts are wiped out by two of our own people. I find that sad," he told The Daily Herald on Monday.
Osepa said in Monday's edition of the Antilliaans Dagblad newspaper in Curaçao that the Schotte government would take counteraction against the TV programme. "You can expect us to leave no stone unturned," he said. On Monday he said that his government would take a decision on "the next step" this week.
Van Raak said he found it "unbelievable" that a Minister Plenipotentiary in The Hague would make such statements. "His response confirms exactly my concerns that Curaçao is dominated by fear and intimidation. This government clearly doesn't allow criticism and immediately responds with a threat," he said.
The Member of Parliament has asked Minister Spies for clarification. He wants to know, among other things, if she was going to protect the two "threatened" former Ministers, what she was going to do to stop "threatening language" by Osepa and whether the Minister Plenipotentiary was speaking on behalf of the Kingdom Council of Ministers.
Van Raak has asked the Minister to respond to his questions before the debate of the Second Chamber's Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations with Spies this Thursday.
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