What Aruba has shown the World.

In a Special Session of the Parliament to commemorate the first Official session of the Land of Aruba 20 years ago, Mr. Schuurman, leader for the Dutch Parliament and in name of the 12 other Dutch Parliament members present for this occasion had a few words for its colleagues.

He told the Parliaments, Ministers, Governor and guests present on how Aruba has surprised the Dutch government with its success the last 20 years. They thought that the island would have never made it on its own.

He talked about the year 1871 when Mr. Jesserun asked the Dutch government for a more decentralized Antilles so that Aruba could develop itself. In 1947, Mr. Henny Eman was a fighter for an independent development of Aruba, but never succeeded and was never heard directly. Those days even schoolbooks had to have permission to be bought by the Dutch representative, called Gezaghebber.

Then came the era of Betico Croes, who challenged the Dutch Kingdom, search for International Allies, and woke up the people of Aruba. He became the charismatic and main force for the fight for STATUS APARTE of Aruba.

Betico Croes inspired the people of Aruba and made them all wanted to have his last name.

Because of the constitution and because it was done with New Guinea and Suriname in 1954, The Netherlands gave Aruba its Status Aparte in 1986 with the only condition it will have to become Independent 10 years later in 1996. They never thought Betico would ever accept that and realized that the Arubans would rather follow orders and guidelines from the Kingdom than getting it from Curacao.

He said that he now thinks that Arubans accepted that condition in order to proof themselves, the world and specially the Dutch that they could make it and become a successful nation and come back to deliberate about the condition, which they did. They scrapped the date for independence and its only after a Referendum of the People of Aruba, they will ask for independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

He realized that the early days of Status Aparte was very difficult, Aruba had a difficult economic position after the closure of the Oil Refinery in which 40% of Arubans lost their jobs.

Aruba overcame all those obstacles and grew and became powerful even when sailing against the winds.