History and Government
History
Although ‘discovered’ by the Spanish explorer Amerigo Vespucci in 1499, rock inscriptions in the north of the island indicate a much earlier Amerindian presence. Spanish colonisation, which started in 1527, lasted little more than a century. By 1634, the Dutch had settled and, within two years, had consolidated their position as colonial rulers, by conquering and occupying the neighbouring islands. The Dutch West Indies Company introduced economic development schemes for which they imported hundreds of slave workers. The abolition of slavery and the end of the plantations which depended on slave labour heralded a long period of economic depression, during which the principal source of income for the bulk of the island’s population were the remittances sent home by migrant workers. An indigenous economy began to emerge in the 1950s and Bonaire entered its current phase of comparative prosperity (see Business Profile).
Political divisions in the Antilles are island-based rather than ideological. The issue of constitutional reform, specifically regarding the status of each of the islands within the group and their relations with The Hague, is never far from the surface. At present, there is strong support throughout the group – with the exception of St Maarten, where there is a sizeable minority in favour of internal autonomy – for the continuation of the Antilles Federation. At the October 1994 referendum, which provided the most recent indication of popular sentiment, 70 per cent of the Bonaire electorate voted in favour of the federation. The two main political parties in Bonaire are the Democratic Party and the Bonaire Patriotic Union (UPB), constituting the legislative assembly known as The Staten. The two parties attract voters on the basis of linguistic allegiance rather than policies or personalities; Dutch speakers support the Democratic Party while Spanish speakers favour the UPB. At the most recent Staten election in January 2002, the UPB had two members elected while the Democratic Party returned a single representative.
Government
Bonaire is a constituent island of the Netherlands Antilles; the others being Curaçao, Saba, St Eustatius and St Maarten. The Netherlands Antilles, Aruba and The Netherlands each have equal status within the Kingdom of The Netherlands as regions autonomous in internal affairs. The monarch is represented locally by a Governor, while the Netherlands Antilles is represented in the Government of the Kingdom by a Minister Plenipotentiary. Foreign policy and defence matters are decided by a Council of Ministers of the Kingdom (including the Plenipotentiary) and executed under the authority of the Governor. The internal affairs of the Netherlands Antilles are administered by the central government of the Netherlands Antilles, based in Willemstad, Curaçao, which is responsible to the Staten or legislative assembly. Bonaire may elect, by non-compulsory adult suffrage based on proportional representation, 3 out of 22 members of the Staten. Routine local affairs on each island group (Bonaire, Curaçao and the Windward Islands) are managed by an elected nine-member Island Council, presided over by a Lieutenant Governor.
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