Self-Determination or Annexation? A Warning Bonaire Cannot Ignore

In February 2010, UN Decolonization Expert Dr. Carlyle G. Corbin issued a powerful warning about Bonaire's constitutional future.

In his paper, “Self-Determination or Annexation? The Case of Bonaire,” the UN Decolonization Expert argued that the Dutch Government's actions surrounding Bonaire's constitutional transformation violated the inalienable right of the people of Bonaire to self-determination.

What Did Bonaire Actually Vote For?

In 2004, the people voted for “direct ties” with the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They did not vote on a fully defined proposal to become a Dutch public body.

The UN Decolonization Expert documented that afterward, “direct ties” was increasingly defined by the Dutch political and administrative machinery as “partial integration/annexation,” which he questioned as inconsistent with what the people understood themselves to have chosen.

International standards require integration to result from the freely expressed wishes of the people acting with full knowledge of the change in their political status. The analysis concluded that Bonaireans did not have sufficient information about the public-body status before the 2004 referendum.

The Role of Glenn Thodé and Frits Goedgedrag

An important part of this history is the role played by Glenn Thodé, then Lieutenant Governor of Bonaire, and Frits Goedgedrag, then Governor of the Netherlands Antilles.

Although neither man is named in the paper, contemporary records show that Thodé suspended the referendum ordinance and referred it to Governor Goedgedrag. Goedgedrag subsequently annulled the ordinance.

This intervention prevented the planned referendum from proceeding under that ordinance.

Significantly, the UN Decolonization Expert directly challenged the legal reasoning surrounding the referendum. His analysis argued that the proposed three-year residency requirement was consistent with international precedent and rejected the argument that Bonaire's referendum ordinance violated international law.

The historical record therefore cannot ignore that two appointed officials exercised their authority in a process that stopped the people of Bonaire from voting at that time on their political future.

Sixteen Years Later

Bonaire nevertheless became a public body of the Netherlands on 10-10-10.

But the fundamental question remains: Did the people of Bonaire freely and knowingly consent to the political status that ultimately came into force?

The UN Decolonization Expert's conclusion was unmistakable: the overriding principle must be the self-determination of the people of Bonaire, an inalienable right that cannot simply be dismissed to satisfy an external legislative timetable.

The people voted for direct ties. The planned referendum was stopped. The constitutional transformation continued. That history cannot be erased.

Bonaire's future belongs to the people of Bonaire, and the right to determine that future remains theirs.

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