BRIDGETOWN--Dr. Rhoda Arrindell used her address to the Third CARICOM Regional Conference on Reparations in Barbados to argue that reparatory justice for St. Maarten cannot be separated from the island’s unresolved political relationship with the Netherlands and France, calling for self-determination and eventual independence to remain central to the regional discussion on justice and freedom.
Speaking on behalf of the One St. Maarten Association, Arrindell opened her presentation with lines from the poemFreedomby St. Maarten poet, author and publisher Lasana M. Sekou. She said the work captures what freedom means to many St. Maarteners, particularly the right to live with dignity and determine their own political future without external control.
Arrindell placed St. Maarten’s present political situation within the island’s history of slavery and colonial rule. She recalled that following emancipation, former slaveholders were compensated for the loss of enslaved people as property, while the formerly enslaved received no compensation for generations of forced labour, lost freedom and human suffering.
She said the story of reparations therefore cannot be treated only as a discussion about the past. In her view, reparatory justice must also confront the political structures that continue to influence the island’s development and the ability of St. Maarteners to determine their own future.
Arrindell argued that St. Maarteners historically built their society through community, self-reliance and cooperation, particularly during periods when the island received limited attention from the colonial administrations governing it. She said the growth of tourism and the island’s economy later brought greater intervention and renewed attention from European authorities.
A major part of her presentation focused on developments following the constitutional changes of October 10, 2010. Arrindell maintained that the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles and the creation of St. Maarten’s current constitutional arrangement did not amount to decolonization.
She pointed to what she described as increasing Dutch influence in areas including finance, justice, education, border control, institutional oversight and major public projects. Arrindell argued that administrative modernization should not automatically be interpreted as political freedom if ultimate authority continues to rest outside the island.
Arrindell also raised concerns about the language used to describe St. Maarten’s political relationship with the Netherlands and France. She rejected the idea that constitutional descriptions such as autonomy, partnership or integration resolve what she considers the deeper question of whether St. Maarteners exercise full authority over their political destiny.
“Colonialism does not cease to be colonialism because the colonizer gives it a more palatable constitutional name,” Arrindell told the gathering.
She further argued that terms such as “recolonization” or “neocolonialism” are not appropriate in the St. Maarten context because, in her view, the original colonial relationship was never fully dismantled.
Arrindell also addressed regional integration, including discussions surrounding associate membership in organizations such as CARICOM and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. She said participation in regional institutions can be valuable but should, in her view, form part of a clearly defined political strategy aimed at greater self-determination.
She cautioned against treating regional integration simply as another layer within existing constitutional arrangements. Instead, she argued that closer Caribbean cooperation should help St. Maarten move toward greater political autonomy and ultimately allow its people to decide their own future.
Arrindell thanked the CARICOM Reparations Commission for its engagement with the One St. Maarten Association and said the organization remains committed to the wider regional reparations movement. She expressed the aspiration that St. Maarten could one day establish its own national reparations commission as part of a broader process of political transformation.
She stressed that One St. Maarten is not asking regional institutions to determine the island’s political future. Rather, she called on CARICOM and the wider Caribbean community to continue supporting what she described as St. Maarten’s unfinished decolonization process.
“The question for St. Maarteners is not whether we have the wherewithal to govern ourselves,” Arrindell said. She argued that the more important question is whether the people of St. Maarten will continue to accept arrangements in which external powers retain significant authority over their collective future.
Arrindell closed by calling on the CARICOM Reparations Commission and the wider Caribbean community to support what she described as the full liberation of the St. Maarten people through political independence, with reparations forming an important part of that process.
She thanked the organizers of the conference, the Government and people of Barbados, and the regional reparations movement for providing One St. Maarten with a platform to present its position.
