January 7, 1999
GOVERNMENT SHOULD FOLLOW SER'S
ADVICE
The Government should follow the advice of the Social Economic Board otherwise
there will surely be political consequences. This was the general opinion
during the discussions over the SER at a private meeting that was held
at the Chamber of Commerce where members of the National Assembly, the
CLO, the Asfa, the Moederbond and the VSB were present. The initiative
for this meeting came from the Sibibusi Organization. Ben Marapin, secretary
of the SER in Aruba for the past 9 years was speaker at this lecture. During
the lecture the point was brought forward that no matter which government
was in power it should follow the advice of the SER or it would be heading
for trouble. Marapin pointed out that the SER's advice should be published
so that other community institutes could react to it. Even if there was
a case in which the advice was thought to be heavy, the government should
not try to go around it.The Board should consist of a limited amount of
people from prominent organizations. Many present were of the opinion that
the SER should be determined by Parliament and not by the State to prevent
it from being nipped in the bud by the government in power.
DISCUSSIONS OVER SER OFF TO A BAD
START
Discussions that President Wijdenbosch was scheduled to hold with members
of the Industrial sector and the Unions in connection with the establishing
of the SER was off to a bad start. A misunderstanding between the President's
Cabinet and the VSB where the invitation for the Industrialists was sent
to Marcel Meyer Chaiman of the VSB who is reported to be outside the country
at present resulted in the meeting not taking place, however, because of
the importance of the SER another invitation will be sent to the VSB today
and another meeting set up. That of the Unions was another matter. According
to Andy Rusland of the President's Cabinet all members of the Unions were
present at the time but the President was held up because of circumstances
due to the fire at the Ministry of Finance. Many of the Union members left
before he could get there. A summary of yesterdays activities shows that
the only discussions that took place were those with the Moederbond and
the OSAV.
SURINAME AND FRENCH-GUYANA SET
UP HARD AGREEMENTS TO TACKLE CRIME
Hard agreements were made by both Surinamese and French-Guyanese officials
to tackle the outburst of crime at the French-Suriname border and in the
interior. During a meeting that is being held in Hotel Torarica, visiting
French-Guyanaese officials together with their Surinamese collegues have
begun discussion over the brutal crimes, the drug-trafficing , criminalities
at the border and in the interior that have been reported over the past
months. Nine suggestions were taken and will be directly enforced. This
was reported by Chandrikapersad Santhoki, spokesman for the Surinmame Police
Force.
FIRE OUTBREAK AT MINISTRY OF FINANCE
As a result of a fire that broke out during the early hours of yesterday
morning at the Ministry of Finance, materials that were to be used in the
upcoming meeting of the IMF were damaged by water. The fire that started
in the room of Finance Dircetor Lesly Winter was assumed to be caused by
wires from an airco unit. The Fire brigade were able to put out the fire
before a lot of damage was done to the building. Reports from the Ministry
of Finance have stated that although it will be a tough job recovering
the damaged materials all efforts will be made to do this so that the meeting
with the IMF later this month will take place.
-End-