RobinUtrecht
ANNOUNCEMENTS••Edited
It is not a symbolic day, indeed a “completely arbitrary” date, say the stakeholders. Because the cabinet focuses on the date December 19th if the day to apologize for past slavery is weeks away. The considerations seem mostly practical. Interest groups want the apology moved to a later date and the question is why this isn’t happening.
Prime Minister Rutte today mentioned a practical consideration for the date, which is that the Cabinet wants to make an apology before the 2023 memorial year.
“We don’t hear the explanation why December 19 was chosen very clearly by the cabinet itself, because the official plans were never announced either,” says political journalist Xander van der Wulp. The plan was leaked in late November. “It’s not that the cabinet doesn’t want to hear about any adjustments. They themselves think they have prepared it very carefully, but that the situation has been spoiled by the leak.”
The government has never apologized for its history of slavery, but has expressed regret twice before. This was first done in 2001 by Minister Roger van Boxtel at a United Nations conference against racism in South Africa. He then stated that “the Netherlands recognizes the great injustice”.
A second expression of regret came in 2013. Then Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher said during the commemoration of 150 years of the abolition of slavery that the Dutch government had “deep regret and remorse”.
The cabinet has maintained that expression of regret for years and has said it will not apologize. “Sorry” was also a heavy term because it could hold the Netherlands legally liable.
In 2021 it arrived Advisory Board Dialogue Group History of Slavery with the recommendation that the Dutch state should apologize for its past slavery. Furthermore, according to the council, the Netherlands must recognize that slavery and the slave trade were crimes against humanity and recognize that the past consequences of slavery are still tangible.
The commission was commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior to investigate this. Yet no apology was made even in 2021.
In Amsterdam, years of consultation preceded an apology for slavery’s past, says Mayor Halsema. Linda Nooitmeer of the National Institute of the Dutch Slavery History and Legacy thinks it’s a shame things are so bad at the moment, but it’s also important that an apology is made:
“No speech that so many people have read together”
Even a year later, on July 1 this year, the cabinet refrained from making excuses despite the advice. Ministers also would not like the timing, due to social unrest over nitrogen and the decline in purchasing power as one of the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Over the course of this year, the atmosphere has changed. In August, MPs traveled to Suriname, Curaçao and Bonaire. They then advised the cabinet to apologise. On October 18, for the first time, the majority of the House of Representatives spoke openly in favor of this.
Prime Minister Rutte also said during a visit to Suriname that the coming year should be devoted to recognizing slavery’s past.
In this video NOS on 3 explains more about the past of slavery and the apology discussion:
In late November it was leaked that the cabinet plans to apologize on 19 December. This immediately led to criticism from across the ocean.
Next week should show what will actually happen that day.
