Decolonization in the Dutch Caribbean: Lessons from the Commonwealth Caribbean

Abstract

The decolonization process was accompanied politically by an acceptance of the Westminister model— democratic values and institutions were the norm. The experiences of the Commonwealth Caribbean over the last thirty years hold important lessons for the Dutch Caribbean as it ponders its political future. In the Dutch Caribbean the Kingdom Charter of 1954 made Suriname, Netherlands Antilles self-governing democracies; further, the representatives of these two countries were to participate as equals to those of the Netherlands proper in formulating policy for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Dutch Caribbean is learning, as the Commonwealth Caribbean has learned, that the decolonization process necessarily lead to autonomy. Political independence without economic independence is illusory, for even within the context of decolonization there are mechanisms which keep the states dependent on the metropole. The Commonwealth Caribbean, as well as the Dutch Caribbean, has long lived with the myth that the British, and the Dutch, bequeathed enduring democratic traditions, institutions to their former colonies.