I had coffee with Holmo Henriquez recently, and he made good sense, except for his view on gay rights and the LGBT community. I guess I cannot vote for him, and he is about to lose about 800 to 1,000 LGBT votes on the island, but otherwise he is a reasonably intelligent, educated individual, and a psychologist by training. When it comes to politics, understanding how the human mind works, is definitely an asset.
He was born in the area of Paradera, where his father worked his cunucu in order to supplement the family’s income. Holmo remembers as a kid tending to pigs and chicken on the family farm which eventually had to be sold in order to pay for the kids’ education.
Besides farming the land, his dad was a deputy, a political appointment, and a government employee, so it came easy for Holmo to enter the public arena when the Urirama windmill project came into discussion. The project made no economic sense to him, it was just political window dressing and he voiced his opinion then, and continues to voice it, ever since.
In his private life he is a businessman, he took the family business over, and restructured it, Arufreight International N.V., representing various companies here including Amerijet Air Cargo.
The crux of the matter says Holmo is our lack of personal autonomy. People don’t know their rights on the island and that’s why there’re so many cases of abuse here because islanders are unclear about their rights; they are only told their obligations. So MAS is about empowering the public, educating it, enlightening it, so that it learns to vote with its head, and not just with the heart, the way people here traditionally vote.
We deserve Mas, he says, more, and he is on a quest to empower Arubans and wean us off the epidemic Friends & Family culture, and nepotism as a system of government.
Everything here is a favor. Nothing gets accomplished via regular channels, because the system is paralyzed. Without ministerial good will, there is no life, he explains, and that’s got to change.
He makes it a point to explain that this form of nepotism is true for both AVP and MEP, both parties nurture the dependence of the Aruban people on political favors, and they are both equally guilty.
So MAS wants to uncorrupt the system, which is an excellent goal.
The way he sees it, the same empowerment is applicably in many areas. The public complains about the Police not acting on illegal immigration matters. But in reality their hands are tied. The law was changed under Minister Wever in the MEP government assigning Guarda Nos Costa to deal with illegal immigration, and the Police can do nothing about it.
During the past 8 years of the AVP government, no one lifted a finger to reverse that legislation. So no wonder the public complains, and the Police corps suffers it own frustrations.
Another issue of Holmo’s concerns is political influence on the office of the prosecutor. If OM is influenced by political consideration, he says, then this country is not a true democracy.
It was an interesting hour, we couldn’t cover all areas, but we covered some. Don’t be fooled by clinkers and lights, he said as we parted, because it’s your money that paid for them.
On the issue of gay marriage, I asked for his stand, and he answered in writing:
“Good morning Mrs. Coster. In regards to gay marriage I think the concept became a political issue which needs to be attended to. Marriage is a covenant structure for heterosexuals in view of procreation, designed to protect the assets, goods and inheritance within the family. In the LGBT community that is not the case, and there is no procreation within that unity. Therefore we are in favor of creating another separate covenant for the LGBT community where their assets, goods and heritage within their unity is protected and can be passed onto their partner within that unity. For instance a in papiamento, un contrato di convivencia, to guarantee that if one partner passes the other can inherit his pension, the house they lived in, and all other things left behind. But we do not agree that the heterosexual covenant be used for homosexuals. Homosexuality has existed since the beginning of humanity, and we need to structure something appropriate for them accordingly, and we need to attend to their needs and desires for a better quality of life without jeopardizing their rights, nor the morals and values of humanity. The amendment passed in Parliament we are totally against it because it opens the doors for pedophilic communities, bestiality communities, incest communities, etc. to start demanding their rights as well, and THAT is what violates the morals and values of humanity. I doubt it very much that the homosexual community would agree with opening the doors for pedophilic communities. This has happened in Holland but also in Canada. Just recently Canada amended the law of bestiality. Those are things that violate the core human dignity, morals, values and principles.”
