THE HAGUE - Mark Rutte apologized today on behalf of the Dutch state for four hundred years of colonialism and slavery. The fact that those apologies have come about is the result of decades of organizing, mobilizing, teaching and learning about Dutch colonialism by descendants of enslaved people. That makes these apologies a historic moment, which has been fought for for generations.
That does not alter the fact that the Dutch political party BIJ1 is very critical of the state of affairs. Such a process requires a leading voice from the people who are directly affected. Without the equal involvement of these groups and the lack of follow-up steps, apologies remain an empty shell. That makes it nothing more than understandable that various people involved cannot accept the apologies.
From the moment BIJ1 was elected to the Dutch House of Representatives, they have not only pleaded for apologies for the colonial and slavery past, but also for remedial measures. This means, among other things, that serious investigations are being carried out with the communities involved into how, in what form and within what term justice can be done to the debt that the Netherlands has towards them. And that recovery measures, precisely for that reason, are unavoidable.