SXMElections.com

THE HAGUE--Funding for the annual commemoration of the Dutch slavery past in Amsterdam on July 1 is safe, at least for the next four years, said Minister of Education, Culture and Science Jet Bussemaker on Tuesday, denying media reports that the subsidy would end as per 2016.

Chairman of the National Institute for the Dutch Slavery Past and its Legacy NiNsee Franc Weerwind said in an article of the newspaper het Parool on Monday that the commemoration was on shaky grounds for 2016 and beyond because the Dutch Government planned to terminate the 50,000-euro annual subsidy after 2015.

Weerwind criticised the reported move by the Dutch Government. "This is a national commemoration with representatives of government, ministers plenipotentiary and ambassadors. By withdrawing the subsidy, the Dutch Government is saying that it doesn't consider the slavery past important," he said.

Minister Bussemaker said during the weekly question hour in Parliament on Tuesday that she did find the slavery past and the commemoration of that part of the Dutch history important. She said this was also the reason for asking the national Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Open Air Museum in Arnhem to dedicate more attention to the slavery past.

Bussemaker was called to the Second Chamber by Member of Parliament (MP) Jacques Monasch of the Labour Party PvdA, who wanted to question the minister on the announced termination of the funding.

Monasch spoke of the slavery past as a "dark period, a shame on our history." He said that people in Netherlands rather talk about the wealth and adventurous aspects of Golden Age, and that in schools the emphasis was also on this. "We thought that we could buy, trade and enslave people."

The MP severely criticised the reported plans to cease the funding for the commemoration. He said there should be no financial discussion whether to provide funding or not since it was the government's duty to make sure that the commemoration took place every year. "To have a discussion about the funding every four years is embarrassing. We should not want that," said Monasch.

Bussemaker said that funding had been secured for the next four years, but that she could not give 100 per cent guarantees for the period after that because the granting of subsidy largely depended on funding requests. She said that cultural events needed to be of a high quality in order to receive funding from government.

MPs Vera Bergkamp of the Democratic Party D66 and Joël Voordewind of the ChristianUnion said they supported Monasch's call for continuous funding of the annual slavery past commemoration. Bergkamp said a discussion on finances was not conducive and distracted from the real issue: the Dutch shared in the slave trade.

In 2012, the Dutch Government ceased the subsidy of NiNsee, an instrumental institute in the organising of the slavery past commemoration. The Municipality Amsterdam jumped in to save NiNsee and granted the organisation a subsidy after which NiNsee was able to continue at a minimal capacity.