http://www.atiaruba.org/pdf/79Farewell%20Speech%20President%20ATIA%20Juan%20Yrausquin%20AGM%202009.pdfFarewell Speech, President Juan Yrausquin AGM 2009At my college, IVA Driebergen in the Netherlands, I was taught to “stick
my head above the crowd”, in Aruba on the other hand the motto is: “if
you stick your head above the crowd it will get chopped off”.
Newly elected President of ATIA Mr. Stephen Daal, Past Presidents of
ATIA, Mr. Hans Schnog, Mr. Greg Peterson, Honorable Members of
ATIA, Ladies and Gentlemen, once again good evening and welcome to
our Annual General Membership Meeting.
Tonight I would like to share with you my experience as President of
ATIA, what this has taught me and what I believe ATIA can learn from
this for the future.
Two years ago I stood here before you and delivered a speech where I
addressed the need for communication, the need to establish a
healthier relationship with our government and the need to become a
respected and trusted partner of it. I said to you that it is my conviction
that this was necessary for ATIA in order to be more effective in the
years to come.
At Last year’s AGM I spoke about the Cunucu Model; the idea of an
Aruban variant to the Dutch Poldermodel. We invited an Ex President of
the Largest Employers organization in the Netherlands to speak about
this and to explain how this works.
This year we even invited the President of the pillar of the Dutch
Poldermodel, the Socio Economic Council. Mr. Alexander Rinnooy Kan
person was named the most influential person in the Netherlands for
the past two years by a very important newspaper “de Volksrant”. Mr.
Alexander Rinnooy Kan will speak about the importance of dialogue
and a coordinated plan between employers, employees and
government representatives. Because of a knee operation he will be
here with us through video instead of in person.
So I guess you catch the drift, I believe strongly in the importance of
meaningful dialogue with government and also in the “Poldermodel”.
This adds up to the question; how did this go in the past two years?
How effective was ATIA in establishing this meaningful dialogue?
As they say in Dutch “het was vallen en weer opstaan” , falling down
and getting back up again. In the first few months I had a meeting with
the Prime Minister to explain to him the plan to have more dialogue
with his government. I explained to him my belief in reaching solutions
by focusing on thoughtful discussion and deliberations rather than
combating through the press. He seemed receptive. But truthfully
nothing really came out of that meeting. Soon after this we fell back
into our traditional pattern of fighting with government through the
press.
Then at the end of 2007 I went to a training on Negotiation at the
Harvard Law School. This training was about “dealing with emotions in
business negotiations”. It was an excellent training which opened my
eyes a lot and made me learn about mistakes I made in the past. The
training taught me that in order to have better results in negotiations;
we must stimulate positive emotions in our negotiation partner. And
what we were doing is actually quite the opposite; we were stimulating
negative emotions in our negotiation partner. We created negative
emotions because we criticized the government’s plans in the press
oftentimes before giving the government a chance to comment, react,
change or amend their plans in a more private setting.
And this is exactly where the problem lies, because what comes first,
the chicken or the egg? How were we going to get the government to
sit at the table with us, if we were creating negative emotions? We
didn’t trust them and they definitely didn’t trust us. So I started
applying the techniques we were taught in the negation training and
slowly but surely trust was improved. The problem with this process is
that for the outside world, and also for you as members, it seems like
ATIA is just sitting around. The process of establishing trust however is
a very private and at the same time lengthy process. The minute we
start communicating with you or the press about this, it affects the
trust. And this counts more than anywhere else, with our elected
officials, they have very very long toes.
But besides the fact that the outside world and our members might
think that we are just sitting around, the problem with this process is
that the press and also the opposition do not like this process. They
expect you to be in the press and they especially like you to fight the
government. They love that! But to tell you the truth, we do not care
about that. We care about our members, we care about you, and as
long as we are getting results for trade & industry, that is what
ultimately counts. We also needed to try it differently, because we
needed and still need to be more effective than we were in the past.
Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over
again and expecting different results. Of course we do not want this
quote to apply to ATIA, now do we?
If you look at the past year and a half, there have been little to no laws
passed which had a direct negative impact on our members. We were
on top of each and every one of them, oftentimes before and
sometimes while they were at parliament.
While there is also a need is to have government getting laws passed
that have a positive impact on our members, this is definitely an
improvement.
Many government plans which were on the brink of execution which
would have had a severe negative impact on our members where
either amended, postponed or halted completely. While there is also a
need to have government introduce plans which have a positive impact
on our members, this is certainly an improvement.
To establish a good relationship with government however is not a goal
in itself. It is a means to an end. And I strongly believe that “the ends
must justify the means”. I am of the opinion that we must be willing to
sacrifice or hurt that relationship if and when it’s necessary. If you
don’t, you are weak and your weakness will be exploited by the
government. Someone once said: “there can be no friendship without
confidence, and there can be no confidence without integrity.” Integrity
is included in ATIA’s logo for a reason. It’s part of our core beliefs and
propagating ethics is one of the ways by which we strive to achieve our
goal of promoting the interests of commerce and industry in general.
This is not something that the Board or President of ATIA or Juan
Yrausquin dictates, this is what our articles of association which have
been established almost 65 years ago dictates.
How is commerce and trade going to prosper if there is no level playing
field? How is our island going to prosper if the people that live on it
don’t trust that they will have a fair chance to be successful if they work
hard and smart? What will happen to our citizens if they lose this
fundamental belief in equal rights?
Ladies and Gentlemen, the answer is this: we will become apathic,
demotivated and we will not realize our God given potentials.
We need to reverse this trend, ATIA is doing it’s part and even though
this might be a small drop in a large bucket, I believe and I’m confident
you believe also that it makes a difference.
Fellow board members, I would like to thank you for the support you’ve
given me and ATIA in the past years. Some of you have been more
active than others, but all of you have made time available from your
busy schedules as a service to your community. You have invested time
in ATIA which you could have spent on your business your family and
your friends. Aruba is a better place because we have people like you
and I would like to thank you for that.
Ladies and Gentlemen, from the bottom of my heart I would like to
thank you for giving me the opportunity to be the President of this
esteemed organization for the past 2 years. I am proud of this and I am
proud of the fact that, as per our bylaws, I will continue being part of
this organization as Vice President for the coming year.
This year, with your support, will be marked by ATIA’s transformation
into an even more professional organization.
Next year will be ATIA’s 65th anniversary and as the largest employers
organization of our island we need to make sure we keep making
ourselves heard and that the interests of commerce and industry keeps
being taken into account in the future. For this the “road to the future”
presented to you in the Flash we sent earlier this week is essential.
The good news which I would like to share with you tonight is that the
largest employer’s organization of the Netherlands, VNO-NCW, has said
that they want to help us with this transformation.
My successor Stephen Daal will explain more about this as I finish and
there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the Q&A part of this
AGM. I truly hope that you give us the mandate to move forward with
the execution of this plan.
Ladies and Gentlemen before I draw to a close I want to leave you with
this quote from Hannah Moore, a famous writer on moral and religious
subjects:
One kernel is felt in a hogshead; one drop of water helps to swell
the ocean; a spark of fire helps to give light to the world. None are
too small, too feeble, too poor to be of service. Think of this and
act.”
Once again thank you for this opportunity and all the best in your
future endeavours.
I would like to call forward the Board members stepping down, which
are Ricky Malmberg, Aisha Anthony and Junior Croes.
Ricky has been part of ATIA for the past ... years as Board Member and
we would like to provide him with this token of appreciation.
Junior Croes has been part of ATIA for the past 3 years as Board
Member and we would like to provide him with the following token of
appreciation.
Aisha Anthony has been part of ATIA for the past … years and has
served many years as treasurer also, we would like to her with the
following token of appreciation.
