Our Institutions: How Did It Come to This?

Our Institutions: How Did It Come to This?

8 November 2025

Institutions are made up of people, and people make up society. Institutions form the pillars of both the rule of law and our social order. They are, in essence, the solidified expression of our shared values.

But over the past fifteen years, those institutions have weakened. The reason is simple, yet devastating: people who do not stand for the values of the institutions have entered them — and, worse, risen to lead them.

It all went wrong with recruitment and selection. Positions, especially at the top, became sources of income, power, and prestige. “Family & Friends” felt drawn in. There was no sense that the primary task — the calling — was to defend and embody values.

Not only at the top, but also among professional staff, many now treat their work as just a job, going through the motions.

I could draw on countless examples to illustrate this, but I am not here to single out any specific institution. The point is broader, and more painful: we have become a very weak rule of law. When institutions fail, justice becomes negotiable, and trust turns into currency.

This was already visible in Transparency International’s National Integrity System Assessment for Curaçao — and the situation has only deteriorated since.

We do not recognize it. We do not acknowledge it. And therefore, we cannot be helped.

Reference

Transparency International. (2013). National integrity system assessment: Curaçao. Transparency International. https://www.transparency.org/en/publications/national-integrity-system-assessment-curacao-2013

Miguel Goede