Suriname flag (Source: here)
In the car from Albina to Paramaribo, I chat with Michael, the driver, about Suriname’s upcoming election scheduled for 25 May, 2025. The first thing Michael says is: “Suriname is a peaceful country!” Based on my experience, people only say things like that if the country is, or has recently been, not so peaceful. I suddenly find myself growing curious about Surinamese politics, so I do some reading.
This is my take on the situation.
–––––
I sincerely hope Michael, my driver, is right about Suriname being peaceful. After all, this country has had its fair share of violence and things appear to be going quite well right now.
Take this statement from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from January of this year:
“The authorities’ commitment to a range of policy reforms continues to strengthen macroeconomic stability. The economy is growing, inflation is receding, donor support is increasing, the public debt is declining, and international bond spreads are at historic lows. The Final Investment Decision (FID) to develop a large offshore oil field was announced on October 1. Moody’s has upgraded Suriname’s sovereign debt rating and changed the outlook to positive.” (Source: here)
For those unfamiliar with IMF speak, this is about as good as it gets in terms of IMF praise! It is so good, in fact, that I wonder if IMF is trying, in its feeble and largely ineffective way, to influence voters ahead of the election. IMF will be acutely aware that Suriname’s 50 years of post-independence history has seen too much boom-bust for comfort.
–––––
I am not been able to find a fresh poll to show me who leads in the election campaign. A guy tells me President Chan Santokhi is losing popularity, but without a representative sample his view is meaningless.
Chan Santokhi (Source: here)
What I do know, however, is that Santokhi became president by accident, so his political base may be narrow. I also know he belongs to the same category of presidents as Ronald Venetiaan, who ran Suriname twice in the 1990s and 2000s. These two men both came to power after disastrous economic collapses due to economic mismanagement by populist predecessors. Both men were brave enough to take tough decisions to bring the economy back on a stable footing. Venetiaan, as a result, lost to populists twice.
Will Santokhi meet the same fate on 25 May?
–––––
To get a better sense of what is at stake for Suriname, let me outline a few features of Suriname’s colonial period and then outline the key moments in Suriname’s post-Independence political history.
Extreme Dutch Brutality
Suriname was a Dutch colony. In the early years of the colony, Dutch planters rely heavily on African slaves to produce coffee, cocoa, sugar cane, and cotton along the country’s major rivers. During slavery, the justice system is designed to protect the Dutch and punish slaves. The treatment of slaves is so abhorrent that Suriname holds the distinction of being the most extreme, brutal, and murderous of all plantation systems in the Americas. Of the 300,000 - 350,000 slaves brought to Suriname only 50,000 are alive by the time slavery is abolished. By contrast, the US imports 427,000 slaves, but 2 million are alive by the time abolition arrives (see here).
This notorious drawing of a slave hung alive by the ribs is from John Gabriel Steedman's 1796 Narrative of a five years expedition against the revolted Negroes of Surinam (Source: here)
Maroons
Due to their extreme mistreatment, Suriname has more run-away slaves, also known as Maroons, than any other slave colony. The Dutch manage slaves using divide and rule, dividing the slaves into tribal groupings, so when the Maroons flee and establish communities in the forest they group together along tribal lines. To this day, Suriname’s has distinct tribes of Maroons, including Saramaka, Paramaka, Ndyuka, Kwinti, Aluku, and Matawai.
Dutch Concessions
It is extremely unusual for run-away slaves to force slavers to grant them concessions, but that is exactly what happens in Suriname. Unlike in any other American slave colony, Suriname’s Maroons become strong and well-organised enough to force the Dutch into signing a formal agreement in 1760, according to which they obtain their freedom and get permission to trade with the Dutch, in exchange for returning future runaways.
Indentured labour
Slavery is abolished in 1863. The former slaves immediately abandon the plantations and head for Paramaribo and other towns. From this moment onwards, two distinct populations of African origin are formed, namely the Maroons, who live in the jungle and this new group in the cities, the Creoles, who gradually mix with the Dutch and other ethnicities.
In order to replace the slaves, the Dutch import large numbers of indentured labourers from India (with the help of the British) as well as Indonesians from Java plus Chinese. This is why Suriname today is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world (see chart below).
Ethnic composition of Suriname (Source: here)
Legacy of colonialism
The main legacies of Dutch rule – power abuse, the use of violence, and ethnic division – cast a dark shadow all the way to present-day Suriname. In 1975, Johan Ferrier becomes the first president of Suriname. A corrupt Creole, his administration stokes ethnic polarisation as he uses Dutch aid money for partisan purposes. A large part of the population of Suriname flees to the Netherlands, joining the already significant number that flees prior to independence.
Bouterse’s First Coup
Within five years of independence, on February 25, 1980, Suriname has its first coup d'état as Dési Bouterse, a Dutch-trained junior military officer of Dutch, indigenous, Creole, French, and Chinese origins assumes dictatorial powers. Politician, convicted murderer and drug trafficker, Bouterse will dominate Surinamese politics for the next forty-five years, serving as President from 2010 to 2020 before dying a fugitive from justice somewhere in the Surinamese jungle in December 2024.
Dési Bouterse (Source: here)
Bouterse’s rule is marked by violent suppression of dissent from the very start. In December 1982, he arrests, tortures, and kills 15 prominent opposition leaders, including journalists, lawyers, and trade union leaders. In response, Dutch and US economic and military cooperation are cut off and the economy tanks. Bouterse turns to the Soviet Union, Cuba and North Korea for help, but after the US invades Grenada in 1983, he draws closer to the US. Bouterse is not driven by ideology; the only thing that matters to him is whatever it takes to hold on to power.
Armed Resistance
Around the same time, Suriname has its first taste of armed opposition to Bouterse. Maroons, under the leadership of Ronnie Brunswijk, a convicted drug trafficker and Suriname’s current vice-president, establish the Suriname National Liberation Army, or the Jungle Commando as it is popularly known. Brunswijk is Bouterse’s former bodyguard and he participated in Bouterse’s coup of 1980, but now he is fighting for the Maroons, who have become the main victims of Bouterse’s brutal pro-Creole rule.
Starting in 1986, the Jungle Commando stages several attacks on the government, plunging Suriname into civil war. Bouterse responds to the insurgency with extreme violence, including the massacre of at least 39 villagers of Moiwana, Brunswijk's home village. Some 10,000 Maroons flee across the Maroni River to French Guiana (see here).
Kourou Agreement
A sham election is held in 1987, but the Jungle Commando refuses to recognise the results. It takes another two years until, in 1989, the Jungle Commando forces Bouterse to agree to a ceasefire and eventually to a French-brokered peace accord called the Kourou Agreement. However, the war does not stop. Secretly, Bouterse finances a counter-insurgency, allegedly by Amerindians, in opposition to the greater influence envisaged for Maroons under the Kourou Accord. Bouterse has no intention to cede power to the Maroons.
Bouterse’s Second Coup
Unwilling to have to deal with the puppet government elected in 1987, Bouterse forces its resignation on December 24, 1990. Suriname is once again a dictatorship under Bouterse. And once again pressure from the US, Netherlands, and the Organization of American States (OAS) resumes, this time forcing Bouterse to allow fresh elections on May 25, 1991.
Technocratic Government
The 1991 election marks a shift from the previous governments of Suriname, because for the first time the country has a taste of more technocratic government. Ronald Venetiaan is elected President at the head of a multi-ethnic coalition. By August 1992, he has managed to stop the domestic insurgency and in April 1993 he forces Bouterse to relinquish the position as commander of the armed forces. Arthy Gorre, the new head of the army, is committed to bringing the military under civilian government control.
Ronald Venetiaan (Source: here)
Populist Backlash
The economic reforms by Venetiaan curb inflation, unify the official and unofficial exchange rates, and improve the public finances. Dutch financial assistance also returns, but the economic medicine has been too tough for many, so Venetiaan loses the presidency to the populist Jules Wijdenbosch, a Maroon, who assumes the presidency in 1996.
As in previous periods of populist rule, the economy rapidly deteriorates and the government is eventually forced to call early elections, paving the way for the second presidency of Venetiaan in May 2000.
Technocratic Government Again
Ronald Venetiaan once again fixes the economy, but again the medicine is tough to swallow, so his coalition suffers a big setback in the national election of May 25, 2005, although this time Venetiaan manages to get re-elected with the support of the Hindustani party.
Populism – And Bouterse – Again
By 2010, Suriname is confident and doing well, but also becoming complacent. The country longs for change and suddenly Bouterse is back, winning 36 of the 51 seats in the National Assembly and assuming office on 12 August 2010.
Bouterse immediately introduces popular, but completely unsustainable policies, including universal health care, free school meals, a minimum wage, and a national pension scheme. Government deficits and inflation explode and the value of the currency halves. Bouterse manages to hold on in 2015, but with a much-reduced majority.
Justice, Finally
In 2019, justice finally catches up with Bouterse, who is found guilty of the December 1982 murders. The verdict forces Bouterse to give up his seat in the National Assembly and he does not run for president. Bouterse dies a fugitive from justice following short illness on 23 December 2024 at the age of 79 at an undisclosed location in the jungle of Suriname. An autopsy shows he has died from liver fibrosis caused excessive and chronic consumption of alcohol.
Technocratic Government Again
Having led the successful investigation against Bouterse, Chan Santokhi decides to stand for president. Unopposed, he becomes president of Suriname on 13 July 2020. And we are back to the IMF statement at the head of this story.
Ronnie Brunswijk (Source: here)
Ronnie Brunswijk?
Over the past fifty years, it is possible to trace clear progress in Suriname. The country has weaned itself off coups, although it still struggles with violent lurches between technocratic and populist governments. The upcoming election will show if Suriname is plunging into yet another bout of populism or whether it has turned a corner after the death of Bouterse.
One of the candidates running for president is Ronnie Brunswijk. He has a past of drug trafficking and guerrilla warfare, the former being the principal means of financing the latter. Brunswijk has been a stable influence in the Santokhi government. Should we view his time 'in the bush' as evidence that he is committed to fight for justice and democracy? Or is he a relic from the Bouterse period, an opportunist waiting for his chance to assume authoritarian powers and raid the public purse?
Those, in my view, are the key questions that may be answered on and after 25 May, 2025.
The End
Comments