POLITICS-SURINAME: And the Political Troubles Continue

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Bert Wilkinson

GEORGETOWN, Dec 11 1999 (IPS) - As if the shaky multiparty coalition government has not had enough problems this year, Suriname’s President Jules Wijdenbosch Wednesday asked his 12-member cabinet ministers to resign amid continued allegations of corruption in his government.

In recent weeks, Wijdenbosch’s administration has taken a serious image battering following allegations of corruption against Finance Minister Tjan Gobardhan and a sex abuse scandal involving Defence Minister Ramon Panday.

Gobardhan was fingered by the opposition assembly members for waiving import duties on a number of items for close associates, an allegation that has been circulating for months, while Panday is at the centre of charges that he has sexually abused several under-age Amerindian girls in recent months.

Both men have denied the charges, but observers say the damage the allegations which have been carried in the local media have caused has pushed the embattled head of state to call for the resignations while he moves to reorganise the cabinet.

“The long and the short of it is that four ministers are not returning (to the cabinet). Right now I cannot mention any names,” says presidential spokesman Borger Breeveld.

Then the national assembly recently demanded a probe into what it describes as the misuse of an 18-million-dollar loan from the Washington-based Inter American Development Bank (IDB) identified for the agriculture sector.

Wijdenbosch, a Dutch-trained political scientist, has been at the centre of criticism from nearly every sector of the society, including his own National Democratic Party (NDP) for mismanaging the economy and for allegedly ignoring misdeeds by cabinet ministers and other high ranking officials.

Last June members of his own party voted with opposition assembly members for him to step down after massive street protests by Surinamese angry about the declining economic conditions, shut down the country, including borders with neighbouring Guyana and French Guiana for several days.

Wijdenbosch has been allowed to remain in office only because there was confusion about whether or not the revised constitution allowed for him to go by way of a No-Confidence vote, but more than one year has been cut from his five-year mandate.

General elections are not constitutionally due until September 2001, but Wijdenbosch was forced to compromise under the weight of continued pressure from the NDP, the business community, labour, the church and the opposition. So he set May 25, 2000 as the day when fresh elections will be held.

Signs of serious trouble in the administration started to surface at the beginning of the year when the local currency , the Guilder dropped significantly in strength against the US dollar, pushing up prices. At mid-year, the trading rate reached an astonishing 2,200-1 US dollar compared to about 700-1 at the start of the year.

Close to mid-year Wijdenbosch’s relations with the NDP had become so badly strained that NDP leader and co- founder Desi Bouterse was appearing on national television, denouncing government policies and naming ministers who he said were corrupt and should be fired.

Then an adviser to the president, Wijdenbosch responded by firing the former military strongman who staged coups in 1980 and 1990.

In the end officials say, it appears that Bouterse, 55 has been proven right in that the opposition and the local media have been fingering some of the same people Bouterse identified as those who should be dismissed.

At the moment, Bouterse is feverishly campaigning against Wijdenbosh, his old friend and political ally. The two founded the NDP back in the early 1980s, but now Bouterse is on a mission to replace Wijdenbosch as president of this country of 405,000 people on South America’s northeastern shoulder.

And as economic conditions deteriorate even further and ordinary citizens become poorer, narcotics police are intercepting an average of six persons per day at the international airport as more people get caught up in the drug trade.

“That alone is an indication of how desperate the situation is ” says Stan Rosenblad a private sector employee who says he is willing to join any new round of protest against the harsh economic conditions.