URGENT-Coalition party leaves the government

PARAMARIBO, Suriname, CMC – The Suriname National Party (NPS) Wednesday left the coalition government of President Chandrikapersad Santokhi after two of its ministers were instructed to submit their resignations.

Education, Science & Culture Minister Marie Levens and Spatial Planning and the Environment Minister Silvano Tjong-Ahin have been instructed to leave the government as the NPS also announced that it was leaving the coalition that included Santokhi’s Progressive Reform Party (VHP) that won the 2020 general elections.

“As of today, we are withdrawing from the partnership of the government coalition. We leave the coalition and form an autonomous group in the National Assembly. We will act as responsible DNA members,” NPS chairman, Gregory Rusland, told a news conference.

He said that the party decided to quit the coalition and the government because President Santokhi and Vice President Ronnie Brunswick have been making policy decisions for quite some time without involving the NPS.

“After internal deliberations in the party, we have concluded that we do not expect the situation within the current set-up to change to such an extent within the next two years that the NPS can make a respectable contribution to shaping and implementing government policy,” said Rusland. “We have never really experienced what we are experiencing now in a coalition that included the NPS,” he added.

With the departure of the NPS, the coalition government now has 30 of the 51 parliamentary seats.

Political commentators said that the straw that broke the camel’s back was recent decisions taken by the government to phase out the subsidy on fuel, resulting in prices increasing significantly from Monday.

The government has also indicated that the price of diesel will further increase in March and that the subsidy on cooking gas and electricity will also be phased out.

The NPS said that citizens could not absorb the new fees, and as a result, more people would go into poverty, given that an adequate social safety net still needs to be set up.

The NPS has also accused former coalition partners of appointing relatives and friends to top government and state-owned companies positions.

Rusalnd said last week, a younger brother Brunswijk of, was appointed as the chief executive officer of the Suriname Energy Companies while he was under criminal investigation for suspected corruption at a company where he was the chairman.

“We were not involved in this decision,” said Rusland.

It was only a matter of time before the NPS would withdraw from the government after 12 of the 17 subdivisions of the Paramaribo constituency, the largest division of the NPS, had decided during an emergency meeting last Friday that the party should leave the government.

In October last year, during an extraordinary party congress meeting, it already became clear that the NPS departments no longer felt comfortable in the coalition. Shortly before, clashes had also occurred in Parliament and the media between NPS Member of Parliament Patricia Etnel and coalition partners.

Rusland, who had earlier resigned as an adviser to the President on Housing, said the NPS would participate in Parliament as an independent faction and adopt a more critical attitude than before, supporting only what the party believes to be good policies by the government.

Meanwhile, President Santokhi is not traveling to the Bahamas for the 44th Caribbean Community (CARICOM) summit that opens in Nassau later on Wednesday.

Santokhi did not travel to Guyana for the 2023 International Energy Conference and Expo, and as he did on Tuesday, he will address the regional leaders virtually.

Foreign Affairs Minister Albert Ramdin will represent Suriname at the three-day summit.

The Suriname Communications Service (SCS) quotes Santokhi as saying that addressing critical national issues in the country is a top priority.

The National Assembly, from Monday, has been debating the national budget since. On Tuesday evening, Santokhi consulted with the joint trade union movement about cost-increasing measures, such as the government’s recently implemented fuel price increases.

Last Friday, under the leadership of activist Sibrano Pique, several dozen people took to the streets to protest against the measures. On Tuesday, one of the largest trade union federations in Suriname, C-47, sent a request to the Head of State.

The union is calling for several new measures, including the removal of subsidies to be rescinded, and payroll tax should be abolished. Teachers affiliated with the Federation of Education Unions in Suriname will stay away from their work on Thursday and Friday.