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 it was leaving the coalition that included Santokhi’s Progressive Reform Party (VHP) that won the 2020 general election.
“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 the party made the decision to quit the coalition and the government because President Santokhi and Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk have been making policy decisions for some time without involving the NPS.
“After internal deliberations in the party, we have come to the conclusion 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 the straw that broke the camel’s back were recent decisions made 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 the subsidy on cooking gas and electricity will also be phased out.
The NPS said that citizens are not able to absorb the new fees and as a result, more people will go into poverty given also that an adequate social safety net has not yet been set up.
The NPS has also accused the former coalition partners of appointing relatives and friends to top positions in government and state-owned companies.
Rusalnd said last week, a younger brother of Brunswijk was appointed as the chief executive officer of the Suriname Energy Companies, while he is 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 that the NPS would withdraw from the government after 12 of the 17 subdivisions of the Paramaribo constituency, the largest division of the NPS, had made the decision during an emergency meeting last Friday that the party should leave the government.
CMC
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