Suriname a “failed state” and Guyanese “running from HIV”?

Aug 01, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
Suriname is a “failed state”, and Guyanese are “running from HIV; the country has few roads and children roll in mud, naked”, have been some recurring narrative coming out of Western media about these former European colonies.
The Dutch Foreign Minister, Stef Blok, recently referred to Suriname as a failed state because of its ethnic diversity. A New York Times journalist, Mr. Clifford Krauss, in a recent article titled, The $20 Billion Question for Guyana, described Guyana as a ”vast wilderness of few paved roads, people escaping HIV and children rolling in mud, naked.”
These two recent incidents provoked a strong rebuke from all sectors of society. Citizens from Guyana and Suriname and local media vented their anger. The public also went on social media to express their anger towards the Dutch minister’s statement and Krauss’s “condescending” piece on Guyana.
Blok asserted that “multiethnic societies breed conflicts” in the Hague some weeks ago. He said, “Give me an example of a multiethnic, multicultural society, where the indigenous population still live . . . where they live in a peaceful, societal union.”
He continued, “I don’t know of any.”
When someone in the audience pointed to Suriname, a former Dutch colony, Blok hit back hard.
“I admire your optimism,” he replied. “Suriname is a failed state, and that is very much linked to its ethnic composition.”
Blok is either ignorant of Dutch colonial history or most likely pandering to his right wing base. Holland once had a colonial empire that included British and Dutch Guyana, and Indonesia. It was Holland in the 1940s that granted Hindus and Muslims in Suriname “Asian” family laws.
Part of that brutal history was slavery and indentureship which form the basis of today’s Suriname multi-ethnic and multi-religious society of Africans, Chinese, Javanese, Jews, Lebanese, Amerindians and Hindustanis today.
When Suriname passed the “Asian Marriage Decree” in 1940, it was a rejection of “Dutchification” and acceptance of “Asianisation” by the Dutch themselves, since Muslims and Hindus have been living in Suriname since 1873. Up to the 1940s their religious marriages were not registered with the government, “which caused many problems regarding law of succession and registration of children.”
It was in this context that Dutch Governor, Dr. Johannes Kielstra was sympathetic towards the Asians that he tried to resolve these problems by enacting the Asian Marriage Decree during his governorship. The professor came from Indonesia; however, he was a Dutchman from the Netherlands.
This bold step taken by the Dutch Governor of incorporating special privileges to the Muslim and Hindu community was a goodwill gesture to the Asians that demonstrated that the Dutch were not interested in “civilising” the Asians, unlike the British policies in Guyana.
The decree consisted of two parts — the Muslim Marriage Act and the Hindu Marriage Act which legalised marriages performed by Hindu and Muslim religious leaders.
The Netherlands created this multi-ethnic gem of Suriname where people have peacefully coexisted so Blok is ignorant of facts or is appeasing his racist base.
Ray Chickerie

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