Suriname puts Guyana to shame

Jul 20, 2025 Editorial, News

Kaieteur News – “I declare and promise this…so help me God Almighty.” With those 10 words, Excellency Jennifer Geerlings-Simons completed the oath of office and is now the 10^th President of the Republic of Suriname. The first female head of state of that small state, now poised to join the ranks of oil-producing countries. It was a festive occasion in Suriname, this changing of the guard, with the principal participants all rising to the moment and fulfilling their roles with Swiss clock precision. Outgoing president Chan Santokhi signed the proclamation of transfer, the incoming president-elect Geerlings-Simons affixed her signature to the document, and the chair of the proceedings, Speaker Ashwin Adhin declared Excellency Simons the new Suriname president. We congratulate the people and leaders of the Republic of Suriname for their maturity, their sense of duty to country, and the simple grandeur with which they shifted the reins of government from one group and leader to another. This is the way that developments of this nature, that high matters of state, should be dealt with, celebrated, concluded.

We look at our own Republic of Guyana, and there is a sense of shame, a dark sorrow. Elections and transition of power have historically been among the worst times for this country. There is palpable tension in the air in Guyana during elections. The better angels in this society rush for the exits, disappear as fast as they can. Another painful wound, another grim chapter, in the annals of Guyana is lived by its peoples. The finger pointing has been endless, the shirking of responsibility almost a part of the national leadership fabric. This country and its peoples are wound up, like some dangerous spring, with societal pressures growing to the breaking point, until a cluster of outsiders rush here and help separate Guyanese from destroying each other. What Suriname can seemingly accomplish as a matter of routine; Guyana can only dream of achieving some distance into the future. Yet the leaders of Guyana, and some in their supporting cliques, hold the view that they are the smartest people to be found anywhere. Guyanese leaders know everything that there is to know about Guyana and governance, only for them to prove that what they know amounts to an embarrassing abundance of ignorance. How often hasn’t it been that leaders and officials from the region, from the hemisphere, and from the great caretaker of Guyana, America, are all compelled to race here to help us find our feet, and discover a way forward, however temporary? The role of being a helpless dependent of other countries is one now proudly embraced, accepted as the norm by local leaders and people. Still, Guyanese leaders fool themselves into claiming that this country is a healthy democracy, one standing on its own feet, charting its own destiny.

The Republic of Suriname experienced a development that has never visited Guyana. In 1980, Guyana’s neighbors to the East reeled from a violent army coup, the so-called Sergeants’ coup. Murders and massacre followed, and yet Suriname has advanced far ahead of Guyana in governing itself. It could elect its first female president, a 71-year-old physician. In Guyana, it is part of the culture of the sophisticates in power to mock those older. It provides an explanation, perhaps, why Surinam is where it is, and Guyana is stuck at being how it is. Guyana’s environment speaks for itself, and it is not inspiring.

In Guyana, the bickering over elections processes and results is nonstop, almost at the level of a cottage industry. Those who lose cannot find it in themselves to do the gracious thing and concede. The stakes are too high, the prizes too much to forego. If leaders have to besmirch themselves by alleging their opponents cheated, when they themselves may have done their own cheating, they do so. Then they stick to that like a lion to an antelope. Things have deteriorated to such low levels that politicians in competing camps refuse to shake hands. Political leaders not only don’t concede, they refuse to attend swearing-in ceremonies. Such is the intensity of the political rancor in Guyana. Surinamese can enjoy a peaceful transition of power, while Guyanese brace themselves for the usual.

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Editorial, Female president, Jennifer Geerlings-Simons, shame, Suriname

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