By Henry Srebrnik, [Moncton, NB] Times & Transcript
Consociational democracy is found in countries that are deeply divided into distinct religious, ethnic, racial, or regional segments. Its two central characteristics are government by grand coalition and segmental autonomy.
Such countries, known as plural societies, have little overarching national unity. Political elites from the ethnic segments rely on patron-client networks to maintain support, while inter-elite relations are strongly adversarial.
Power-sharing has primarily been facilitated by the need for each ethnic group to retain access to state resources, which remains the driving force of government formation.
Suriname, wedged between Guyana and French Guiana in South America, is such a country. It was governed as a Dutch colony until independence in 1975. Due to its colonial history, which centred around a plantation economy based on slavery, indentured labour, and ethnic and racial admixture (or “creolization”), the country is culturally regarded as part of the Caribbean.
It is the smallest country in South America, with a population of 575,000. The largest ethnic group are descendants of South Asians, known as Hindostanis, who form about 27.4 per cent of the population, followed by Maroons, at 21.7 per cent, whose ancestors are mostly runaway slaves that fled to the interior during Dutch rule.
Creoles, at 15.7 per cent, are descended from Africans and Dutch Europeans. Finally, Javanese, at 14 per cent, originate on the island of Java\ in the former Dutch East Indies (modern Indonesia).
Political mobilisation has occurred on an ethnic basis, with the major parties all representing, and catering to, specific ethnic groups. But a coup d’état in 1980 resulted in the installment of a military regime spearheaded by Desi Bouterse, a Creole, leading to a seven-year abrogation of democratic rule.
The military takeover was initially greeted with some enthusiasm, primarily due to his vow to end the tradition of ethnic politics which was associated with economic stagnation and political deadlock.
However, after six years the regime had become notorious for its human rights abuses and involvement in drug trafficking. On top of that, in 1986 a bloody Interior War erupted between the military and the Jungle Commando, a Maroon rebel group headed by Bouterse’s former bodyguard Ronnie Brunswijk. Domestic and international pressures forced Bouterse to initiate a process of political liberalisation, leading to the drafting of a new constitution in 1987.
It essentially restored the old institutional framework but provided for a more powerful president elected by and from among parliament. Free and fair elections in 1987 produced a landslide victory for the old ethnic parties, while Bouterse’s newly established pan-ethnic National Democratic Party (NDP) suffered a dramatic defeat.
Suriname thus reverted to power-sharing politics and grand inter-ethnic coalition governments. However, the 2010 elections resulted in a shocking victory for Bouterse’s NDP.
Even though the party dominated the Surinamese government for ten years, its pan-ethnic nature to some extent ensured a continuation of the power-sharing tradition, since all ethnic groups retained at least some access to state positions and resources.
For example, after the 2010 election an astonishing coalition was formed between Bouterse and Ronnie Brunswijk, the leader of the Maroon-based General Liberation and Development Party (ABOP), who had been Bouterse’s main enemy during Suriname’s Interior War.
The main fault line in contemporary Surinamese politics runs between the traditional ethnic parties and Bouterse’s pan-ethnic NDP. However, the NDP is broadly (and increasingly) regarded as a Creole-dominated party, and Hindostanis in particular complained about discrimination by an NDP government.
The outcome of the May 2020 elections saw a shift back to Suriname’s multi-party power-sharing traditions. The victorious Hindostani-dominated Progressive Reform Party (VHP) under Chan Santokhi, winner of 20 of the 51 seats in parliament, formed a coalition with the Maroon ABOP led by Brunswijk, the Creole National Party of Suriname (NPS), and the Javanese Glorious Empire (PL) parties.
The defeated NDP retained 16 seats. This has triggered fears of political victimisation among NDP supporters.
Surinamese politics remain very antagonistic and polarised. In the end, however, the pragmatic need for parties to obtain resources for their own ethnic group trumps the hostility.
“We’re looking forward to a better future, because we are two leaders who have been entrusted to lead this nation together,” Santokhi said of himself and Brunswijk in an interview.
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