World Country Guide

History and Government

History
By the time the Spanish arrived in the late-15th century, the Surinen (the original inhabitants of Surinam) had been driven out by other Amerindian groups. Fierce resistance to colonisation deterred most would-be occupiers from Europe, although the territory formally changed hands many times between the Dutch, English and French, before finally being confirmed as a Dutch possession by the terms of the 1815 Treaty of Vienna. At this time, the majority of the population were slaves, working on the plantations. Despite the abolition of slavery in 1863, conditions changed very little until the early 20th century and the discovery of large bauxite deposits, which brought about a major change in the economic - and consequently, political - complexion of the country.

In 1954, Surinam, with the Netherlands Antilles, became an autonomous region within the Kingdom of The Netherlands. Full independence was achieved in 1975. The new country’s political parties were largely organised along ethnic lines – descendants of the black slave workforce, Indonesians, Indians, mixed-race Creoles and a small European contingent. The necessity of forging coalition governments tended to destabilise the political process in the early years after independence. In February 1980, the coalition government that had taken power in 1975 was overthrown in a widely popular military coup. The new regime, under Lieutenant-Colonel Desi Bouterse, followed a left-wing political line, cultivating close links with Cuba at the expense of those with The Netherlands, and banning all political parties.

The economic burden of the civil war that broke out between the regime and jungle-based dissident elements prompted the military regime to announce a return to civilian rule. A transitional constitution was agreed in March 1987; elections in November gave 40 out of the 51 seats in the National Assembly to the Front for Democracy and Development – a pro-Bouterse party, created to engineer the return to civilian government without major policy changes. A ceasefire agreed with the jungle guerrillas was finally reached in 1992.

However, by this time, after a 1990 dispute with elected President Ransewak Shankar, Desi Bouterse had once again put the military back in charge via another coup. The new government was dominated by the Vice-President and Premier Jules Wijdenbosch. Wijdenbosch and his counterpart in the New Front (NF, the successor party to the Front for Democracy and Development), Runaldo Venetiaan, along with Bouterse, have since become the dominant figures in Surinam’s domestic politics. Venetiaan held the presidency from 1991 until 1996 – when he was replaced by Wijdenbosch – and then again, following the most recent national elections in May 2000. A New Front government took office under Prataapnairan Radhakishun.

Surinam’s most important foreign relations are with its near neighbours and with the former Dutch colonial power, which is its principal source of aid. In the case of the Dutch, relations have see-sawed since the early 1980s, depending largely on the extent of Dutch aid and the extent of military influence over the Surinamese government. Bouterse, always a controversial figure in Dutch eyes, has been arraigned by Dutch courts for drug trafficking and the torture of political opponents. Relations with Surinam’s neighbours are generally good. A niggling border dispute with Guyana over territorial waters – the site of possible oil deposits – was settled in the summer of 2000, only for it to simmer enough for a UN tribunal to have to be set up in June 2004 in order to resolve the long-running dispute. However, the other main territorial dispute, with Brazil, has also yet to be resolved. In January 2004, the government introduced a new currency, the Surinamese dollar, to replace the guilder.

Government
The 51-seat National Assembly has legislative powers and is elected every four years. The Assembly elects the president, who holds executive power, and the vice-president, who doubles as prime minister. The National State Council, which includes members of the military, has an ill-defined ‘advisory’ role as well as the power of veto over legislation.