It is Bronto Somohardjo, party leader of Pertjajah Luhur, who on day one puts it most clearly what Suriname expects from the Dutch state visit.
President Jennifer Simons and King Willem-Alexander had already emphasized several times that day that the relationship between the two countries, fifty years after the independence of Suriname, is one of “equality, professionalism and mutual respect”. Yes, the shared past is “painful”. But above all, we must build a shared future.
That will be heard for three days. It is evident from the program – in which attention is paid to the forgiveness that the king receives for the role of his ancestors in the slave trade, but in which a lot of time has been allocated to young people, technology and the economy. It is said during the state banquet, during a round table discussion between companies, during the farewell between the president and the king. It sounds from many throats, including in the National Assembly.
Several faction leaders there are asking for a relaxation of the visa rules. Surinamese feel that they have to “beg” to gain access to the Netherlands, they regularly encounter the paper wall of the Schengen area and therefore miss important family events. And doesn’t equality mean that it should be equally easy for the residents of both countries to visit?
Then the fifth group leader, Somohardjo, speaks. The parliamentarian wants to be “very down-to-earth”, as he learned when he grew up in the Netherlands. He looks at the king, with Willem-Alexander, among others, Minister of Foreign Affairs David van Weel (VVD) behind him. And he says: “You are not here because our sun shines so brightly. You are not here for our beautiful nature or for that delicious parbo beer that you can nowadays also get in Albert Heijn. You are here because you are Dutch. And the Dutch see opportunities. Especially when it comes to trade.”
Somohardjo warns: “The generation your grandmother faced is not the generation facing you today. We are different. We dare more. We know our values. And we will not let anyone – friend, partner or country – take the cake.”
And he says: “We do not walk behind you, but beside you.”
Suriname is ‘an inspiring example’
Suriname has started a new future. The turbulent political years seem to be over, oil and gas have been found off the coast, giving the country the potential for economic growth. When it comes to integration, King Willem-Alexander says in the Assembly, Suriname is “an inspiring example” for the Netherlands.
During the press interview he called it “a revelation” how Surinamese from different backgrounds and religions “form a close-knit community”. “You read about it, you hear about it, of course you see Dutch people with Surinamese roots who have different backgrounds. But how much does that matter here? (..) We can really learn a lot from that.”
On the second day of the state visit, at Villa Zapakara in Paramaribo, the king will also say that Suriname can be an example when it comes to integration. Zapakara once started as a children’s museum, says director Coco Prany-Duivenvoorde prior to the royal visit. Exhibitions about Ghana or China and nowadays Java teach children about the countries of origin of Surinamese people, and thus indirectly about themselves and Surinamese society. Because who is the other here?” She refers to the term Alas kondrewhich means ‘all cultures together’.
Upstairs in the attic of Zapakara, children make a modern wajang, the Javanese shadow play, by making a stop motion animation with an iPad and cut-out black figures on a white sheet of paper. Kinaroen (12) has the king next to him and has made up a story about a Chinese dragon that is coming to attack Suriname.
In the afternoon, in the community center of the Latour Buurtwerk Foundation, the king and queen will follow Miss Monique’s reading hour. She sings a song about a snake, which is tall and not afraid of anyone. When the toddlers hiss along, volunteer Risma Bisessar says: “In the Netherlands the ending is different. There go the snake and the frog ‘compromises‘. Not in Suriname: the snake would eat the frog.”
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima leave by boat at Frederiksdorp, a former coffee and cocoa plantation.
Photo ANP REMKO DE WAAL
It’s busy at Latour. The entire surrounding working-class district has turned out, the older women in their most festive clothing. They sing: “Be welcome, be welcome.” They still have memories of the previous state visit in 1978. Sylvana Blijd (70), in a koto in the colors of the Surinamese flag, shouts: “Welcome your majesty!” She says: “I think it’s great, the collaboration. I was born under the Dutch flag.”
She shakes Máxima’s hand and says: “I felt something good about the Netherlands and Suriname, like before. We’re going to be very good. Our young people who come after us must have a better life than us. That is what we strive for.” She is beaming, she says that a new wind is blowing.
The idea is to also talk to young people in the community center. But the drums, the crowds and the music make that almost impossible. Dave Blinker (26) says he is happy with the arrival of the king, but especially that a broader delegation is present. “That shows that there are new possibilities. With the intended oil and gas profits, a woman as president… I hope for a new impetus that young people will also participate more in national government.”
Build local knowledge
In the meantime, Dutch and Surinamese companies are discussing further cooperation in one of the tallest buildings in Paramaribo. During the closing talk, Maarten Schuurman, vice-chairman of the employers’ organization VNO-NCW, says that “the Dutch delegation has an enormous range of expertise”, Surinamese Minister of Economy Andrew Baasaron says that it is “important to build up local knowledge”.
Melanie Maas of Invest-NL, the national investment fund, said afterwards that Suriname had been “very explicit” and that it wanted to invest in people, i.e. in education and training. “The question was: what can the Dutch government and the business community contribute to this.”
The president makes it clear at the table that China and India are also important as partners, just like the Netherlands, countries of origin of Surinamese people. She says it not only at the round table discussion with the companies, but also at the Natural Technology Institute when it comes to water management, and on the third day to young heritage specialists.
King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima together with Surinamese President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons and her husband (left) the Robby Jwelal store (right).
Photo ANP REMKO DE WAAL
On that last day, the royal couple sails from Paramaribo to Johanna Margaretha, a village with descendants of former contract workers. In the only store, owner Robby Jwelal, a third-generation shopkeeper and his daughter is the fourth, explains that this is not his only job. He does “a bit of farming”, rents rooms to tourists. “You shouldn’t wait for the government or a package from the Netherlands,” he says.
Further along the Commewijne River is the former Frederiksdorp plantation, now a holiday resort. In the old doctor’s house, the young people clearly show that they want to know more about the Netherlands. Sushmeeta Ganesh, a young archaeologist, is busy with provenance research and went to Naturalis in Leiden to see how they are returning the Dubois collection of 28,000 fossils, including the ‘Java man’, to Indonesia.
It is a new generation of archaeologists, archivists and scientists who are speaking here. They clearly know what they want, like many other young people, they want to build up Suriname. Agir Axwijk says that in Suriname there is “a lot of passion” among private individuals to preserve heritage. “People just start with something. But if there is a way to gain short-term specialist knowledge in this country, that would help.”
Minister of Education, Culture and Science Gouke Moes (BBB) sees “quite room for cooperation”, but also says that as minister he “does not have a can of archaeologists available”. But it is about building local knowledge, the young people say, and about acquiring their own skills.
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The king is forgiven at the Suriname River
When the Surinamese president is asked by the Dutch press at his farewell how the relationship with the Netherlands will continue, she also answers: “We are learning to stand on our own two feet. And we hope that the Netherlands learns that too. So that we have a collaboration that is completely equal. Support each other.”
When King Willem-Alexander is asked later in the afternoon how this equality should be interpreted, he says: “Suriname decides what they want from us. Or not. And how they want to work with us or not.” How MP Bronto Somohardjo put it, Willem-Alexander calls it “exactly the reason why we were here”.
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