Chan Santokhi returned to Suriname full of ideals, but as president he showed idiosyncratic traits

Anyone who visited police chief Chan Santokhi at his station in Paramaribo in the 1990s entered a kind of bunker, with armored windows with bars in front. As a feared drug fighter, he was threatened from many sides, including shots fired at the station.

Foreign certificates hung on the wall in recognition of his achievements in international drug control. Suriname was in the grip of a cocaine mafia, in which then former dictator Desi Bouterse played a leading role. Santokhi contributed in no small part to the eventual conviction of Bouterse in 1999 to eleven years in prison in absentia in the Netherlands.

It earned him the nickname The sheriff on. He owed that title to the same Bouterse, the man who would also become his biggest opponent in politics in later years. In 2020, Santokhi crowned his career with the presidency of Suriname, comfortably defeating his eternal rival.

Santokhi died on Monday, March 30 at the age of 67 in hospital in Paramaribo, after becoming unwell at home in Lelydorp, according to reports in Surinamese media.

Hardly a surprise

Chandrikapersad Santokhi was born on February 3, 1959 in Lelydorp as the youngest in a family of nine children. His father was a farmer and dock worker, his mother worked as a shop assistant. After high school, Santokhi studied at the police academy in Apeldoorn between 1978 and 1982, with a scholarship from the Surinamese government. The fact that he returned to Suriname in 1982 was a conscious personal choice for Suriname. And not without risk.

After Bouterse’s coup in 1980, the country had descended into a military dictatorship, in which it was difficult for the police to function properly. In 1989, Santokhi became head of the national criminal investigation service, commissioner in 1991 and also head of the force’s judicial service. It was during those years that he built up a reputation as a crime fighter, which would later also help him make a career in Surinamese politics.

It was therefore hardly a surprise that in 2005 Santokhi became Minister of Justice and Police in the cabinet of President Ronald Venetiaan on behalf of the VHP (Progressive Reform Party). In that position, he made the December murder trial possible, in which Bouterse was the main suspect for the murder of fifteen opponents in 1982. “This is my mission, this small Suriname is a constitutional state, we must show that to the world,” he said in 2007. NRC.

Santokhi’s political ambitions grew during that ministership. “I am available to the Surinamese people, regardless of their position.” That already sounded a bit presidential. But Santokhi still played a modest role at the VHP at that time. The old guard was still calling the shots in that strongly hierarchical party. The fact that Santokhi received the most votes after Bouterse, despite a modest position on the candidate list for the 2010 parliamentary elections, was a reward for what he had done in previous years, mainly in the field of security. According to an international list of the number of murders per hundred thousand inhabitants, Suriname was the safest country in the region.

During the 2010 election campaign, Bouterse regularly showed Bob Marley’s I shot the sheriff turn, and he would then move along with his hips rocking. It only increased Santokhi’s popularity.

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A disappointed Santokhi

The presidency was still a bridge too far at that time. That position was conquered by Bouterse with his NDP (National Democratic Party). However, Santokhi was elected chairman of the Inter-American Commission on Drug Control CICAD at the end of 2010. When Santokhi visited the State Department as opposition leader a few years later, in 2014, a US deputy secretary said he would welcome “a government with Santokhi’s party” “as a reliable partner.” In the election campaign a year later, Santokhi was able to manifest himself for the first time as a credible presidential candidate. With a sheriff’s hat on his head, he used his nickname as a nickname. Ultimately, Bouterse was elected again in 2015 for a second term.

A disappointed Santokhi announced internally that he would do things differently next time. From now on, the VHP should enter the elections alone and no longer, as in previous elections, in a ‘front’ with other parties. At the same time, he knew that the VHP had to get rid of the strong Hindustani stamp and become more multi-ethnic, also in its nominations for parliament. Through internal reforms, Santokhi succeeded with the VHP. Also Creoles, Maroons, Javanese, Chinese and ‘moksis’ [Surinamers van gemengde afkomst] showed up in the party center De Olifant.

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“Look around you, here you see the real Suriname. The diversity of people, young and old, is represented here,” Santokhi said at the time. NRC. On July 13, 2020, Santokhi was elected president by acclamation by the National Assembly. The Surinamese population had had enough of the mismanagement and corruption of the Bouterse government, which had brought the country to the brink of collapse. Seven days after his election, Santokhi married lawyer Mellisa Seenacherry.

The new president promised to give the Surinamese a beautiful country in exchange for trust. But with the disastrous economic legacy he inherited from Bouterse – a national debt of around 4 billion US dollars – he faced an extremely difficult task. Only with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could Suriname avoid bankruptcy. He managed to limit inflation and stabilize the economy. But cutbacks, such as the phasing out of energy subsidies, hit ordinary Surinamese hard. And the government apparatus, which was far too large, corrupt and poorly functioning due to cronyism, was unable to implement an adequate poverty policy.

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Santokhi also made a widely criticized mistake at the beginning of his term by appointing his wife to the supervisory board of Staatsolie, after he had previously supported the policy of ‘family and friends‘ by Bouterse had criticized. And the VHP worked together in coalition with the Maroon party ABOP, which mainly excelled through cronyism.

Moreover, Santokhi showed idiosyncratic traits in his position, which even people who knew him well had not noticed in him. The predominantly Creole party NPS, with a reputation for good governance, left the coalition after a few years because it felt it was hardly taken seriously. Santokhi promised the people relief several times, but ultimately failed to deliver. After a New Year’s speech in 2023, in which he again made promises, demonstrations took place in February, which culminated in a storming of parliament and the looting of gas stations and shops. This included the same people who had also demonstrated against Bouterse’s mismanagement.

A new stain

There was criticism that Santokhi traveled too much. In Paramaribo he regularly had himself transported in a convoy of expensive cars with screaming sirens, which aroused increasing resistance among many. The fact that Santokhi gave Surinamese an advance in 2024 on what to expect from oil found off the Surinamese coast did not help anymore. Writer of the book Chan, we are going to save SurinameAshwin Ramcharan concluded: “Santokhi has undergone a metamorphosis from the moment he became president. He is not good at handling power.”

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At the end of 2023, as president, Santokhi experienced that Bouterse was finally sentenced to twenty years on appeal for the December murders. But Bouterse did not end up in jail, because he fled after the verdict. Some saw that as a new stain on Santokhi’s reputation. A short time later, Santokhi’s eternal rival died.

Many critics also believe that Santokhi has missed a golden opportunity to crown his long career with a successful presidency. Santokhi leaves behind a wife and two children.

With the collaboration of Nina Jurna.

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