“Vice-President Ronnie Brunswijk accused of hindering Suriname’s economic recovery”

[INGEZONDEN] – At the start of the solar panel project in the village of Poeketie, the vice-president of Suriname made a number of absurd and stupid remarks. He complains that already approved projects are not implemented. He accuses the Surinamese government of deliberately delaying solar panel projects and other domestic projects. He also suspects that it is a strategy of the government (read Santokhi government) to give the ABOP a bad name, so that it will lose seats.

I find these kinds of remarks extremely reprehensible in relation to a government in which Brunswijk himself is vice-president. It is more than clear that the vice president wants to place the blame on President Santokhi and the finance minister. He is playing politics with his ridiculous remarks and thinks he will win votes. But in fact he mainly gives himself a certificate of unfitness. If you don’t understand things or don’t want to continue with the government, you should leave and give others the opportunity to do better.

In my opinion, Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk does not really know how a government works or does not want to take responsibility for the policy pursued. If the government does not have enough money, how should it release the funds? Where does the government get the money from? Should President Santokhi take care of that or should the whole government do it?

As chairman of the Council of Ministers, you expect the vice president to be aware of the country’s precarious financial situation. Does he not remember what financial chaos the current government has taken over. Has he forgotten so quickly that we have a towering debt of almost 4 billion US dollars that needs to be paid off?

The Recovery Plan of the Santokhi/Brunswijk government has indicated a clear path to economic recovery. The plan must then be implemented in its entirety. It means that you can NOT only do the things that cost money, but also the things that bring in income. Only with more income can the country also pay more expenses.

What we see is that the ABOP and the vice president want to spend a lot of money, but don’t cooperate to provide the income. This undermines the policy itself, and one is responsible that inflation remains so high and that the exchange rate has started to rise. President Santokhi wants to implement the Social program and to ensure a reasonable standard of living, but without sufficient income it will not work.

More income should come from the following four sources, among others, to make the economy healthy: the gold sector, the timber sector, an increase in land rent and the possibility of land conversion. Many billions could and should come from these sectors, while it would also mean that wage earners would remain immune from tax increases.

Because the billions in revenue have not been received, the government has run into major problems. The IMF also sees that there is potential to generate enough income, but that this is apparently being held back. The reader must ask himself who has stopped these things? Who has big interests in the gold sector and is holding back the increases? Who has interests in the timber sector and is holding back the increases? Who will stop the increase in land rent and land conversion? Under which ministries do these matters fall? If you are not blind, you will see that the vice president and his party are responsible for this themselves.

The government is therefore missing out on many billions in revenue because it is deliberately withheld. The vice president doesn’t talk about that. On the contrary, he makes absurd and irresponsible remarks about his own government. The vice president not only gives himself a certificate of incompetence, but turns out to be the cause of the lack of resources himself.

He and the ABOP themselves hold back the development, especially in the interior, because he does not provide the state’s income, from which the projects for his supporters can be paid. He does not understand how the government works, but wants to become president himself in 2025. That will not end well for the people.

Idris Naipal