Gregory Rusland, a former minister of national
resources in the previous cabinet, is favourite to assume the
presidency of the opposition National Party of Suriname (NPS).
The party was almost permanently in office following the country's first democratic elections in 1987 after the military period. President
Ronald Venetiaan governed the country twice – from 1991-96 and
from 2000-10 - before being defeated by Dési Bouterse in the 2010
elections. Venetiaan, also known as 'the man with ten clean
fingers', is still the NPS chairman but there has been criticism
because of the lack of action during his presidency, with some people
cynically saying that he has ten clean fingers because he did not use
them.
Rusland was the minister who – as part of the Venetiaan
government - signed a contract with Goldminer Iamgold which is often
criticised as profitable for the Canadian multinational. Although it
has never been proven, Rusland is often accused of corruption because,
almost immediately after the deal was signed, he suddenly owned real
estate in Florida which he could never have bought with his salary.
In this context, it is interesting to hear from Arnold
Kruisland who is a senior and prominent NPS member. Without explicitly
referring to Rusland's real estate, he said that “the NPS has a
tradition of good governance by chairmen that only have 'ten clean
fingers'. Any chairman of whom it is found out that he doesn't, will be removed. NPS, once the biggest political party of Suriname, is now in a
deplorable state, having only two of the 51 seats in the
National Assembly”.
For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Suriname Politics & Security.
© 2012 Menas Associates
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