ROSE SCENT / Rolled Rose Leaf
I felt a bit sorry for the Staatsolie director when I read the message about his presentation in the Netherlands. Annand Jagesar traveled to that country to announce, I think mainly to the diaspora, how well the GranMorgu project is progressing. There is a shortage of certain forces and his presentation may be related to that. People who have already toyed with the idea of returning one day can be influenced. It is possible that here and there a stray specialist who does not belong to the diaspora can be enticed to board a plane. “Suriname must become the new Singapore,” was Jagesar’s appeal. And he’s right.
So why did I have to feel sorry for the man? That he could not avoid the fact that corruption is the major stumbling block to the expected development and his Singapore dream. When someone who actually comes to promise mountains of gold cannot avoid mentioning a certain negative aspect, you have to assume that that point is serious. So Jagesar openly stated that corruption is an immense problem for our development and can therefore result in the people not benefiting from the income. Honesty is the best policy, he must have thought, but how do you feel about this truth about your own country? He must not have felt pleasant.
But anyone on the North Sea who would be interested in working here will have followed the news. It’s harsh and angry. A new scandal every week. At the Milk Plant a significant number of the cats were drinking milk and afterwards we could laugh about Monchemel, who turned out to be just as bad, but the misery became an endless stream. At FAI, excessively high benefits turned out to be the banana peel that tripped up the management.
Meanwhile, at Social Affairs, almost an entire department has to be sent to the (cell) house. At Canawaima the already unseaworthy ferry is in danger of further damage due to malpractice branti maka to enter. And at the Fish Inspection Institute they were already afraid of the Supervisory Board, even before it came into existence. The result: the council and director were at odds, until the director quit. They are so afraid of negative outside influences that a 70-year-old director could not yet be replaced. Parties are now calling each other rotten fish.
Making policy becomes very difficult in this way. Aunt Jenny will sometimes wonder what she has gotten herself into. Corruption appears to have become so commonplace that you are lucky if it does not occur. She thought she had found a remedy by holding an open application at certain places as a trial. However, forced by party politics, she soon had to stop this intervention. Appointments are now ‘normal’ again along political lines. With all the consequences: often ignorant people who believe that they can rob all the time, supported by politics.
Aunt Jenny’s warning that if they are tackled, they will have to answer to the PG seems to have made little impression so far. It’s like mopping with the tap open. Hopefully she stays straight on this part and has langa blo. Maybe…maybe when Jagesar recommends the overseas gas project in a few years, he won’t have to see corruption as a mandatory subject.
