DE SNIJD / Armand Snijders
Actually, I don’t think it’s worth dedicating even one word to Desi, who passed away at the end of last year. He’s dead and let’s keep it that way. It is their right that the old guys within the NDP still want to remember him and praise him. The fact that they collectively – whether or not brainwashed or through a selective memory – say nothing but good things about the former president and ex-dictator is their own responsibility. Sensible people know better.
Despite repeatedly indicating that he would accept the judgment of the judiciary, he fled. We now all know how that ended: Desi died in complete isolation at his hiding place in the interior. That may sound unpleasant and harsh to ‘his people’, but it is simply a fact. And they never want to face the hard facts.
“Aunt Jenny is president of Suriname, not just of a few very old so-called purple ex-revolutionaries who just don’t want to put the past to rest”
The celebration or commemoration of his eightieth birthday on October 13 was organized by a small part of the purple club, with Palu-stonfutu Irvin in the lead, used to argue for clemency for the co-convicted friends of the fallen NDP chairman. He had himself received a twenty-year prison sentence for the December murders of 1982, for which independent judges convicted him on appeal.
Are mati Benny Brondenstein, Stephanus Dendoe, Iwan Dijksteel and Ernst Gefferie escaped with fifteen years. Three of them now spend their days in Santo Boma. Dijksteel, like Bouterse, fled.
The four may be released by Aunt Jenny, as Irvin and Uncle Ramon, the blood brother from back then who always went through fire for Desi, are released. I think that – very deep in her heart – she had long been happy that her predecessor-chairman finally stepped away at the end of last year. After her election as president in July, that saved her a lot of headaches about whether she should pardon him. Part of her party, including Uncle Ramon, demanded that. But the grim reaper put a stop to that.
But now she gets the grace of Stephanus, Benny and Ernst on her plate, while they don’t even want that. I think Aunt Jenny will not be fooled by that riotous elderly NDP member Ramon and will proudly stand her ground against him, as she has done before.
Besides, I suspect that she had long been prepared for this possible wish of the Boutists, who are truly convinced that almost the entire world was against their deity and that it was a political process, in which his friends would also have become victims.
That in itself is not so bad, they can of course believe that because of their imaginations in their own world. But the fact that they now want the convicts to be pardoned so that they can be set free again is, in my opinion, many steps too far. Irvin says he wants to close this chapter and end the grieving. Nonsensical blah blah that no president should fall for.
I find it really incomprehensible that he, Uncle Ramon and all the others apparently do not wonder about the grieving process of the hundreds of relatives of the victims of Desi and his regime. They never thought about that, everything in their world revolves around exonerating Desi and his clique. Even the still fugitive elderly Iwan, who ran away like a coward at the time with Desi, should be pardoned.
Some people argue for a humanitarian pardon because the few men who are in prison are old and have many ailments. If they are not released early, they will most likely die behind bars. “So what?” I would love to scream. Did they ever give the fifteen victims the chance to escape their premature and gruesome fate? According to the judges, they deliberately chose to be present during the murders in Fort Zeelandia.
However, they never wanted to admit this, let alone express regret to the relatives and are also partly responsible for the fact that the process was so painfully slow. So why should they be released after having served only a fraction of their sentence, so that they can play in the yard with their grandchildren or watch television on the couch with their wives? The grandchildren of their murder victims never got that chance and the widows could only dream of watching television with their loved ones.
So in my view, granting a pardon in the context of ‘mercy’ would be completely unjust and also the biggest blunder the head of state can make. It will instantly make her completely unpopular and shatter confidence in the rule of law in Suriname. After all, Aunt Jenny is president of Suriname, not just of a few very old so-called purple ex-revolutionaries who just don’t want to put the past to rest.
I’ll just ignore the whole thing dyugudyugu about how the request for clemency was submitted and by whom. Even the convicts in question would probably not want it. This tricky issue exposes the much deeper background of the growing conflict within the NDP: between the majority led by Aunt Jenny who wants to move on and no longer wants Desi to posthumously destroy the party as a divisive factor and the minority who want to let his legacy live on at all costs – despite his conviction for multiple murder.
They may feel that there is nothing but good to say about Desi. But let the convicts of the December murders reflect on their past sins in Santo Boma – and try to get that one elderly coward behind bars.
It also saves a lot of dissatisfaction and possible unrest from the vast majority of society. It will undoubtedly lead to satisfaction for the surviving relatives, something they had to wait 42 years for.
