The interior of Suriname has given the current rulers a clear political mandate. But political support also creates political responsibility.
André Misiekaba received 494 votes in Sipaliwini in the 2025 elections, and Silvana Afonsoewa 491 votes. In Brokopondo, Misiekaba received 48 votes and Afonsoewa 18.
Both belong to the NDP, the party now leading the government. The NDP received a combined 7,708 votes in Brokopondo and Sipaliwini. The parties forming the current coalition — NDP, ABOP, NPS, PL, BEP and A20 — received a total of 17,042 votes in these two districts.
The political mandate from the interior is therefore unmistakable. Precisely for that reason, political responsibility may also be expected.
Cries for help from the Medische Zending
The cries for help from the Medische Zending are therefore so painful.
The organisation, which plays a crucial role in healthcare in the interior, warns that its financial situation is serious. Operating funds are not forthcoming, debts are mounting, medical transport is coming under pressure, the supply of medicines is under threat and dozens of outpatient clinics are facing maintenance problems.
The Medische Zending is not an organisation on the sidelines. It forms an essential part of primary healthcare in the interior and provides, among other things, maternal and child care, vaccinations, pharmaceutical care, emergency care and surveillance.
This is not happening under a government on which Misiekaba and Afonsoewa — but also Adhin, Vreedzaam, Tsang, Bouva, Parmessar and Salarbaks — can direct criticism from the opposition benches.
This is happening while their own party is governing.
The contrast with 2025
The contrast with 2025 could hardly be greater.
On 30 June 2025, the World Health Organization officially certified Suriname as malaria-free. Suriname thereby became the first country in the Amazon region to achieve this historic status. On that occasion, the WHO specifically emphasised the importance of reaching remote communities.
At the announcement, as the then Minister of Health, I explicitly pointed out something that may be even more important today than it was then: achieving malaria-free status is one thing, but maintaining it is an ongoing responsibility. The WHO’s official publication at the time also stressed the need for continued vigilance.
That historic result did not come out of nowhere, nor can it be attributed to one politician.
It was the result of decades of work by healthcare workers, the Nationaal Malaria Programma, the Medische Zending, communities in the interior and international partners. The Medische Zending had played an important role in malaria control in the interior since the 1970s.
And that is precisely where the political irony lies today.
The same healthcare structures in the interior that were needed to reduce malaria and ultimately bring Suriname international recognition must now fight to remain financially afloat.
Eliminating malaria is an achievement.
Keeping malaria out is a responsibility.
A certificate is not the final destination
A malaria-free certificate is, after all, not the final destination. Maintaining this status requires surveillance, rapid detection and the capacity to respond immediately to new cases.
This is especially important for Suriname because of its borders with countries where malaria still occurs and the mobility of people in, among other places, remote gold-mining areas.
That is why Minister Misiekaba, Silvana Afonsoewa, chair of the standing committee on Public Health, and Jennifer Vreedzaam, who regularly voiced criticism through open letters in the 2020–2025 period, must ask themselves a few simple questions:
How will you defend our malaria-free status if healthcare in the interior is financially hollowed out?
How will you defend a declining vaccination rate when this increases the risk of outbreaks of childhood diseases in the interior?
How will you guarantee the continuity of important medical posts when healthcare workers cannot even travel adequately and have to do their work under deplorable conditions?
The work should have been continued
In the 2024–2025 period, important steps were taken to guarantee medical services in the interior. These included the purchase of consumables and equipment for at least one year and the development of new outpatient clinics, including the one in Soekoenale.
That work should have been continued and strengthened.
For years, it was easy to criticise President Santokhi and Minister Ramadhin from the opposition. Today, the roles have been reversed.
The NDP is governing.
Misiekaba is Minister of Health. Afonsoewa is chair of the standing committee on Public Health of De Nationale Assemblée (Suriname’s parliament).
Responsibility can therefore no longer be placed on the previous government.
The residents of the interior have given their trust. They may now ask for results in return.
No speeches. No political excuses. No references to yesterday.
Ensure that the Medische Zending can function.
Protect healthcare in the interior.
And protect the historic malaria-free status that Suriname achieved in 2025.
It would be bitter if Suriname first makes international history by eliminating malaria, only to then allow, through administrative negligence, the healthcare structures that helped make this achievement possible to weaken.
The interior has cast its vote. Now the government must show what that vote was worth.
W’O KENKI A SYSTEEM.
The promise was clear. The interior may now expect that promise to be fulfilled in healthcare as well.
Amar Ramadhin
