Henck AE Arron

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Henck Arron (1975)

Henck Alphonsus Eugène Arron (born April 25, 1936 in Paramaribo , Suriname , † December 4, 2000 in Alphen aan den Rijn , Netherlands ) was a Surinamese politician and the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Suriname.

Life

After successfully completing the Algemene Middelbare School in Paramaribo (at that time the highest form of school in Suriname), Arron traveled to the Netherlands in 1956 to study banking. Here he worked for a few years at the Amsterdam Bank, then returned to Suriname and got a job at the Vervuurts Bank in Paramaribo. From the end of 1963 he was employed in a managerial position at the Volkskreditbank.

Political rise

In 1961 Arron became a board member of the Nationale Partij Suriname (NPS). After the parliamentary elections in 1963 he became a member of this party and in 1970 its chairman. In the 1973 elections he was the prime candidate for a combination of parties, the National Party Combination (NPK). The NPK consisted of two parties founded in 1946, the Creole NPS and the Progressive Surinamese People's Party (PSV), which represented the Roman Catholic part of the People's Creoles, as well as the Javanese party Kaum Tani Persatuan Indonesia (German: Indonesian Peasant Party) founded in 1949 ( KTPI) by Iding Soemita and the Partij van de Nationalistische Republiek (PNR), founded in 1961 by lawyer Eddy Bruma, which from the outset pursued complete independence from the Netherlands . This NPK got 22 of the 39 seats in parliament (Parliament: de Staten ) and Arron was elected Prime Minister Suriname on December 24, 1973.

Independence of the country in 1975

On February 15, 1974, Arron announced in a government statement in parliament that Suriname should become independent "at the end of 1975". After initially strong resistance to these efforts by the opposition Hindustan Vooruitstrevende Hervormings Partij (VHP) (German: progressive reform party), the opposition leader and co-founder of the VHP, Jagernath Lachmon , agreed to the necessary amendment to the constitution in an act of fraternization.

Suriname gained independence on November 25, 1975. The Netherlands under Prime Minister Joop den Uyl said goodbye with a "golden handshake" of around 3.5 billion guilders and Arron became the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Suriname. Although he had promised in parliament that new elections would be held eight months after independence, he delayed the elections until 1977. Despite rumors of election fraud, the NPK, this time without the PNR, again won an absolute majority in parliament and Arron was confirmed in office.

Arron's reign was not a success. In addition to the economic problems - Dutch development aid had hardly created any new jobs - the events surrounding independence had also intensified ethnic sensitivities and thus caused a flow of emigrants to the Netherlands.

1980 military coup

On February 25, 1980 there was a coup by 16 NCOs of the army . The Arron government was accused of corruption and was deposed by a National Military Council led by Sergeant Desi Bouterse . Arron was first captured and later placed under house arrest.

1987 elections and death

In November 1987 the first elections after the coup took place and Arron became vice-president of the Ramsewak Shankar administration . This term of office ended prematurely when the military leadership - this time bloodlessly - overthrew the Shankar government in 1990. This marked the end of Henck Arron's political career.

In December 2000, Arron visited the Netherlands on the occasion of a panel discussion on 25 years of Suriname's independence. On the evening of December 4th, he died of cardiac arrest in his hotel room in Alphen aan den Rijn.

Honors

On April 25, 2003, the Gravenstraat in Paramaribo was renamed Henck Arronstraat in Arron's honor.

Statue of Henck Arron in front of the Palmentuin in Paramaribo

A statue of Arron created on the initiative of the Nationale Partij Suriname by the Surinamese artist Erwin de Vries was unveiled on April 25, 2008. The monument was erected at the entrance to the Palmentuins (palm garden) opposite the President's office in Paramaribo, Kleine Combéweg. The text on the base of the statue reads in Sranantongo : Henck AE Arron A Prinspari Tiriman Fu srefidensi 1975 . Translated into German: The driving force behind independence in 1975.

See also

literature

  • CFA Bruijning and J. Voorhoeve (main editors): Encyclopedie van Suriname , Elsevier , Amsterdam u. Brussel 1977, ISBN 90-10-01842-3 , p. 36.
  • Hans Buddingh: Geschiedenis van Suriname , Het Spectrum, Utrecht 2000 (3rd edition), ISBN 90-274-6762-5 .
  • Peter Meel: Henck Arron. De politicus , in: Hoefte, R. et al. (Editor): Tropenlevens. De (post) colonial biography , KITLV Uitgeverij, Leiden u. Amsterdam 2008, pp. 171-194.
  • Peter Meel: Man van het moment: een politieke biography van Henck Arron , Uitgeverij Prometheus / Bert Bakker, Amsterdam 2014, ISBN 9789035142367 .

Web links

Commons : Henck Arron  - collection of images, videos and audio files