Jagernath Lachmon

Jagernath Lachmon

Jagernath Lachmon (born September 21, 1916 in Nickerie , Suriname , † October 19, 2001 in The Hague , Netherlands ) was a Surinamese politician.

Life

Jagernath Lachmon's parents came from Uttar Pradesh and came to Suriname as Hindustani contract workers. His father became a cook at the Waterloo plantation in the Nickerie district and his mother worked in the sugar cane fields . After the contract period expired, they started a small farm with dairy cows in the vicinity of Nieuw-Nickerie .

education

After primary school, Jagernath Lachmon moved to Paramaribo at the age of 13 and graduated from secondary school here. Following the advice of the school, he decided to become a lawyer . Since it was not possible to study law in Suriname at that time, the only way to learn this profession was through an internship. After a long search, he found an apprenticeship in the office of Julius Caesar de Miranda , a lawyer and politician of Creole origin who had studied in the Netherlands. The fact that a Creole was ready to train a Hindustan made a great impression on the young Lachmon and laid the foundation for his striving for balance, especially between the two largest ethnic groups.

Profession, politics

He became the first advocate of Hindustan descent in Suriname and opened his own office in Paramaribo in 1940. He began his political career in various smaller groups. In early 1949 he was a co-founder of the Verenigde Hindoestaanse Partij (VHP), which arose from a bundling of three smaller parties. This mainly ethnically oriented party was later renamed Vooruitstrevende Hervormings Partij (VHP) (Progressive Reform Party). Lachmon was its chairman from the time it was founded until his death. In the elections in 1949 he moved in for the first time as a member of the VHP in De Staten van Suriname (from 1987 De Nationale Assemblèe ) - the parliament. From 1964 to 1973 he was also its chairman.

independence

In contrast to his political opponents Johan Adolf Pengel and his successor Henck AE Arron from the Nationale Partij Suriname (NPS), he was rather reluctant to seek independence from the Netherlands. The plans and dates of Arron and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Joop den Uyl , to establish the sovereignty of Suriname, went too quickly and were not fully developed for him. From his point of view, the question of the choice of the nationality of Surinamians in particular was insufficiently clarified and he generally feared the suppression of the Hindustans by the Creoles. The contrasts between the predominantly Creole nationalists on the one hand, who demanded independence by 1975 at the latest, and the attitude of the VHP with Lachmon as the mouthpiece of the Hindustans, on the other hand, who stated that independence must be better prepared, led to great tensions caused by arson became visible in the capital. Shortly before the appointed date, there was a reconciliation between Arron and Lachmon, which reached a dramatic climax when these political opponents hugged each other in parliament on November 19, 1975, six days before independence was proclaimed.

Military coup, political new beginning

After the military seizure of power in February 1980, parliamentary democracy in Suriname came to an end. This situation lasted until 1987, when free and secret elections could be held for the first time after the military coup. These elections had become possible after negotiations with the military rulers, in which Lachmon had also played a decisive role. The VHP became the ruling party and Lachmon again became chairman of the parliament ( De Nationale Assemblèe ). On August 1, 1996, another fire wreaked havoc in Paramaribo. On that day, a historic building complex, including the building on Gravenstraat (now Henck Arronstraat), which has been used as a parliament since the beginning of the 20th century, went up in flames. Important documents from the office of Speaker of Parliament Lachmon were also lost.

Honors, death

Statue of Jagernath Lachmon

Overall, Lachmon was elected chairman of parliament five times and in 1999 was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-serving mandate holder in the world .

Jagernath Lachmon died in a hotel room in The Hague when a parliamentary delegation from Suriname he led was invited to an official visit by the Netherlands. His body was cremated in Paramaribo on October 25, 2001.

In his honor, a statue was made by the Surinamese artist Erwin de Vries, which was placed on the Independence Square of Paramaribo.

literature

• CFA Bruijning, J. Voorhoeve (red.): Encyclopedie van Suriname , Elsevier , Amsterdam and Brussels 1977, ISBN 90-10-01842-3 , p. 360.
• Evert Azimullah: Jagernath Lachmon , Uitgever Vaco-Press, Paramaribo 1986, ISBN 99914-9504-5 .
• Evert G. Gonesh: Jagernath Lachmon Verbroederingspolitiek in Suriname . LM Publishers, Utrecht 2016, ISBN 9789460224119 .