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The Struggle for Power in the New Regime (1949–1954)

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Book cover The Difficult Flowering of Surinam
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Abstract

Although the color-line/class struggle among Creoles had been submerged to some extent in the Kielstra years, the NPS victories over its opposition in the electoral reform, and in the general elections of 1949, brought with them a new flare-up of Van Lier’s “latent animosity.” Ironically, but also logically, its locus was the NPS itself. A struggle for power between rival cliques within the party was quickly transformed into a color-line/class struggle, as the newest members of the party attacked the old guard for alleged elitism.

The NPS is the focus of everyone’s attention. She is being tugged and jerked in all directions. That she has remained firmly upright is certainly not to be credited to the good intentions of her opponents, nor, sadly, to the efforts of a few of her so-called supporters.

Purcy Wijngaarde, 1949*

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Dew, E. (1978). The Struggle for Power in the New Regime (1949–1954). In: The Difficult Flowering of Surinam. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3278-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3278-9_4

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