Poor turnout at Nickerie rally

MP Rachied Doekhie (NDP) was probably right when he told reporters last week that it would be senseless to organize a rally in the Nickerie District because everything is going well in his district. The organizers of Saturday’s rally namely the C-47 Federation of Labor Union Federations, the Teachers’ Association (BvL), the Alliance of Teachers in Suriname (ALS), the Progressive Laborers’ Organization, the Association of Employees at the Ministry of Education, the Association of Small and Medium Companies in Suriname (Akmos) and the Citizens’ Collective on May 13 failed to prove the legislator from the ruling coalition wrong. The organizers had hoped to get a huge crowd but there was a poor turnout. Reports indicate that about 80 people, most of them from Paramaribo, showed up at the rally which started along the Wilhelminastraat around 11 a.m. The protestors slammed the government’s policy while they were being escorted by the police and a sound truck. Dayanand Dwarka, Robby Naarendorp, Robby Berenstein, Radjoe Bhikharie, Armand Zunder, Shaam Binda and Asha Mungra of the Women’s Association, Curtis Hofwijks, Maisha Neus, MP Paul Somohardjo (PL), MP William Waidoe, shop stewards from unions such as FAI Nickerie, BvL and ALS also attended the rally. Later on MP Jeetendra Kalloe joined the rally which ended at the People’s Square. The protestors initially stood in the pouring rain while the organizers of the rally addressed them. The group quickly became smaller because many protestors chose to seek shelter from the rain. Only the organizers, police and reporters stood in the pouring rain to do their job. Several speakers pointed out that the poor turnout was the result of bad weather. Berenstein pointed out that “this was the first of many rallies to be held in the Nickerie District.”