Majority of MP’s want Netherlands to apologize for slavery practices

The Dutch State needs to apologize for the Netherlands’ history of slavery, parliamentarians who visited Suriname, Curacao, and Bonaire in August said in a letter to the Cabinet. This is the first time that a parliamentary majority openly called for an apology, NOS reports.

Parliamentarians from D66, CDA, PvdA, GroenLinks, SP, ChirstenUnie, Volt, and BIJ1 signed the letter. They visited the former Dutch colonies at the initiative of D66 MP Salima Belhaj.

The MPs see an apology for the Netherlands’ slavery past as “an essential beginning to recognition and recovery.” Their conversations with residents of Suriname, Curacao, and Bonaire showed that apologies are important to them. But “at the same time, they do not ask for an apology, and certainly not from individual European Dutch people.” They believe that today’s generation is not responsible for events 150 years ago. But the Dutch State did play a decisive role in slavery.

If the Cabinet does apologize, it must be sincere, the residents of Suriname, Bonaire, and Curacao said. And that sincerity can be shown in action. “In how we deal with our colonial history in the here and now, with the indigenous peoples, the heirs of the enslaved, and with other victims of the colonial era, such as the indentured laborers,” the MPs said in their letter to the government.

So far, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Cabinets have been against apologizing for the Netherlands’ history of slavery. In June, the Cabinet decided not to make the gesture at the annual commemoration of the abolition of slavery, on Keti Koti. The Ministers wanted more time to make a decision, and they felt the timing was wrong, insiders told NOS.

During a visit to Suriname last month, Rutte said that 2023 would be dominated by recognition of the suffering slavery caused. Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the Netherlands abolishing slavery.

Incidentally, several parties in parliament deliberately decided not to attend the working visit to Suriname, Curacao, and Bonaire. That included Rutte’s VVD and far-right parties PVV and JA21.

The Dutch municipalities of Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Rotterdam, the Dutch central bank DNB, ABN Amro, and the province of Noord-Holland have apologized for their role in the Netherlands’ history of slavery. The Hague is currently considering such an apology.