Percy Wijngaarde

P. Wijngaarde and D.G.A. Findlay

Percy Wijngaarde (Paramaribo, 27 August 1915) was a Surinamese journalist, politician of the NPS and diplomat.

Hij was born as a son of Jantje Wijngaarde who was involved in the newspaper 'Suriname'. Himself he first studied to become a teacher at an elementary school but in 1943 he joined that newspaper. After Frederik Lim A Po gave up his position at the Estates of Suriname Wijngaarde won the by-election on May 1st 1947. Just like David Findlay, he combined being a member of the parliament with working as a journalist. At the 1949 Surinamese general election Wijngaarde was reelected and he became NPS-Parliamentary leader. Major conflicts arose in his party and in 1950 he was one of eight NPS members of the Estates of Suriname to leave the party. He remained a member of the parliament until the general election in 1951. Around 1958 he became the editor-in-chief of the Suriname newspaper and continued to do so until the end of 1970 when the newspaper ceased to exist. A few months later he became a consul-general in Guyana. As a minister plenipotentiary he was working at the Dutch Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana. After the independence of Suriname in 1975 he was acting as an ambassador of Suriname in Venezuela and later on in the Netherlands Antilles. After he retired in 1980 he started living in The Netherlands.

His brother Edgar Wijngaarde was a businessman and government minister.