Jorien Wuite (; born 6 December 1964) is a
Sint Maarten
Sint Maarten () is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of , it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the north ...
-Dutch civil servant, diplomat, and politician. Born in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
, she moved to Sint Maarten aged 32 to work in government. She rose to the position of Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports and served as
Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten
The Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten ( nl, Gevolmachtigd Minister van Sint Maarten) represents the constituent country of Sint Maarten in the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The current Minister Plenipotentiary is Re ...
in the period 2018–19. She moved back to the European part of the Netherlands due to
her election to the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
in 2021 as a member of the social liberal party
Democrats 66
Democrats 66 (; abbreviated D66, ) is a Social liberalism, social liberal List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands, which positions itself in the Centrism, centre of the Left–right political spectrum, p ...
(D66).
Early life and education
Wuite was born in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
and grew up in that area.
Both her parents worked as educators, and her mother, Anna Merab Richardson, also a writer, is from
Sint Maarten
Sint Maarten () is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of , it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the north ...
.
She studied Public Health Management at
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Erasmus University Rotterdam (abbreviated as ''EUR'', nl, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam ) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humanist ...
in the years 1984–89 and conducted her graduation research on Sint Maarten.
Wuite later did a second
master's
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in Public Management & Policy at the
Open University of the Netherlands
The Open University of the Netherlands ( nl, Open Universiteit Nederland) is a Dutch institution for distance learning at university level. It is an independent government-funded university and uses a variety of methods, including written mater ...
(2008–12), and she studied international politics at
Clingendael Institute
The Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael ( nl, Nederlands Instituut voor Internationale Betrekkingen Clingendael) or Clingendael Institute (''Instituut Clingendael'') is a Dutch think tank and academy on international relat ...
in 2018.
Career
After completing her studies, Wuite worked for five years as a management consultant for the
Gouda company KVA Groep, which mostly assists the public sector.
She subsequently moved to Sint Maarten with her family in 1997 to serve as the director of Sector Health Care Affairs for the Sint Maarten government.
She became director of the Sector Public Health, Social Development and Labor Affairs in 2008 and filled that position until she was appointed secretary-general of that ministry two years later.
Wuite was the secretary-general of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports between 2014 and 2018.
During that period, she became politically active and ran for the
Parliament of Sint Maarten in the
2016 general election as the third candidate of the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
(DP). She was not elected.
When the interim
first Marlin-Romeo cabinet was formed in early 2018, Wuite became the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports on behalf of the
United Democrats
The United Democrats ( el, Ενωμένοι Δημοκράτες (ΕΔΗ), ''Enomenoi Dimokrates'' (EDI)) is a liberal political party in Cyprus. The party was founded by former President of Cyprus George Vasiliou in 1993 as ''Kinima Elefther ...
(UD). She was sworn in on 15 January and appeared again on the ballot in the
February 2018 general election as the UD's twelfth candidate.
The
second Marlin-Romeo cabinet was installed on 25 June 2018 and included Wuite as
Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten
The Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten ( nl, Gevolmachtigd Minister van Sint Maarten) represents the constituent country of Sint Maarten in the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The current Minister Plenipotentiary is Re ...
.
In that position, she represented Sint Maarten's cabinet in the
Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
The Council of Ministers of the Kingdom ( nl, Ministerraad van het Koninkrijk or ''Rijksministerraad'') is the executive council of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is a state consisting of four constituent countries: Aruba, Curaçao, the Ne ...
, which meets in The Hague. Because of that, she moved back to The Hague.
She ran once again for member of Sint Maarten's parliament in the
2020 general election as the UD's third candidate, but did not receive a seat. She called the country's problems immense and particularly complex, and her campaign was described as "surprisingly substantive" for Sint Maarten standards by ''
de Volkskrant
''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000.
Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized c ...
''.
On 25 September 2019, parliament passed a
motion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
against five cabinet ministers including Wuite. The motion's supporters were against the cabinet's decision to
dissolve parliament following the downfall of the
coalition government
A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...
. Wuite's term ended on 19 November 2019, and she subsequently became a strategic advisor at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports concerned with reconstruction projects in the aftermath of
Hurricane Irma
Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...
.
House of Representatives
She joined the Dutch political party
D66 in early 2020 and decided to run for member of the
House of Representatives of the Netherlands
The House of Representatives (, pronounced ; commonly referred to as the ', literally "Second Chamber of the States General") is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of the Netherlands, the States General, the other one being the Senate. ...
in the
2021 general election.
Wuite said during the campaign that it was necessary to renew the relations between the constituent countries of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands
, national_anthem = )
, image_map = Kingdom of the Netherlands (orthographic projection).svg
, map_width = 250px
, image_map2 = File:KonDerNed-10-10-10.png
, map_caption2 = Map of the four constituent countries shown to scale
, capital = ...
. According to her, issues that need to be addressed are "imposed supervision, arguments over money,
..lack of comprehension, and unilateral handling by The Hague." Being D66's twentieth candidate, she was elected and received 15,898
preference votes
In psychology, economics and philosophy, preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between alternatives. For example, someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are central to decision the ...
. Wuite was sworn in on 31 March as the body's first member of Sint Maarten descent and is her party's spokesperson for kingdom relations, art, and culture (formerly also media). She is a member of the Interparliamentary Committee on the
Dutch Language Union
The Dutch Language Union (Dutch: , NTU) is an international regulatory institution that governs issues regarding the Dutch language. It is best known for its spelling reforms which are promulgated by member states, grammar books, the Green Boo ...
, and she is on the Committees for Education, Culture and Science; for Foreign Affairs; for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation (chair); and for Kingdom Relations.
Other positions
Next to her career, Wuite served for about ten years (until 2016) on the board of the Caribbean chapter of the
Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds
The Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds was founded by Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands in London in 1940 during World War II in order to buy war material for the British and Dutch Governments. It continued after the war as Stichting Prins Bernhard Cultu ...
, a foundation providing funding for cultural activities.
She was also an ambassador of the Dutch Black Achievement Month in 2019 and the foundation's chair in early 2021, and she has been working as a Caribbean scout for the
Dutch Research Council
The Dutch Research Council (NWO, Dutch: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) is the national research council of the Netherlands. NWO funds thousands of top researchers at universities and institutes and steers the course of ...
since April 2020.
Personal life
Wuite has been residing in the town of
Voorburg
Voorburg is a town and former municipality in the west part of the province of South Holland, Netherlands. Together with Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it makes up the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has a population of about 39,000 people ...
since her election to the House of Representatives, and she has two sons.
References
External links
Campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wuite, Jorien
1964 births
21st-century Dutch politicians
21st-century Dutch women politicians
Democrats 66 politicians
Democratic Party Sint Maarten politicians
Erasmus University Rotterdam alumni
Politicians from The Hague
Living people
Ministers plenipotentiary (Sint Maarten)
Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands)
Open University (Netherlands) alumni
Sint Maarten politicians
Sint Maarten women in politics
Dutch women diplomats
21st-century Dutch diplomats
Diplomats from The Hague
People from Voorburg