Rutte or Rita?

Yesterday we had a premiere in Dutch parlementary history: the number 2 on the election list for the Liberal Party (VVD) got more preference votes than the number 1, the party leader. The interesting issue here is that the number 1, Mark Rutte has been elected party leader by the party members, above the current minister of integration Rita Verdonk. She became the runner up on the VVD-election list that was used on Nov. 22nd. However, the final election results show that Verdonk achieved about 70.000 votes more than Rutte. What next? Rutte reacted that he was glad for Rita, but that he was elected by the party members and as a consequence his leadership is not at stake. Verdonk was enthousiastic about so many personal votes for her (about 620.000!). Should she take over the lead? Well, she did not firmly deny this suggestion anymore. In the past few months she consequently used to answer that Mark Rutte is the leader of the Liberal Party. Yesterday (27-11), she didn't do that. Instead, she answered that she would evaluate the current situation and come up with an answer later today. What will be her answer? (1) Claiming the leadership, which will cause an immediate crisis in the party or (2) accepting her second position, even when the voters have indicated something else. The problem of the 2nd scenario is that Rutte will have an authority problem within his own party. He is formally the leader, but everybody knows that the people prefer Verdonk instead of Rutte. Of course, there is also a third scenario: (3) Verdonk will leave politics and look for a job elsewhere. That way she can make a statement that she is not willing to play the runner up role in a situation where she actually is the winner. At the same time it creates space for Rutte to be the undisputed leader for the liberals. Rita is not there to undermine his leadership. Well, in my opinion if the VVD would take the 'D' (stands for Democrats) in their name seriously, they should listen to the voice of the voter. Neglecting the election result by saying 'I stay at my position because the member have elected me, no matter what' can be considered a form of disrespect to the voter. In any scenario, the result must feel pretty awkward for Rutte. Maybe, just maybe he will have lunch with Rita today. If he takes his responsibility seriously, he shoud leave. An electoral loss (both for the party and personally for him as a party leader) are two reasons that should convince him to leave. That would show true leadership.

Voting upsidedown om Nov. 22nd?

This rather ambigious title should not be interpreted literally of course, but refers to an initiative by BNN broadcast to vote for the candidate that is last (or almost last) on the candidate list of his/her politic party. In case you had the patience to follow the political debates on TV and radio and listen to the so-called leaders, you may have noticed that there is nothing new to be heard compared to the first statements they have made when the campaign started. Prime minister Balkenende is still bragging about the achievements he made during the past years, Bos wants the (rich) elderly to pay more taxes and Rutte wants to terminate all types of social income for young people of 27 and younger. So, a student who achieves his master degree by let's say 23 can't get a social income anymore until (s)he enters her/his first job. It's easy to say to either take education or to get a job. Else you won't have any income. The oneliners in which these young adults are literally called children who have to work on their personal development or else they will become social outcasts with no chances on the labour market are really too naive and shocking to hear. Wasn't it Mark Rutte himself who took 7 years to finish his study? Nowadays the students have to do it in 4, maybe 5 years. The political leaders strive for polarisation, using populistic oneliners, looking for as much conflict and disagreement with their opponents as possible, with the one and sole goal of gaining electoral advantage. Therefore, I support the upsidedown initiative (http://www.ondersteboven.nl/index.php). It's my true believe that the people who don't get all the media attention are still authentic in their ideas, their believes and their ambition to create a better society. Their discussions are still about the things that matter to us, to the citizens, and less about how to gain as much power as possible. It's just a matter of days (3 to be exactly) before the political leaders I am writing about, will 'forget' their promises in order to form a new coalition. Nevertheless, the elections do have an interesting aspect: the results may be more differentiated than ever, which will cause that a workable coalition will be difficult to form, if possible at all.

7 days till election day

It's only 7 days till election day for the Dutch parliament. Daily forecasts are displayed to us, politicians striving for as much time on television and radio as possible. Two weeks ago everything was set for a close finish ("too close to call") between our current prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende and coming man Wouter Bos from the social democrats (labour). The campaign started off with a radio debate in which Balkenende played an unusual tough battle. Bos was more or less crushed. Nevertheless, Bos kept his campaign in the direction in which his party (PvdA) would probably settle for a coalition with Balkenendes CDA (Christian Democrats). Looking at the current predictions this may have been a crucial mistake. A lot of citizens don't want the current coalition and/or their policy to continue for another 4 years. By stating that a coalition with CDA is the most preferable one, Bos has set for a course in which people believe that Balkenende will remain prime minister and therefore will be able to continue his current policy: voting for Bos means voting for Balkenende. Therefore a lot of voters seem to move further to the left (in the spectrum of politics) and found the Social Party (SP), led by Jan Marijnissen. Jan has an image to be a modest and honest politician, a guy you may want to drink a beer with. A politician who worked in the meat factories of Oss and who knows what it is not to be rich. Jan is hot at the moment, looking at a predicted number of 28 seats (compared to 9 seats the SP has at the moment). The fourth party that has pretentions to become part of the new cabinet are the liberal democrats (VVD). They - in my opinion - have a leadership problem: two leaders battling, and -which is worse- who have different visions about major issues. As a consequence the voters don't know where the VVD stands for and they tend to leave the VVD for an alternative. Finally, where do the democrats of D66 stand? From an inside view (my wife is involved, as she participates in the elections) I witness a rather modest campaign strategy. Alexander Pechtold does get some television time, but there is no movement in the number of predicted seats. They don't spread around posters to draw attention from the public. There seems to be a little trend upwards. I have a simple mathematic prediction. Twelve years ago D66 gained 24 seats, eight years ago they decreased to 12, four years ago to 6. So in my prediction would be that D66 will end up with 3 seats in 2006. I truly hope it will be more, they have a lot of good issues and ambition, especially in the field of education.

Achieving a black belt

Last week I achieved the 1st kub in taekwon-do, which is the last degree before you can take your exam for the degree of 1st Dan (black belt). If everything goes well, mentally and physically, it is expected that I can take the exam by May 2007. When I started in 2002 (almost 38 years old) I never thought I would be able to get a black belt (too old, no condition). I was always interested in Martial Arts, already in the days that David Carradine starred in the TV series Kung Fu. Sometimes I tried to imitate some of the techniques I had seen on television. I used to play tennis and badminton for a lot of years, but my left knee kept me more and more from being active in these sports. After both of my children became members of our local Taekwondo school I decided to participate myself instead of watching them from the sideline. I experienced that looking at Martial Arts is completely different from being an active sportsman yourself. My first 20 minutes in taekwondo were devistating. I was literally lying on the floor, gasping for oxygen. Nevertheless I went on, but was realistic enough to see that I could not participate in sparring competition anymore in which I might have to compete guys of 20. My focus therefore is more on the technical part of taekwondo. In the past years I got my D and C license as a taekwondo referee, so I can have my contribution in a completely different, but still challenging way. So my sports ambition for 2007 is clear: getting a 1st Dan degree at the age of 43. Besides my own ambition this exam has a special personal touch, because my 13 year old son will probably take his 1st Dan exam on the very same day. I think it will be a unique achievement when a father and son can reach this milestone on the same day. Hopefully it will be a great experience in which we will both succeed. Whatever the outcome, I'm sure it will be a day that I'll remember for the rest of my life.