Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

In the presence of many international partners and members of the Dutch political society the new President Dr Ben Bot expressed his deepest appreciation to his predecessor Prof Dr Jos Van Kemenade for the work he has done during his presidency from 2002 to June 2007.


Easing opposing views
Under his leadership the "toddler NIMD grew up and is now a strong young man" said Mr Bot. In the past five years Mr Van Kemenade has lead several NIMD missions to Indonesia (2002) Suriname (2003), Ghana and South Africa (2004). In 2005, when the organisation was externally evaluated, Mr Van Kemenade was actively engaged in the implementation of the recommendations of this evaluation.

Mr Bot thanked his predecessor for his enthusiasm and sense of humour, which enabled him to bring people from different backgrounds together and to ease opposing views. Looking back at the presidency of Mr Van Kemenade Mr Bot said he felt very fortunate to build upon the valuable legacy of his predecessor: "If you can stand on the shoulders of a giant you can look into the future with a clear eye."


Drifting voters

On the occasion of Mr Van Kemenade’s farewell NIMD hosted a debate between politicians of six Dutch parties about the current challenges to political parties in the Netherlands. The participants, representing the ruling parties CDA, PVDA and CU and opposition parties GreenLeft, VVD and SGP crossed swords about public distrust in politicians, the shifting electorate in the last elections and the rise of populism in politics.

Contrary to the often negative qualifications to these developments Mr Ruud Koole (Social Democrats – PVDA) argued for a different perspective, "Changing your political preferences is not necessarily a bad thing. It means that people are conscious about their vote. This is a good thing for democracy."

Mrs Esmé Wiegman (Christian Union) added that some politicians are pre-occupied with trying to serve all the different – and sometimes opposing - demands from the electorate rather than using their ideological background as a guiding principle to react upon public demands. "It is not the voter who is adrift, but the politician."

The debate made clear that both an established democracy such as The Netherlands as well as young democracies abroad are never finished. Democracy is a continuous work in progress: the system – and its key players the political parties – will always be challenged by shifting circumstances, needs and expectations of the population.

The farewell to Mr Van Kemenade took place during the NIMD Partnership Days, which brought together 55 representatives of NIMD partner organisations from Africa, Latin America, Indonesia and Georgia to discuss NIMD’s policy and planned activities for the next four years.