Toespraak Ben Knapen NIMD 16 april 2012 (in Engels)

Toespraak | 17-04-2012

Speech by the Minister of European Affairs and International Cooperation, Ben Knapen, at the NIMD Partnership Days, 16 April 2012, The Hague

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Sixty-five years ago, the French writer Albert Camus published his classic novel The Plague.  This book about the coming of the plague to the Algerian city of Oran is widely considered to be an allegory. According to some, its primary target is fascism; others think that it is aimed at dogma, conformity, compliance and cowardice in general.

At any rate, The Plague is a plea for vigilance, as the closing sentence of the book clearly shows: ‘The plague bacillus never dies or vanishes entirely... it can remain dormant for dozens of years in furniture or clothing... it waits patiently in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, handkerchiefs and old papers, and perhaps the day will come when, for the instruction or misfortune of mankind, the plague will rouse its rats and send them to die in some well-contented city.’

In today’s The Hague, whether a ‘well-contented city’ or not, Camus’ fierce warning is still very timely. We should always be mindful of threats to an open society, always watch out for the decline of democracy. European history compels us to be alert and requires us to be humble. Our democracy was hard-earned by previous generations. We are merely the stewards of this heritage. So it is our obligation to preserve, pass on and promote democracy, without ever losing our humility.

The Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy stands firmly in this tradition, backing young democracies. I am proud to be supporting the Institute with a grant of more than 30 million euros over the next four years. After a radical remodelling and reorganisation, the new and improved NIMD is well equipped to bolster political parties and multiparty dialogue, to improve relations between civil society and the political sphere, and to strengthen international networks.

Of course, it’s no coincidence that I should want to support NIMD ─ Its work and my new development policy are a perfect fit. The guiding principles of my policy are the Millennium Development Goals and global public goods ─ in the sense of international issues like  migration and climate change. For progress, economic growth is of course crucial. Only growth can help people to help themselves. And clearly, our end goal must be self-reliance for people in developing countries. That’s why we strive to foster a stronger private sector in such countries.

To maximise our efficiency and impact, we focus on four areas in which the Dutch have long-standing expertise. First: food security. Second: water. Third: sexual health and gender. And fourth: security and the rule of law in fragile states. Democracy and the rule of law play an important role in all four priorities.

Aside from these priorities, my policy addresses cross-cutting themes like good governance. Naturally, promoting democracy is a part of that. So I hardly need explain why supporting NIMD makes good sense.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Partnership Days are a platform for NIMD and its partners to share experiences and evaluate their relationships. The ultimate goal is to define the main priorities and challenges for the years ahead.

In this light, please allow me to make five brief points about NIMD’s work. First, I believe that the local context should always be the starting-point for your efforts. There can be no real development without local ownership. That said, local politicians and parties for their part should be open to new developments, like the emergence of social media networks and the political emancipation of women. Linking the political sphere and civil society is crucial for creating more substantial political programmes ─ ones that truly connect with voters and promote the creation of democratic checks and balances.

My second point concerns the importance of cooperation between young democracies themselves. In my view, the NIMD should encourage cooperation in general, and peer-to-peer learning in particular. There are already several good examples: the talks between Ghana and Mali on the creation of an independent electoral college, between Georgia and Guatemala on security sector reform, and ─ most recently ─ between Indonesia and Egypt on establishing Schools for Democracy. Through NIMD, Dutch politicians are involved in getting these schools off the ground. This clearly shows the organisation’s added value.

This brings me to my third point. Obviously, promoting democracy is too big a challenge for one country alone. More international leverage is needed, for a start within the European Union. My country recognises the importance of the European Neighbourhood Policy, the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights, and the EU Agenda for Action on Democracy Support. In my view, international cooperation is crucial for both efficiency and effectiveness. That goes for states as well as for organisations like NIMD.  I am very pleased to see that NIMD is now working closely with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, and the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa. And I sincerely hope that more international collaboration will take root in the near future.

My fourth point is about the need for context sensitivity. Being a frequent flyer to so many different developing countries, I have come to realise that democracy and traditional structures often co-exist. Take the area of food security. In large parts of Africa, democratic institutions have neither the power nor the means to take over the role played by traditional leaders in land-ownership issues. In other words: if we want our food security interventions to be successful, we need to know how parallel structures of governance are linked. In my view, this type of context sensitivity is crucial for NIMD’s effectiveness in promoting democracy.

My fifth and final point is about NIMD’s governance structure. Alongside the Director of NIMD, a Supervisory Board and an Advisory Council have been installed. As I said in Parliament last year, I very much value the independence of the Supervisory Board. This means that no one with a mandate or acting on behalf of a political party can become a member of the Board. However, representatives of political parties are welcome to participate in the Advisory Council, which advises NIMD on its long-term strategy.

Ladies and gentlemen, European history has taught us that democracy is not a clean-cut, linear process. There is always a chance that, in the words of Camus, a plague will come to some well-contented city. Or that a young democracy will die before it can fulfil its promise of freedom and prosperity.

Last month I was in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen. I heard rumours that al Qa’ida was planning an attack on the city. I heard pleas for the separation of north and south. I saw how the country was suffering from fundamentalism; how central authority was quickly disintegrating; how problems with basic services like electricity and water affected people’s daily lives. And I spoke to the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Tawakkol Karman about the legacy of Ali Abdullah Saleh’s dictatorship. She expressed her concerns about the draft legislation on transitional justice, which in her eyes is aimed more at revenge than at reconciliation.

Despite these problems, the people of Yemen have high hopes, just like the citizens of other emerging democracies. These real hopes of real people justify the existence of a Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy.

Obviously, any new democracy will be different from ours. In my last year as a journalist in Indonesia, for example, I met with the renowned author Kishore Mahbubani. He told me that Asia will not simply reproduce Western-style democracies. Instead, he foresaw a fusion of Asian values and Western democracy. I tend to agree with Mahbubani on this point. But the principle that the people scrutinise their government is at the root of every democracy, whether in Europa or elsewhere.

If NIMD succeeds in promoting democratic freedoms without taking the moral high ground, it can help make the world a better place for us all.

Good luck and thank you for your attention.