Toespraak Knapen - onthulling standbeeld van Nelson Mandela, Den Haag, 25 September 2012 (in Engels)

Toespraak | 25-09-2012

Archbishop Tutu, Ambassador Goosen, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Unfortunately Prime Minister Rutte cannot be here today because of obligations in Parliament. He asked me to say how sorry he is to miss this occasion. But I am delighted to represent him.

Today we honour a man who is a legend in his own lifetime.

When Nelson Mandela paid a State visit to our country as president of South Africa in 1999, he spoke warmly of the ‘tumultuous welcome’ he was given on his first visit. This was almost a decade earlier, soon after his release from Robben Island in 1990. It was a very brief visit. But the enthusiasm of the public was enormous. You might almost say ‘un-Dutch’.

Mr Mandela later said of that first visit, ‘The Netherlands had to be one of the first countries we visited. How could it have been otherwise?’

I am proud today to cite those words. South Africa and the Netherlands have a special bond. We share a long complicated history. Many people in the Netherlands supported the fight against apartheid. They did so out of principle, from a conviction that discrimination, inequality and injustice are unacceptable – in any country, under any economic or political system, under any condition. This is what brought Nelson Mandela to the Netherlands so soon after he was freed. That was over twenty years ago, and a lot has changed in those years. But the close friendship and special connection between South Africa and the Netherlands are stronger than ever.

The man we honour today with a statue is in a class of his own. And I speak from personal experience. In January 1991, I had an unplanned conversation with Nelson Mandela at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Mr Mandela was there to learn how South Africa could redistribute its wealth without adopting communism – which of course had just become a totally outdated concept.

He and I ran into each other in the buffet line, and kept talking as we found a small table for two. During our conversation more and more presidents and prime ministers crowded round. There was some pushing and shoving as they tried to join us or even take my place at the table. I started to feel uncomfortable. But not Nelson Mandela. Seemingly oblivious to all the famous bystanders he concentrated on his conversation with me, an unknown newspaper editor from the Netherlands, for more than an hour. He asked me everything I knew about the former German Democratic Republic. His sincerity and his total indifference to glamour impressed me more than anything else. Not only his biography, but also this one personal experience showed me a man who is larger than life.

One image of Mandela seems engraved in the collective memory of humanity. We all know it, from the day he became a free man on 11 February 1990. Mr Mandela’s raised fist next to his open, smiling face. The dancing, singing crowds in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

From that historic moment, Nelson Mandela quickly became an example and an inspiration for many more people. He is passionate, but also gentle and wise. A fighter, but also someone who reconciles people and brings them together. Decisive, but with an eye for human frailty. An idealist, certainly. But also a pragmatist, who thinks not in terms of problems but of solutions. Even after 27 years of prison and hardship, only one thing counted for President Mandela: creating a democratic, prosperous future for all the people of the new South Africa. This combination of humanity and unique statesmanship made his true greatness manifest for the entire world.

I am delighted that the people who launched this project have succeeded in reaching their goal. And especially delighted that the statue will be here in The Hague, the international city of peace and justice. I would like to congratulate and commend them on their achievement. Almost twice life size, this statue does justice to Mr Mandela’s character and to the magnitude of his personality. At the same time, it reminds us of his struggle for freedom, justice and democracy in South Africa. The same struggle that people are waging today in Syria and other countries around the world.

So this statue not only honours Nelson Mandela’s great and selfless efforts on behalf of human dignity; it also represents an enduring challenge for us all. Because, as Mr Mandela himself once wrote, ‘to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.’

Thank you.