THE NETHERLANDS: A COUNTRY SEARCHING FOR ITS TRUE COLOR

Today’s Zaman
March 3 2010
Turkey

"Either appear as you are, or be as you look." Mevlana

"Be what you would seem to be, or if you’d like it put more simply:
Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might
appear to others that what you were or might have been was not
otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to
be otherwise." Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland" The political
realities of the Netherlands make single-party governments nearly
impossible in this small country, so coalition governments are
common. The current political kaleidoscope is waiting to find its
true colors following the collapse of the government after the Dutch
Labour Party (PvdA) pulled out of the current three-party coalition,
precipitating early general elections on June 9, 2010.

On the surface, the course of events leading to the collapse of
the government followed an acrimonious dispute over extending the
Dutch mission in Afghanistan. PvdA political leader and Deputy Prime
Minister Wouter Bos decided to present the resignations of his party’s
12 ministers early on Saturday, Feb. 19. The two sides, the Christian
Democratic Appeal (CDA), the larger partner in the coalition, and the
PvdA had fiercely accused each other of misunderstanding the other’s
stance on the Dutch military mission in Afghanistan. The previous
government had narrowly decided in favor of the deployment of troops
in Afghanistan in 2006. Support to extend it in 2008 was only given on
the condition the mission would end in 2010. This compromise was then
supported by all political parties represented in the Tweede Kamer
(the Dutch House of Representatives).

In the aftermath of the government’s collapse, Prime Minister Jan
Peter Balkenende, CDA, openly accused the PvdA leader "of damaging
the Netherlands’ reputation abroad." It was "not responsible" of the
party to say it was not prepared to discuss NATO’s formal request to
the Netherlands to stay in Afghanistan for another year, he said. In
one way, Mr. Balkenende seems to be right in his accusation when the
official statement of the US government is considered, indicating
that the US vice president had spoken to Dutch Deputy Prime Minister
Bos, thanking him for the important Dutch contributions to security
and development goals in Afghanistan, along with the US’s desire to
continue its consultations as the alliance moves toward implementing
its shared strategy in Afghanistan. But when the Dutch government
received the official letter from NATO asking to the government to
extend its mission in Afghanistan, Mr. Bos vehemently declared to the
public that he was unaware of the expectation. Many political experts
claim that it is almost impossible for a deputy prime minister to be
unaware of such a sensitive development.

The PvdA’s leadership problem

There has been controversy over Mr. Bos’ leadership ever since he
took over as party leader — doubts that are even shared by the PvdA’s
inner circle. Mr. Bos’ style and ability to run such a well-established
party has caused some to worry. His lack of leadership has brought the
party some historic general election defeats. The only exception was
the party’s success in the latest local elections in which the PvdA
was strong in general. An example of his leadership style relates to
Turkey and voters of Turkish origin.

In the last general election in 2006, when the so-called Armenian
genocide issue erupted in the Netherlands, the party disqualified
its three Turkish candidates from the list on the basis that these
Turkish-Dutch people did not acknowledge the so-called genocide. The
other Turkish candidate, second on the list to Mr. Bos, was put in a
very tricky position. The uproar this caused in the Turkish community,
which constitutes the party’s largest group of ethnic voters, did
not seem to be a problem for Bos who declared that "he did not need
these votes." The result was so dramatic that the party seemed to
lose this important source of votes completely.

According to the latest official figures, the country has witnessed
the worst economic downturn since 1931. Mr. Bos has been the finance
minister for the last three years and this may be the reason why he
so loudly retreated from government blaming tricky matters of foreign
policy. He put the concerns of war and peace in such a way that there
is little room for maneuver left with such idealistic human behavior.

There is no doubt his popularity has increased slightly but the
cost of this political trick will have a huge negative effect on the
Netherlands. In the NATO mission in Afghanistan the Netherlands became
the first country to withdraw from its allies, especially the biggest
player in the international community, the US. And there is great
concern from the US that other countries could now follow the bad
Dutch example. It looks like the PvdA has sacrificed the Netherlands’
promise to NATO because of the short-sightedness of a weak leader.

The rules of the game Mr. Bos is playing right now include some
questions as he has tried to secure the future of his party. Although
he might be accused of not regarding an old principle of international
law — pacta sunt servanda — expressing the idea that treaties are
to be observed, he has already proved himself on another venerable
principle — clausula rebus sic stantibus — which suggests that
circumstances may change as to render a treaty inoperative. If you
take politics as an open-ended race and consider that obtaining as
many votes as possible through elections as among one of the main
objectives, Mr. Bos can be seen as a good example of a politician
but not a statesman.

In addition to the leadership problem, he has decided not to take
a seat in parliament until the next election in order to get more
understanding of the different ideas in society and to concentrate his
efforts on the coming elections. His party will not be represented
in both parliament and the cabinet with a strong leader until the
new parliament. Another important point is the party’s number two
in the last general election, Turkish-Dutch Ms. Nebahat Albayrak has
also said she has yet to decide whether she will stand as a member of
parliament in the election. This means the country’s top two social
democrats are concentrating their efforts on local elections.

*Kaan Kutlu Atac is an international security analyst.