Have lidmaatschaap, go to the congres

Easy to write about the hot moments of the congress, and its results. Actually, lazy as i am, that is what I intend to do. But hey, for the record: That was a hell of a long congress. And unneeded.

GL can do better. There is no way that some 500 persons can reasonably evaluate several hundreds of amendments, and produce a well thought group of 25 candidates for the TK. In a weekend we decided what will be the line of the party in the next four years, and who are the persons that will carry this line to reality... or change it, if they think needed.

I'm not in favour for letting this work to a commission, but neither to four hours of amendment day and some twelve hours of congress. A party like ours needs, desperately, a level of internal discussion that we do not have, yet. Congress should confirm the results of what we have been discussing. And let's be honest: there is lot of disagreement over Vrijheid Eerlijk Delen. But there are no alternatives. In my opinion we are not a party of ideas. We are a party with a TK fractie that has (good) ideas. And with a not-organized internal opposition.

Anyway. Lets mention high and low moments of the congress.

Lame speeches
Kees Vendrik, the snake charmer
Bart Snels and the big blush
Nieuwkomers I: Tofik and Arno
Nieuwkomers II: Mariko and Fara
Not yet the time of the blogosphere for GL
Martijn, bitten by the snake
Henrieke, one blunder and that was it?
And last: a (very badly presented) motie from the Kleurrijk Platform

Lame speeches

Let's start disagreeing with the whole GL blogosphere: The speeches of Femke and Henk were predictable and lame. We clap and clap just because we know those ideas for long time, and they play to our own egos. Cookies from our own dough. No challenge (besides the: we need you for a good campaign) to the party, no (new) challenge to the country. If we admire Blair and Churchil (as speakers) is due to their ability to challenge and win people in a speech. Nothing like that from our leaders.

Kees Vendrik, the snake charmer

Well, without speech Kees did just what big leaders do. If there is something that has received huge amount of criticism inside GL, that is the whole set of ideas that he defended along the two days of congress. Kees against the hall. And still, we love him. His charm won over the congress again and again. There was no amendment that he did really argue against, that went through. That second place in the list is hugely deserved. For me, he could get it only due to his intellect. But in GL, he has it also due to his huge capacity of stay lovely under fire.

Bart Snels and the big blush

To my regret, Bart still has to learn from Kees. He tried to defend the idea of a new city in the Bollenstreek. But hey, wrong choice of words. Bart idea? Perfect. If we already vote for building 400000 houses... why not to build them together in a new and inspiring, ecological and innovative place? But when Bart used the words “let's build a big project” all alarms of groenlinksers rang, and he was booed. Red like a tomato, there was no more arguing left in Bart. Too bad. Too bad for groenlinks, I think. We need more ideas from Bart, but Bart needs more media training. Actually this issue goes further than good ideas and their defenders. In the congress it looked like the programma commissie did not look for the support of the people that lives in the area. Now... Ideas are good, but support from our own members is better...

Nieuwkomers I: Tofik and Arno

The first blunder. The promising kutmarokan choosed Arno Bonte to support him. True to form, Arno started saying that he was going to argue for a person that he meet a day before. Was that the reason that Tofik did not get a higher place? Probably.

Nieuwkomers II: Mariko and Fara

Contrastingly enough, the discomfort on Mariko was fully appeased when Fara Karimi argued for her. Fara is surely not the most popular kamerlid in GL, but she has done lots of work, and has a respectable and respected trajectory in the party. That was the approved seal that Mariko needed, and she got it.


Not yet the time of the blogosphere for GL

In other countries, and in other left wing parties, what bloggers say, goes. Think in Segolene Royal. Not so in Groenlinks. Is it that most groenlinksers do not read blogs... yet? Maybe. In any case, the lists that bloggers almost unanimously supported, failed to become true. Will that change in the future of groenlinks? That is something to be seen. We need more and better blogging. Or so I think.

Martijn, the snake bites back

Here, the uber candidate of the blogosphere. And what happened? Martijn has none of my preference, since he failed to support initiatives of party members that touched his area, in several crucial moments. Martijn is not the person to make GL grow. But never you mind my extreme and biased opinion. Few people had the respectable trajectory of Martijn inside GL, at his age. What happened? Well, a clumsy arguing of amendments surely did not help him. His prettiest blunder was to insult the congress of (cosmopolitan and internationally engaged) GL, asking if we -really- did know the Non Proliferation Treaty. That was far too arrogant, and the snake bite back. No Martijn for the TK.

Henrike, one blunder and that was it?

Henrike, Henrike, what happened? In the few times that I had contact with Henrike, she came across as nice, charming and engaged. Critical too. Perhaps the winning of Mariko put her out, moreover when the Europa werkgroep tried to sold Mariko, Martijn and Henrike as pieces of the same package. Groenlinksers might have thought that one internationalist in the list is enough (probably right thinking). But in my own (biased) opinion, Henrike did not help herself handling so clumsily the Kleuriijk Platform motie. If the congress agree to discuss a motie, and vote about it, the congress agrees that the result of the voting will have consequences. Henrike started arguing against the motie from the Kleurrijk Platform saying that it was out of order. Not for her to say, and quite arrogant too. Was that the moment that put her out of the race? Hard to say, but harder to dismiss.

And last: a (very badly presented) motie from the Kleurrijk Platform

Now, finally I came to the podium and defended a motie that intended to re-arrange the program to give more emphasize to our multicultural standpoints. In my opinion is just too bad that groenlinks does not dare to speak out her ideas on integration on a program. No wonder why allochtonen do not vote for us. But hey, I surely did not do any good to this cause with the way that I presented the motie to the congress. Mangled dutch (I should take seriously the poster that Femke flags in her car), loose oversight of the time and too long sentences. But lets be fair. The partijbestuur, or the congress presidium, were really, really incorrect . The motie, send in due time, and according to all rules of the game, was placed out of the program discussion. But it was about the program! It was the unique attempt of the party bases to change the visie part of the program. We, Kleurrijk Platform, could not do that with amendments (rightly so), because the rules of the game allowed only moties to do that. So we did. But the congress chairman declared the program discussion closed, and brought the program to vote before our motie was discussed. Very wrong. Even the NOS Journal camera caught me booing the presidium from the side (a thing that I would try not to repeat, but I was really piss off).

But hey. Shit happens. Motie or not, amendments or not... we do have a really nice program. And i am also enthusiastic with the candidates. So now... for something completely different!

Campaign!!