Self control by politicians. They claim to do it. In the Dutch first chamber there are members who have double hats as they call it.

They have plenty of time because strangely enough these high responsible jobs can be done parttime.  In order to have a reasonable income you apparently have to do something extra. Reasonable in their opinion. Mostly it is working on a high level in boards of companies and that kind of stuff. Against a nice salary. These companies have also interests of course.

Its likely that there can occur a conflict of interests. The political role versus the director or manager role. A Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde problem so to say. Wise people would say: you have an entanglement of interests. You are not allowed to vote on this matter. We even prohibit it by law.

But apparantly there are no wise people. They have made some rules but not law for themselves and that gives them excuses. Excuses so in some cases they vote on their own doings. Or the doings of companies they are involved in and or responsible for.

Honesty , fairness , ethics and self reflection is not really in their dictionary.

Democracy is on the line here I would say. There are some changes needed here that will restore the faith of people in their government.

I have a few suggestions.

First would be. Running a government should be done professionally and than parttime is not the best option.

Second one. Two hats are a no way option. Ever!

Third. Change the politicians in the dutch first chamber. They are doing it because they are favoured by the political parties. I would make it like the american trial by jury system. Per period of a year or half a year I suggest to pull up citizins by lottery and let them decide per law. Of course they will get the appropiate information from objective specialists in order to form a good judgement. In this way lobbies from multinationals are not possible. The kartel of the political parties in the second chamber is more or less broken as well. Bad law will just come back and needs to be changed or not accepted. Maybe we can even “delete” the so called Raad van State. Appointed and chaired by the King or Queen.

Fourth. There needs to be a sign on the contract so to say. So a referendum for which everybody is obliged to vote with a majority of the votes.

Without structural changes real democracy will be lost behind the horizon.

It is time to make things right.

Last week the government was in the middle of Prinsjesdag. On that day the King of Holland performed the Troonrede. After that the Minister of Finance presented his Koffertje with the Miljoenen Nota and Rijksbegroting. In the day’s after there was the possibility to talk and discuss about those two by the members/politicians of the Tweede Kamer (/Second Chamber).

The political party leaders could give their opinion and comments on that. Debate , bring in motions and that kind of stuff. Needless to say that everything was already decided in the several political backrooms that are in The Hague. The government has the majority so the only thing they need to do is bring a nice good story that the voters will believe and not run away later. The opposition is trying to show that things are not good. Showing the people that they are fighting for them. And in a lot of cases it is not good indeed. But the real power is provided by the people at the point of elections.

So this is a game of make believe that they are pulling of. We show some nice things for the coming year. As we did last year. The fact that that did not happen we will keep quiet. It works every time for the people. Show them a nice fantasy and they will forget that the one from last year was a lie as well.

In the discussion however there was somebody , Thierry Baudet , new. Not a the politician party who has my support. But on one point he is very right. The political system in Holland is a kartel. He was disrespectfully laughed at and riduculed by almost all the politicians.

The politicalsystem is not open. They give each others jobs. They are only loyal to their party. Do they represent the people. They say so. But if I ask them: Can I sit there for a while?? They will say: Wowww , that is something which you can not handle. Just give me your vote. All will be fine. My answer will be: But you don’t know my context. What I will feel. How I think. I have a voice. Should I give you a signature on a contract that has not been written yet. Do you think I am stupid. Just because you guys arranged it so this is the only way? Don’t think so.

So if a politician dares to say that our current system is the highest form of Democracy I would tell him. Not , not by far.

Last week we had in Holland elections for the gemeente. Its a dutch word which can be translated in townships. A moment to vote for the local person from a political party who should be guarding and handling your interests.

Strangely the national parties where doing mostly the campaign. Awkward because I can not vote on them. Also I was thinking are the local people not doing stuff on their own authority. Apparantly not.

Also I was mostly hearing all kinds of oneliners. No complete context or vision which we should go for. Just handling problems and thats it. That is not politics! Its just management. Nothing more.

Can imagine that people are not listening anymore. Not voting anymore. You can see it also  because only 55% of the people who could vote did do it. 45% did not vote. That is almost a majority.

To my surprise the politician and their parties where celebrating their victories if they did win one or more “zetels” in a place. I would be more modest. Because only a little more that half of the people did vote. There is a hardly a mandate to consider yourselve  as the one who can really represent the people.

At the moment democracy is loosing and they are not even unhappy about. They are just continuing without any self reflection. This is not a real democracy. They are keeping up the appearance. Its high time for a real chance.

A famous tennis player once said: you can not be serious.

But I can now and have to say: I am dead serious.

In our , so Dutch , politics there is quite some discussions on the referendum at the moment.

There have been quite a view so far. The political party , D66 , did have it within the basis of their founding. They did see that political parties are a little blind sided for the real voice of the people and how politics can squeeze things that really matter. Now they have strangely voted against it although in first instance they even pursued the motion.

They are now hiding themselves behind the fact that international treaties should not be involved in a referendum. Not a nice and strange reasoning to withdraw their support.

A referendum could be an option to hear the voice of the people. It could be binding or non binding. It could give a sign if the politicians are still in line with what the people really think.

There could be some arguments against a referendum. There are some good one by the way.

First could be that they do not have the right information to make a good judgement. Also they need time to think about it.

Second could be that only voters against will let hear their voice in a referendum. So a minority get all the attention and that is not fair.

Third one is they can only say yes or no. So a feedback mechanism is not an option.

For a non binding one it could be that a minority speaks out a yes or a no. But for a binding one it would need more than 50 percent of all the voters in my opinion. So in case of 15 million voters there should be at least 7.5 million + 1. In order to have a fair referendum it also should be mandatory and not a free choice.

If the people than disapprove the politicians should go back to the drawing board. Politicians will in this way also be more careful and really listen to the people.

There is even a better way to use the voice of the people in governing a country. That would be to ask the people by lottery to make their own proposals instead of politicians doing it for them. They need guidance from specialists and information of course. But we could do without politics in a lot of cases.

In all honesty politicians are similar to the old aristocracy. They are established and take really good care of themselves but are only using our votes for their own purposes.

Some call it a cartel. They are right by the way. A referendum could control their power but I think we need to do more.

We need to give the power back to the people and go for a governing of the country by the people through lottery. As David Van Reybrouck mentioned in his book , Against Elections , elections are the most undemocratic form of Democracy.