Vorming en scholing in politieke partijen
Dear Friends,
First of all, I should start by thanking VVD for offering us the opportunity to meet here and discuss these very important issues. As you know, VVD has organised seminars like these before. Last year we were in The Hague to discuss "The Perfect Candidate". VVD sponsors many activities in Central and Eastern Europe and in most cases they kindly involve Liberal International.
I am myself a member of VVD -and proudly so- but I am speaking to you today as Secretary General of Liberal International. Liberal International is the worldwide federation of liberal parties and now has 89 members on 6 continents. We are a platform for networking and exchange of information, an arena for debate on political issues of international relevance. We are also a "clearing house" for liberal parties. If you belong to Liberal International, you can honestly and proudly say that you are a liberal party. Our most recent activity was a large congress on Free Trade -some of you were there- in Canada 3 weeks ago.
The first thing I asked myself when preparing for this event is if there really is an international dimension to training for politicians and political activists. I think there is. Although all our national situations are different there is still a lot we can learn from each other about how to do things and how not to do them. We have all developed tools and techniques that can be applied in other countries by other parties.
Last year I was in a Central American country and the local liberal party invited me to visit their training centre. We discussed the courses they offered and the way they organised them. They were -and are- doing admirable work. With hardly any financial means, they had persuaded someone to make an unused building available. Using mostly volunteers, they repaired and decorated the building and started organising courses.
However, it appeared they had put little thought into what kind of training was actually needed, and for whom. There were too many political science and law students learning to quote John Locke, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and assorted other liberal thinkers and too few party activists learning practical skill.
I played a small role playing game with them. Suppose I am an average voting citizen. I walk by you in your Liberal Party T-shirt, turn to you and ask "So why would I vote for your party?". None of those present, student or trainer, could answer this question in a clear and concise manner. Locke, Smith and Stuart Mill just will not do in this case. What is needed is ready knowledge of the achievements of your party whether in government or opposition. If there are no achievements, you should probably make something up that sounds like an achievement.
I do not mean to poke fun at this party because it has achieved a lot. They hold an absolute majority and govern alone, something that none of us has achieved yet. And in terms of training they had made a lot of progress and continue to make progress. But it was an example that I found quite striking.
Another memory that came to mind was at least two countries that I visited where liberal foundations published beautiful magazines. Hundreds of pages of deep liberal thought but with print runs in the thousands. Great stuff for people like you and me, people that are interested in politics and political theory, but completely useless as a propaganda tool.
In the past ten years I have visited many liberal parties. Visiting their offices and attending their activities has left me with a number of observations and memories that may be useful to you so I will conclude this short speech by sharing those with you.
1. Ideology it lots of fun. We all like to discuss the finer point of Liberalism and if I ever find one of these 32 hour a week jobs that all my friends seem to have I will spend a lot more time reading all those liberal thinkers I mentioned earlier. Ideology is the essential basis of our party and it should be part of the training programmes of all our parties. As long as it doesn't stop there.
2. On the other hand, some parties appear to lose sight of ideology completely and their politicians become indistinguishable from conservatives or socialists. This cannot be good either.
3. Make sure that the members of your parties, the men and women that go on the street to hand out leaflets and speak with voters have the skills and knowledge they need. You cannot turn just anyone into a great debater, but everyone can learn basic skills and techniques that are extremely useful. As for knowledge, you should make sure that everyone that does appear in public can sum up the achievements of your party in the middle of the night, blindfolded, with their hands tied behind their backs.
4. Experience gets lost too often. One guy learns about working in a local council by doing it for 20 years and then retires and walks away. Other people may have professional experience that is useful for your party. Make sure that you have mechanism, publications and institutions that will collect and nourish such experience and make it available to newcomers.
5. Do not forgot that the possibility to learn can in itself make your party attractive. If people can learn skills and techniques they can also use elsewhere, for example at work, they will be grateful for that and it might be an extra reason to get involved in your party.
6. Finally: Make No Exceptions. Sometimes people that have been around for a bit longer start thinking they know everything, look brilliant on television, and are debaters pur sang. Most likely, they are overestimating themselves. Force them to keep learning.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, I hope you found my few observations useful and wish you a successful conference.
Thank you for your attention.
Remarks by Jan Weijers, Secretary General of Liberal International at the occasion of the VVD International Seminar "The Value of Successful Training: Human Resource Management in Modern Political Parties", 17-18 November 2000, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
