Roundtable on Multiparty Democracy with Bernard R. Bot

President of the Netherlands Institute of Multiparty Democracy

May 28th, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. in Ottawa at the Crowne Plaza Ottawa Hotel

Presented by Rights & Democracy and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ottawa.

After a warm welcome to Mr. Bot and all distinguished guests by Jean-Paul Hubert (interim President of Rights & Democracy), Karel P.M. de Beer (Netherlands Ambassador) and Razmik Panossian (Programmes Director of Rights & Democracy and the moderator of the Roundtable), Mr. Bot spoke about the work of the Netherlands Institute of Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) followed by an engaging question and answer period.

Highlights of Mr. Bot’s Presentation

Background on NIMD

D was founded in 2000. Since then, it has undertaken activities in 17 countries on four different continents. The institute was set up by seven political parties in the Netherlands and functions independently from the Dutch government. NIMD is a democracy assistance organization of political parties in The Netherlands for political parties in young democracies. NIMD is primarily funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Development Cooperation.

NIMD has been mandated to:

• Improve the functioning of multiparty political systems
• Developl and support political parties to enhance their effectiveness
• Strengthen Relationship between political parties and civil society which is often neglected or ignored in young democracies.

Essential elements of NIMD’s involvement include the following characteristics:

• Local ownership – democracy only works if it is implemented through local ownership. Outsiders cannot impose a (Western) style of democracy. NIMD contributes to the establishment of a platform or dialogue space which can be used by political parties to discuss their problems and come up with their own solutions. Parties are invited to participate but it is up to them to develop their own strategies.
• Non-interference in internal affairs of other states – NIMD can work effectively only if its activities are based on the notion of non-partisanship and non-interference.
• Inclusiveness – all political parties represented in parliament should be included in the process. NIMD facilitates the process through mediation, funding and assistance with the implementation of approaches as developed by local political parties.
• Not time bound – democratization requires time. Initiatives are only effective if they are not time bound; i.e. developed on a long term basis. Individual countries have to decide how much time is required.

NIMD is active in countries to which the Netherlands also gives development assistance. Indeed, democracy promotion and development assistance go hand in hand. Also, NIMD has to be invited by the country involved.

NIMD acts as a liaison to other international partners. For example, in case an NIMD program is successful, another organization such as OECD or UNDP may be called upon to provide additional funds to extend the program. In addition, cooperation with other international partners and coordination of the various efforts is one of the reasons a pan-European institute for political party development was set up just a few month ago.

NIMD’s Approach

Generally, NIMD sets up a center for multiparty democracy in the country concerned. A local director is appointed to lead the centre and s/he is provided with a small staff. The purpose of these local centers is to get leaders of the political parties or other stakeholders in the political process around the same table to discuss pertinent issues and address their differences.

A second aspect of NIMD’s approach is more bottom up. For instance in Indonesia, NIMD aims to set up a national platform in the capital while democracy schools are established in various regions of the country. These schools offer year-long courses for young (and potential) politicians. All courses are developed and taught by Indonesian teachers with the assistance of NIMD. Upon completion of the courses, students successfully participate in political processes, becoming valuable assets to their respective political parties. In Indonesia, the program has been so successful that NIMD has been invited by the national government to set up additional schools.

In 11 of the 17 countries in which NIMD is involved, its involvement is deemed successful. In these countries the concept of multi-party democracy is gaining ground. Thus far, experience has shown that NIMD is well received in most countries and many political parties involved see the institute as independent from the Dutch government making it all the more effective.

Lessons Learned: Answers to Questions from the Audience

Democracy Schools

Part of the success of the democracy schools is the way they deal with engrained problems such as the lack of democracy within political parties. Although such problems are acknowledged, the fact that young politicians are specifically targeted by the democracy schools means that people not yet well established within the traditional system of politics come to understand the value of a true multi-party democracy.

Modesty

Modesty is the key word to describe many of NIMD’s efforts and goals. By doing less initiatives it can often be more successful. NIMD would prefer to expand its efforts to include more countries than to intensify its efforts in a particular country. Problems such as corruption or lack of democracy within political parties are not up to NIMD to completely eradicate. The institute cannot fight all evils in the world. NIMD is a very modest organization, small steps are taken at a time. Democratic shortcoming such as corruption can only be minimized through teaching by example which highlights the importance of teaching young politicians.

Importance of the Principle of Non-interference

NIMD does not interfere with local ideas or approaches about democracy in the sense that local stakeholders are not pushed towards a certain philosophy or form of democracy. NIMD merely facilitates local initiatives and it is recognized that there are different paths towards democratization and different forms of democracy.

Adherence to non-interference has proven successful. For example, instead of imposing a method to deal with the large number of political parties in Guatemala that wanted to be part of NIMD’s platform, it was left to the political parties themselves. 106 political parties figured out together that they could group themselves into 5 political groups after coming to the realization that strengthening their democracy with 106 partners around the negotiation table was not efficient.

Clusters

Working in clusters and concentrating efforts in particular regions instead of merely focusing on individual countries has important benefits. NIMD intends to extend its efforts to include the entire Great Lakes region in Africa. To develop clusters working with other international partners is beneficial as well since efforts in neighbouring countries can be closer coordinated.

Lack of Stability