Had a free day today and decided to watch the latest YLE debate for local elections in Finland. For me, having spent last weeks following American elections, the Finnish experience is somewhat disappointing. It is unbelievable how the chairpersons of Finnish political parties tend to forget that the voters in the elections are not the local governments but the people. The Chairs only talk about institutions, infrastructure and government. What people want and what people should do seems to be forgotten both by the politicians as well as the journalists hosting the debate. The great thing YLE, however, have done is bringing the Party Secretaries into the studio to help the Chairs in details.
The weakest from the debaters based on my judgement were the leader of the Greens Tarja Cronberg, leader of the Centre Party Matti Vanhanen and leader of the Social Democrats Jutta Urpilainen. Minister of Labour Cronberg spoke twice in the first hour and is not able to push forward the Green agenda on services and quality of life. She tries to balance urban life and rural areas but gets somewhat confused with all the aspects. She becomes a voice of the government rather than representing the Greens in local politics although she improves her performance towards the end. Prime Minister Vanhanen's problems are somewhat alike. As Prime Minister he seems to act like he would be somewhat above the others and ends up coming across as smug and arrogant and not willing to take any criticism. Opposition leader Urpilainen however falls into the trap of populism. She is not able to answer questions on how Social Democrats would fund their "more, more, more" agenda. Urpilainen also gets unfortunately agitated when pushed into the corner with tough questions.
The winners of the debate are the populist True Finns and the centre liberal National Coalition. They get their ideological message across (True Finns about defenfing the small man and National Coalition on balancing costs and income). Leader of the National Coalition, Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen manages to stay calm and push through the message that the current government has invested in municipalities. Leader of the centre-right Swedish People's Party, Minister of Culture Stefan Wallin manages also to be clear and talk about caring and climate change.
But the key problem is not between people, it is in the nature of the debate. The most absurd moment was the discussion over a recent poll where 62 % of respondents think that politicians can be bought in urban planning decisions. The reaction of the Party Secretary Jarmo Korhonen:"No Finnish politician can be bought. I know." That's the way Finnish dialogue works.
Overall the discussion stays in concepts only familiar to politicians and very seldom looks into the position of the individual in the changes. Dear leaders, no one uses words such as structure and resource in normal language. It enforces the idea that in order to take part in politics, you need to learn a new language.
Showing posts with label matti vanhanen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label matti vanhanen. Show all posts
Friday, October 24, 2008
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Disillusioned
The investigation into links between policy and campaign funding does not show any signs of ending in Finland. The discussion shows well the dangers of an outdated perception. Finns have boasted at home and on international platforms about the rankings as the country least influenced by corruption in the world. Finns tend to describe themselves as honest and sincere. This has led to putting very little effort into making sure that the system lives up to this perception.
As the Prime Minister and his party are now put into the spotlight, Prime Minister Vanhanen gets extremely defensive when people question the links between his corporate funders and the pro-business policies he drives. This is again the Prime Minister who feels that political processes should not be discussed in public before the decision has been made by the Cabinet. At the same time however he takes positions on issues that belong to individual ministers whilst knowing that these positions go against the environmental and urban planning legislation.
Finland has a law that requires that candidates give the Ministry of Justice a report on their funding and funders. As the media has been investigating the funding of several ministers, one sees how more and more MPs suddenly tend to "remember" to readjust their old reports and "realise" that they had forgotten to mention some core funders. What is shocking and disturbing is the way legislators consciously choose not to follow their own decisions. Rightly so, Vanhanen's popularity is starting to have similar features as Mr Bush's or Mr Sarkozy's and some are even calling for new elections.
I can live with the fact that mistakes happen and some abuses take place. But the current debate on campaign funding shows pure arrogance towards the people, towards the law and towards democracy. The Prime Minister's reactions show how he tends to feel like he is entitled to his position, that he is chosen by something above to administrate the nation and therefore feels insulted when people question his motives. This attitude sounds more like a monarch than an elected leader.
As the Prime Minister and his party are now put into the spotlight, Prime Minister Vanhanen gets extremely defensive when people question the links between his corporate funders and the pro-business policies he drives. This is again the Prime Minister who feels that political processes should not be discussed in public before the decision has been made by the Cabinet. At the same time however he takes positions on issues that belong to individual ministers whilst knowing that these positions go against the environmental and urban planning legislation.
Finland has a law that requires that candidates give the Ministry of Justice a report on their funding and funders. As the media has been investigating the funding of several ministers, one sees how more and more MPs suddenly tend to "remember" to readjust their old reports and "realise" that they had forgotten to mention some core funders. What is shocking and disturbing is the way legislators consciously choose not to follow their own decisions. Rightly so, Vanhanen's popularity is starting to have similar features as Mr Bush's or Mr Sarkozy's and some are even calling for new elections.
I can live with the fact that mistakes happen and some abuses take place. But the current debate on campaign funding shows pure arrogance towards the people, towards the law and towards democracy. The Prime Minister's reactions show how he tends to feel like he is entitled to his position, that he is chosen by something above to administrate the nation and therefore feels insulted when people question his motives. This attitude sounds more like a monarch than an elected leader.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Good Old Centre
I sometimes wonder whether getting into politics in Finland would make sense. I find myself trying to articulate the reasons for this. Today I have a clear reason: the Centre Party.
Centre Party is the most difficult party to explain to a foreign audience. It builds on a legacy of an agrarian party, claims to be liberal but has some of Parliament's most conservative, xenophobic and homophobic MPs as its members. I wish to stress that the party also has phenomenally smart, liberal and open-minded people who have at times even made me wonder whether voting for them would make sense. They are also the party with the first female Prime Minister and the first Cabinet with a majority of women. So it's not all bad. But reading the Finnish news today reminds me again how much there is still to be done and makes me wonder what exactly is the glue keeping this party together.
Centre Party has tried consistently to claim that it is the true environmental Finnish party. Their actions show however a completely different line. Only today the Minister of Environment approved the enlargement of a hotel complex in a national park in Lapland, which according to many risks the nature of the environment. Yesterday the Prime Minister (pic) expressed his support for building Finland's biggest shopping mall outside the suburban area, which means that it can be only accessed by car. As the Minister for Housing (from his coalition partner Kokoomus) has clearly stated, this action would be a clear violation of the regional plan which states that big complexes such as these have to be linked to housing and other services. As the opposition reminded the Centre Party today, Vanhanen's support for the mall is in direct contradiction with climate change policies.
I wish the problems would end here. But the most severe critique from my end is on the concepts of morale and democracy this party expresses in its actions. The last government (also led by Vanhanen) had a cross-sectoral policy on active citizenship with the main result being more money to party-affiliated think tanks. Vanhanen has also expressed that he wishes that Ministers don't discuss issues publicly before the Cabinet has decided on them. And this week the leader of his Parliamentary Group Mr Timo Kalli refused to give out the name of his main campaign funder even if this is required by law. What was the answer of the leader of the biggest parliamentary group:"I am consciously breaking the law as there is no punishment."
Shocking beyond belief. Mr Kalli has now returned the money and made the name of the funder public after extreme negative publicity on the issue. The fantastic Minister of Justice Tuija Brax is speeding up the law reform due to the incident. And what does Prime Minister Vanhanen say? According to Helsingin Sanomat he has not discussed the issue with Kalli. I cannot help but drawing a comparison to his coalition partner Kokoomus which replaced the Foreign Minister due to the text message scandal. I wonder how one can continue as a group leader after publicly dismissing the basis of the work the Parliament is doing.
This kind of governance is bad for the environment, public morale, active citizenship and democracy. Government's role should be to foster debate, not to call for people to just shut up and let Ministers do their work. Governance is about democracy and leadership, not about administration. Vanhanen is the same who criticised the media for focusing too much on social inequality when according to him most Finns are doing well. And his party is the one that only speeded up social benefit reform when there was extremely bad international coverage. Way to go.
I am so angry I am about to burst.
Centre Party is the most difficult party to explain to a foreign audience. It builds on a legacy of an agrarian party, claims to be liberal but has some of Parliament's most conservative, xenophobic and homophobic MPs as its members. I wish to stress that the party also has phenomenally smart, liberal and open-minded people who have at times even made me wonder whether voting for them would make sense. They are also the party with the first female Prime Minister and the first Cabinet with a majority of women. So it's not all bad. But reading the Finnish news today reminds me again how much there is still to be done and makes me wonder what exactly is the glue keeping this party together.
Centre Party has tried consistently to claim that it is the true environmental Finnish party. Their actions show however a completely different line. Only today the Minister of Environment approved the enlargement of a hotel complex in a national park in Lapland, which according to many risks the nature of the environment. Yesterday the Prime Minister (pic) expressed his support for building Finland's biggest shopping mall outside the suburban area, which means that it can be only accessed by car. As the Minister for Housing (from his coalition partner Kokoomus) has clearly stated, this action would be a clear violation of the regional plan which states that big complexes such as these have to be linked to housing and other services. As the opposition reminded the Centre Party today, Vanhanen's support for the mall is in direct contradiction with climate change policies.
I wish the problems would end here. But the most severe critique from my end is on the concepts of morale and democracy this party expresses in its actions. The last government (also led by Vanhanen) had a cross-sectoral policy on active citizenship with the main result being more money to party-affiliated think tanks. Vanhanen has also expressed that he wishes that Ministers don't discuss issues publicly before the Cabinet has decided on them. And this week the leader of his Parliamentary Group Mr Timo Kalli refused to give out the name of his main campaign funder even if this is required by law. What was the answer of the leader of the biggest parliamentary group:"I am consciously breaking the law as there is no punishment."
Shocking beyond belief. Mr Kalli has now returned the money and made the name of the funder public after extreme negative publicity on the issue. The fantastic Minister of Justice Tuija Brax is speeding up the law reform due to the incident. And what does Prime Minister Vanhanen say? According to Helsingin Sanomat he has not discussed the issue with Kalli. I cannot help but drawing a comparison to his coalition partner Kokoomus which replaced the Foreign Minister due to the text message scandal. I wonder how one can continue as a group leader after publicly dismissing the basis of the work the Parliament is doing.
This kind of governance is bad for the environment, public morale, active citizenship and democracy. Government's role should be to foster debate, not to call for people to just shut up and let Ministers do their work. Governance is about democracy and leadership, not about administration. Vanhanen is the same who criticised the media for focusing too much on social inequality when according to him most Finns are doing well. And his party is the one that only speeded up social benefit reform when there was extremely bad international coverage. Way to go.
I am so angry I am about to burst.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Stuffy
Greetings from Finland:
1. Culture: State Secretary writes a bizarre piece to the main newspaper - as a private person apparently - where he refers to the new dramatisation of Unknown Soldier (main Finnish book on Second World War) and builds a bizarre link between Kristian Smeds' direction and the rise of facism. State Secretary Volanen mentions the school shootings of Jokela but leaves the bridges between issues so vague that he can still walk away. Volanen has not seen the play.
2. Media: National broadcaster YLE launches a new channel directed to youth in Spring 2008 with a massive PR campaign. Last month they decided to close it down due to budget cuts. People who had been hired did not even get to start before they were fired.
3. Dreams: Main political weekly invites people to write letters to Finland on its 90th birthday. Subjects: alcoholism, importance of draft army, complaining about the role of artists, blurry stuff about economic dangers, ranting on and on how we have lost our relationship with nature and warning how this all could collapse any day. Happy Birthday.
4. Democracy: Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen is advising Ministers not to talk about undecided issues in public before the Cabinet has decided on them. This guarantees constructive decision-making apparently. At the same time the Ministry of Justice has founded a democracy unit. Well, at least they know where to start.
5. Advertising: Yesterday advertisement in the cinema before the film: promotion for a ring for supporting veterans, promotion by the lotteries on a campaign to help war invalids, advertisement on the dangers of drinking and driving, social awareness campaign on keeping a safe distance on the motorway and the lottery piece again.
With this little amount of light and these low temperatures one could use a bit of inspiration. One could use a few new ideas, some fun and true engagement. It feels amazing how people can seem so bloody unhappy with this prosperity. As there are no hopes for people to grasp on, especially in December it really seems like everything is going down the drain.
1. Culture: State Secretary writes a bizarre piece to the main newspaper - as a private person apparently - where he refers to the new dramatisation of Unknown Soldier (main Finnish book on Second World War) and builds a bizarre link between Kristian Smeds' direction and the rise of facism. State Secretary Volanen mentions the school shootings of Jokela but leaves the bridges between issues so vague that he can still walk away. Volanen has not seen the play.
2. Media: National broadcaster YLE launches a new channel directed to youth in Spring 2008 with a massive PR campaign. Last month they decided to close it down due to budget cuts. People who had been hired did not even get to start before they were fired.
3. Dreams: Main political weekly invites people to write letters to Finland on its 90th birthday. Subjects: alcoholism, importance of draft army, complaining about the role of artists, blurry stuff about economic dangers, ranting on and on how we have lost our relationship with nature and warning how this all could collapse any day. Happy Birthday.
4. Democracy: Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen is advising Ministers not to talk about undecided issues in public before the Cabinet has decided on them. This guarantees constructive decision-making apparently. At the same time the Ministry of Justice has founded a democracy unit. Well, at least they know where to start.
5. Advertising: Yesterday advertisement in the cinema before the film: promotion for a ring for supporting veterans, promotion by the lotteries on a campaign to help war invalids, advertisement on the dangers of drinking and driving, social awareness campaign on keeping a safe distance on the motorway and the lottery piece again.
With this little amount of light and these low temperatures one could use a bit of inspiration. One could use a few new ideas, some fun and true engagement. It feels amazing how people can seem so bloody unhappy with this prosperity. As there are no hopes for people to grasp on, especially in December it really seems like everything is going down the drain.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Don't you go commenting behind my back
I feel a bit detached nowadays from Finnish politics so it is getting more and more difficult to understand domestic politics. Today the Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen had sent an email to all ministers telling them not to answer inquiries from the media and not to take part in public discussion on issues still under negotiation.
The Prime Minister's special advisor said in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat (biggest daily of the country) the following: "If people start asking members of the Cabinet for stands, there is a risk that different ministers could have several opinions on the same issue. That could lead to questions on the functionability of the Cabinet if there would be different stands on the same subject."
I think the media was right to raise this issue as one of the main news of the day. In which era are we? 1960s? 1984? What kind of notion of democracy is it if different opinions are seen as a risk? Sometimes I am just appalled by technocratic approaches on politics. I would go as far as saying that stressing efficiency over democracy is proof for a complete misunderstanding on the core of democracy.
The Prime Minister's special advisor said in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat (biggest daily of the country) the following: "If people start asking members of the Cabinet for stands, there is a risk that different ministers could have several opinions on the same issue. That could lead to questions on the functionability of the Cabinet if there would be different stands on the same subject."
I think the media was right to raise this issue as one of the main news of the day. In which era are we? 1960s? 1984? What kind of notion of democracy is it if different opinions are seen as a risk? Sometimes I am just appalled by technocratic approaches on politics. I would go as far as saying that stressing efficiency over democracy is proof for a complete misunderstanding on the core of democracy.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Subtle development
Today is a good day. I am extremely proud of being a Finn. The country lives up to its reputation as a nation of gender equality. The list of ministers in the new cabinet was published today and I was astonished when I realised that for the first time in the country's 100 years of parlamentarism we have a government with more women than men.
This calls for celebration. And my (virtual) flowers are sent to a very peculiar direction, the Centre Party. The party branded as the voice of the conservative farmers is the first one in Finnish history to elect a woman as Prime Minister (in 2003) and now lead a government with female majority.
The Centre Party seems to be now the voice of progress and optimism in Finland. They are the party that actually develop the society and suggest alternative agendas. For instance in this government they pushed for combining the ministries of employment and industry. And all this done with the leadership of a man who still in 2003 declared that being Prime Minister was a personal sacrifice, not something he ever wanted.
Matti Vanhanen, the Prime Minister from 2003 on and the head of the new cabinet is a modest man. He lives up to the Finnish values of sincerity and honesty to the extent of turning boring. But if one evaluates what he has done during the last years, one has to say that it was a clever move from the Centre Party to elect him as their leader. The economy is doing brilliantly. Even if he does not have the charisma to charm masses and win the presidential run, he does a good job in leading a team of ministers.
All and all, I am rather optimistic when it comes to the next four years with our centre-right government. I may be proven wrong but we shall see.
This calls for celebration. And my (virtual) flowers are sent to a very peculiar direction, the Centre Party. The party branded as the voice of the conservative farmers is the first one in Finnish history to elect a woman as Prime Minister (in 2003) and now lead a government with female majority.
The Centre Party seems to be now the voice of progress and optimism in Finland. They are the party that actually develop the society and suggest alternative agendas. For instance in this government they pushed for combining the ministries of employment and industry. And all this done with the leadership of a man who still in 2003 declared that being Prime Minister was a personal sacrifice, not something he ever wanted.
Matti Vanhanen, the Prime Minister from 2003 on and the head of the new cabinet is a modest man. He lives up to the Finnish values of sincerity and honesty to the extent of turning boring. But if one evaluates what he has done during the last years, one has to say that it was a clever move from the Centre Party to elect him as their leader. The economy is doing brilliantly. Even if he does not have the charisma to charm masses and win the presidential run, he does a good job in leading a team of ministers.
All and all, I am rather optimistic when it comes to the next four years with our centre-right government. I may be proven wrong but we shall see.
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