(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
There was something historic about the meeting room at the traditional SAS hotel, right by the Palace Park, when Oslo SV convened a nomination meeting for the parliamentary election list on Tuesday night, 9. December.
It can hardly be remembered in the Norwegian post-war period that as many as 800 party members showed up to vote for their local candidates in a county council. Even when Finn Gustavsen attempted a political comeback in 1985, so many SV members were present.
The reason for the fierce political involvement lies in the successful challenge Akhtar Chaudhry (46) was behind. The long-standing city government politician and the current deputy representative at the Storting would not agree to the fourth place. He challenged one of the party's crown princes, the very Oslo SV leader Heikki Holmås (36), the party's fiscal spokesman, for the safe second place, behind Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen. And he almost managed to win. Holmås hardly won, with 406 against 365 votes. So in practice dead running.
The result can be interpreted as a victory for Chaudhry and the minorities who are fighting for their rightful and democratic right to be represented in the Storting. And here SV has a political responsibility to be the party that best brings forward representatives who can add new perspectives and new knowledge to the Norwegian parliament, which in a number of debates testifies to having too little diversity. Chaudhry managed the art piece to bring the party leadership out of balance.
In a well-democratized way, and in contrast to the trendy media outlets that always seem to end up suspecting minority politicians more than majority Norwegians, he has recruited new and engaged members to the party. Some asked unfinished questions about whether these new members knew what SV was or stood for. But it is probably a problem for many old members to answer, if only they had been asked.
Superficially, Chaudhry's campaign may resemble Barack Obama's, as several have pointed out in recent weeks. And Obama's victory Nov. 4 added an extra glow to Chaudhry's candidacy. Multicultural saw with Obama's victory that it is possible to challenge and win over more monocultural and conservative party forces, which has the effect of keeping new, radical voices out. The many new SV members who signed up until the deadline of November 18 can also be explained by the Obama effect, in addition to Chaudhry's good grass-roots contacts.
What has not emerged is that it was Holmås who ran the most "unoriginal" and Obama-like election campaign. Chaudhry did recruit many new members, but he chose a conservative and trustworthy Norwegian method to get the 2000 old Oslo SV members to vote. He contented himself with sending out some text messages and mailings. He did not want to disturb, not push himself.
In contrast, Holmås chose an aggressive and technologically successful method. His knowledgeable people sat with PCs and called almost every member. Holmås' many and professional supporters had Americanized standardized presentations, and everyone in the Holmås campaign could see on their PC on their PC who had been called and the status of the call. Obama could not have done better. Holmås was far behind three weeks ago. But he managed to turn it all around in his favor by a huge call campaign. This was a technical and technological victory for Holmås.
But in the long run, Tuesday may prove to be an ideological victory for Chaudhry and the minorities. Firstly, it should be obvious that everyone should do as Oslo SV: Open the nomination meetings for all party members and let the match voting rule. In addition, it should be clear that the quota of young, monocultural men to the landfill sites should be ended. Politicians like Gülay Kutal should also be able to be lifted far further ahead than the Oslo SV has now done.
Diversity and representation are not kindness, but a political and democratic virtue of necessity.
New Time in 2009
This week New Time subscribers received both the December issue of Le Monde diplomatique and this year's edition of Verden 2009 in the mail. We can offer these two world-class publications as a result of our new collaboration in Mentor Media. Through this ownership, Ny Tid has secured a more stable and professional media ownership, so that we can better take care of the independent Ny Tid- og Orienteringheritage.
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