(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Wednesday came the confirmation: The Labor Party's wonderboy, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, confirmed to Dagsavisen that he has agreed to the nomination committee in Oslo Ap.
So he confirmed that everyone has known, that for the first time the top diplomat wants to stand for election to the Storting. For the past three months, there has been an intense campaign from the AP leadership, Støre friends and large sections of the press to get him into the so-called safe space ahead of the parliamentary elections in one year. The intention has been to secure the government's most popular politician parliamentary experience in case the red-green should lose government power.
In this way, one must again ensure that he can take over as party leader when Jens Stoltenberg resigns. And in the event of an election defeat next year, Støre then being A's prime ministerial candidate in 2013.
The recent Støre campaign possibly has a noble goal, ie to secure the party's star the right prime minister's background. "Everyone likes Jonas," seems to be angry. Even the so-called left wing of the party – represented by Kleiv Fiskvik, Britt Hildeng and Trond Jensrud – was an extraordinary lever in the statements on Wednesday.
- It is very nice that Støre enters the Storting. I have always wanted him a safe place, said Hildeng.
The same said the others. The party whip obviously still works. It is disappointing that critics are so easily pushed into the fold instead of protesting against the undemocratic process that has been followed here.
It is not just a democratic nomination process that is sacrificed here, which is done by "someone talking together in the back room" – and in this case it may seem as if even Støre and Oslo Labor leader Jan Bøhler have agreed. Even before the nomination committee has begun its work, everyone is aware that it will be Stoltenberg, Marit Nybakk, Bøhler and Støre in the first four places.
And here we are at the problem. Instead of Marianne Marthinsen or Saera Khan moving up to fourth place after Britt Hildeng's resignation, a super-diplomat comes and keeps two young women, one of whom is very prominent with a minority background, down. It is not only the quota rules with regard to gender that are being sacrificed with the new so-called "liberal" interpretation that the Labor Party's leadership has pushed through. There is also another skilled politician with a minority background who risks being expelled from the Storting. And that is far more problematic than Støre having to find another county team to get into the Storting.
Last week, NRK reported that the 169 representatives also from 2009 are likely to become dazzling white, without the diverse background that now almost every tenth inhabitant has. This is a significant democratic problem, as OMOD leader Akhenaton de Leon points out in this week's Ny Tid. The lack of multicultural background in Norway's parliament not only means that the country is in a jumbo position in Europe, not to mention the world – where countries such as India lead with different religious backgrounds for both president, prime minister and opposition leader.
Simplicity also means that confidence in the Storting's qualifications for making important decisions in our globalized times may be weakened.
Therefore, it is high time that there are now reforms and changes in the parties' selections. "Operation Jonas", and the other nomination campaigns now underway, show that it is the patriarchal majority power that wins the closed processes. The experience of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the United States, not to mention the Greens' Cynthia McKinney, shows that voters have greater faith in and desire for change than the old party apparatus has.
With a new debate on the nomination processes, the Sami can possibly once again get the rightful position of power they deserve: That is, the Sami get a guaranteed number of seats in the Storting, as the Maori in New Zealand have had since the end of the 1800th century.
Today's campaigns in the back rooms are not worthy of a modern democracy. Norway deserves better.
