Joël De Ceulaer (@jdceulaer) is a senior writer.
May the new year bring you, dear reader, much beauty and good. May our politicians also be awarded, although in 2023 the intention remains that cynicism and hypocrisy will be denounced here. So let’s start with that right away.
The cynicism regarding the failed Congo commission has also reached our columnist Mark Elchardus. You might read that this weekend. He thinks that apologies regarding the colonial past, which will not be made due to the resistance of Open Vld and MR, would imply that all Belgians are responsible for the misdeeds. And he thinks that is a “barbaric” idea, which is especially prevalent among people who reject community thinking. That is terribly cynical, because it is not the community that should apologize, but the institution – or the institutions: the royal family and the Belgian state. Nothing to do with community.
Cynicism also runs through the corridors among the community thinkers of N-VA – just read the (re)tweets of the party and of MP Tomas Roggeman and Flemish MP Axel Ronse. Congo? So long ago, say! All the fault of Leopold II, moreover. Nonsense, of course: in 1908 Congo became a Belgian colony. The Belgian state bears responsibility for the subsequent suffering. For this, apologies from the Belgian state are in order today. That would testify to political courage, as colleague Bart Eeckhout wrote here earlier.
Many of us may still be struggling with some headaches, but let’s refresh our memory – to show that N-VA is not only cynical, but also selective and therefore hypocritical. In 2007, the then socialist Patrick Janssens, in his capacity as mayor of Antwerp, apologized for the cooperation the city council had rendered to the Nazi occupier. Unlike Brussels, Antwerp had sent the police on raids during the Second World War. Janssens therefore wished to apologize for that “black page” in the history of his city. Better late than never. It was a nice and necessary gesture.
Except for Bart De Wever, then N-VA chairman for many years. He thought it was gratuitous and too late. To the deep dismay of the Jewish community and of Open Vld, which then governed with Patrick Janssens. And now that refreshed memory comes in handy: what happened a little later? Right. De Wever apologized for criticizing Janssens’ apology. A “historic pardon” was in order. In 2019 he said in The seventh day that such a pardon would also be appropriate for Congo – albeit at the height of the head of state. So the king. So he is halfway there: if N-VA can still bring itself to urge the Belgian state to action, the liberals no longer have to shit their pants for the opposition. And can they be brave and still apologize.
A tip for the list of good intentions in the Wetstraat: be a little consistent.
