A Dutch Viewpoint
You may not agree with him. But why kill him?

Mr Pim Fortuyn's anti-immigration views outraged many, but his murder is an affront to democracy

By Micky Stuivenberg

BEING Dutch, I was naturally stunned and horrified to learn that right-wing politician Pim Fortuyn was brutally murdered on Monday.

I was just one of many whose curiosity was stirred by recent political developments and this odd man who kept making the headlines.

The most talked about subject is without a doubt Mr Fortuyn's views on immigration policies. His oft-quoted line 'full is full' struck a chord with hordes of people who have thought it but have never dared to voice it.

It also outraged at least as many, and probably more, people who called him a racist.

Holland has always been on the forefront of democracy and tolerance, and Mr Fortuyn's extreme views went against that. But by the same token, little could be done about his blunt talk, precisely because of democracy and tolerance.

Living in Holland has changed a lot over the past few decades. Of course there have always been immigrants, mostly from former Dutch colonies such as Indonesia, Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles.

But the view seems to be that those early immigrants made an effort to integrate and learn the language, and really consider themselves Dutch.

Many of the immigrants nowadays come from places such as Turkey, Morocco, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

And a widely held view is that many of them do not integrate, do not learn the language and adapt to Dutch culture, although that of course is an unfair generalisation of the situation.

For two years in the early 1990s, I lived in a very unpopular suburb of Amsterdam called the Bijlmer.

It was unpopular because crime was high, security low and, as a Caucasian, you would be made to feel like a minority.

However, rents were low, flats spacious, and public transport to the centre of Amsterdam took only 20 minutes.

I never really succeeded in feeling at home there. Experiencing robbery attempts and pickpocketing didn't help in making me feel safe either.

But I do not believe that street crime is a direct effect of letting in foreigners, as Mr Fortuyn claimed. His view was that most of the social problems Holland experiences now are ultimately caused by immigrants, who made our country too full.

Although I consider multi-culturalism as something that makes life more interesting, Mr Fortuyn spoke out strongly against it.

He also called Islam a 'backward' religion, incompatible with what he called the 'modernity' of Holland. Understandably, he alienated many with such extreme views.

But Dutch people all over the world have expressed their absolute shock over this brutal murder, the first political assassination in Dutch modern history.

This is not what Holland stands for. Even if we don't agree with him, we have always been able to let politicians fight it out with words.

Mr Fortuyn's supporters are calling him their hero and are demonstrating to voice their outrage.

Those who found him an arrogant and ridiculous man with much too extreme views condemn the murder but may quietly think that a dangerous situation has been averted, were he to have become minister or even prime minister.

And some are concerned that he will now be made into a martyr, praised like never before for speaking his mind.

But the loudest voices that are making themselves heard now seem to be from people who disagreed with Mr Fortuyn's views but still respected him for speaking up and daring to say exactly what he believed in, and find the murder an affront to democracy.

And many Dutch people, including me, are now genuinely worried about the future of our once tolerant country.

Micky Stuivenberg is a Dutch journalist working at The Straits Times