In the last four years since the 2011 parliamentary elections, Nasima Razmyar, 30, has developed tremendously as a politician to become a strong voice of hope of Finland’s ever-growing culturally diverse society.
Razmyar, a candidatae for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who lost getting elected by about 100 votes in the last election, vows to work tirelessly to change the present anti-cultural diversity climate presently gripping Finland.
MPs throughout Europe are opportunistically using the xenophobia card to boost their chances of getting reelected. This is the case of Suna Kymäläinen, a Social Democrat (SDP), who is eyeing the April 2015 parliamentary elections in Finland.
Kymäläinen is a sad example of how politicians who don’t belong to anti-immigration parties like the Perussuomalaiset (PS), like to stir up anti-foreign sentiment in order to optimize their chances of getting reelected.
We saw this electoral strategy with dire consequences in 2010, when SDP chairman Jutta Urpilainen, flirting with the PS by infamously stating maassa maan tavalla, or in Rome do as the Romans do. In plain English her statement meant if you don’t behave like us you can go bak to where you came from.
Just like Prime Minister David Cameron and the Tories feel the anti-EU and anti-immigration UKIP breathing down their necks, they have only themselves to blame. Cameron’s anti-immigration and anti-EU rhetoric has not swayed support to the UKIP but strengthened it.
Finland showed in 2011 that you cannot flirt with an anti-immigration, far right or populist party because you’ll lose.
That is exactly what happened in our country to the run up to the 2011 parliamentary elections. The PS can thank the euro crisis, Portugal’s financial bailout a week before the elections, National Coalition Party chairman Jyrki Katainen, and Urpilainen for helping Timo Soini’s party gain 39 seats in parliament from just 5 in 2007.
In March 2010 Katainen opened the floodgates of anti-immigrant sentiment in Finland by stating that debating immigrant issues didn’t make you a racist. Some saw Katainen’s statement as a green light to racists.
It’s sad that politicians like Kylmäläinen haven’t learned from past mistakes as is the case with the PS and UKIP.
If the draft bill that would prohibit non-EU citizens from purchasing land in Finland ever becomes law, some believe that it will have a negative impact on businesses especially in eastern Finland that depend on Russian tourists.
Probably the most incredible matter is not the bill and how it reveals our age-old xenophobia of Russians, but how politicians like Kymäläinen deny that is has nothing to do with racism or discrimination.
During a May Day rally on Thursday, Kymäläinen denied that she is a racist. “The smear campaign is pointless,” she continued. “It just shows how little people know about the foreign problem.”
Isn’t it surprising how some politicians absolve themselves of all guilt when they are accused of being xenophobic, racist or anti-Russian? Any sensible person would not waste his or her time figuring out if Kymäläinen is racist or not. The question is if her bill is.
Taking into account the weaknesses of Kymäläinen’s arguments for the draft bill in the face of ever-growing anti-Russian and intolerance throughout Finland and Europe, there are other issues that the bill brings to light.
Two of these are: Why are you targeting Russians and are you trying to score brownie points for your election campaign in 2015?
Politicians that fuel nationalism and intolerance forget to tell you one important fact: They carry a high price tag in the form of lower economic growth and less jobs. If passed, a draft bill spearheaded by Social Democrat (SDP) MP Suna Kymäläinen would not only hit businesses in eastern Finland that depend on Russian tourists, but reveal our ever-growing xenophobia.
The bill would be like putting up a huge sign for the world to see: Russians stay out!
Other MPs behind the bill are Perussuomalaiset party’s Reijo Tossavainen, Pertti Hemmilä of the National Coalition Party, Markku Rossi and Aila Paloniemi both of the Center Party.
According to a news story in January, the draft bill had the backing of 101 of 200 MPs.
If the bill becomes law, non-European Economic Area (EEA) citizens would have to be residents of Finland for five years in order to purchase real estate.
The bill was criticized on YLE’s Russia debate show and which Kymäläinen took part.
Some of the participants saw the bill as a big mistake because it would hit businesses, which depend on Russian tourists.
Kymäläinen’s blamed Russians for driving up the price of land.
On her home page she cites money laundering and since Finns cannot buy land in a 100km buffer zone by the Finnish-Russian border as reasons why such a law is important.
If the bill gets approved, it would continue to fuel our age-old suspicion of Russians, which influences how we see other migrants and visible minorities in this country.
That is something we don’t need.
Perussuomalaiset (PS) MP Teuvo Hakkarainen’s recent blog entry, which attacked immigrants and Muslims, has been condemned by the vice president of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Eero Vainio, and by Muslims like Abdirahim Husu Hussein of the Center Party.
Reaction to what Hakkarainen wrote is a positive sign that part of Finland’s political establishment considers Islamophobia, racism and intolerance in general unacceptable and out of tune with our values.
One reason why the Social Democrats have spoken out against Hakkarainen is because he named SDP Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja an “imam” and supporter of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Vainio said that Hakkarainen’s opinions are a good example of how the PS diverts attention from the country’s real problems and shifts them to imaginary ones like immigration.
“The Perussuomalaiset have to get their act together and aim at offering solutions to real problems facing our society in the face of fear-mongering,” he was quoted as saying on Tampere-based daily Aamulehti.
Nasima Razmyar, an SDP Helsinki city councillor and Muslim, said on a blog that what Hakkarainen wrote made her blood boil but would not demand an apology from him.
One of the reasons why Razmyar fell short of asking for an apology is because she apparently believes that racism can be eradicated from the halls of parliament with odd empathy for the racist.
Swedish People’s Party chairman, Carl Haglund, considered what Hakkarainen wrote as “sheer racism.”
“Somebody has to say something,” he was quoted as saying on tabloid Iltalehti. “I’m surprised ho little attention has been given [to what Hakkarainen wrote]…”
Without condemning what Hakkarainen wrote, PS parliamentary leader Pirkko Ruohonen-Lerner was quoted as saying on Helsingin Sanomat that the MP’s views did not represent the party’s.
”Critical debate is accepted and welcome [in the PS],” she said, ”but I will not say where we draw the line [on debate].”
Hakkarainen claimed on his blog entry that immigrants who move to this country live off social welfare and are “increasingly guilty of crimes, which were previously rare, among others, like gang rape.”
He claimed that it is every “Muslim’s honor and responsibility to kill and annihilate every religion and Jews, according to the Koran,” and that, “the West is being flooded by millions of Muslims in a wooden Trojan horse…”
Citing a story on Turun Sanomat, the PS MP said that there are Muslim extremists concentrated in the city of Turku ready to declare jihad on Finland.
On an Uusi Suomi blog entry, Hussein offered Hakkarainen an invitation to meet and know more about Finland’s Muslim community. Such meetings have been arranged before for the PS MP, according to the Center Party politician.
”I haven’t heard that such a meeting has ever materilaized, thus I come to the conclusion that either MP Hakkarainen isn’t interested or he really fears Muslims,” he wrote.
Hussein cited on his blog entry a campaign phrase used by the Center Party in the 2012 municipal election to lure back voters that ditched the party and voted for the PS in the April 2011 election.
”We say that it’s time to come back home,” he writes. ”Good man, I want to tell you that it’s time for you to step into the light.”
The Perussuomalaiset (PS) is a desperate party and Timo Soini’s claim over the weekend, that the Social Democrats had abandoned working-class men, is another example of how this populist anti-immigration party bluffs at the political poker table. The type of attack by Soini on the Social Democratic Party is in line with how the party has victimized and labelled immigrants and visible minorities.
Soini made his chauvinistic claim after the SDP replaced two of its ministers on Friday, Jukka Gustafsson and Maria Guzenina-Richardson, with Susana Huovinen and Pia Virtanen.
He was quoted as saying on YLE in English: ”Working men don’t interest the left. The collapse in support for the left stems from the fact that those who bake the cake, workers and small businsspeople, are not defended enough.”
And Soini’s rambunctious party, which will scare away skilled workers and investment from this country, is going to defend the working man? That claim by Soini is a good example of the PS’ political chicanery and desperation to win the EU parliament and parliamentary elections in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
If there is little doubt that the PS is an anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party, it is as well an anti-women’s rights party. Should we be surprised by Soini’s claim? Not at all. How can a party promote gender equality if it’s intolerant of immigrants and visible minorities?
Sensible people understand that if the PS ever got into government or if Soini become prime minister, the damage the party would inflict on Finland would be immense.
You would not only see a populist party promoting its far right and conservative views on the country, but one that will promote racism, prejudice, sexism and intolerance in general.
Migrant Tales has written on numerous occasions that sucking up to PS populism has been a costly mistake for Finnish mainstream parties.
Politicians must lead. Offering leadership during trying times means standing up for your convictions even if it may cost you votes.
A good example that Finnish politicians should emulate is US President Barak Obama, who was one of the few politicians in 2003 who was against the invasion of Iraq. Even if he was in the minority that opposed the war, his leadership on this front was one factor that allowed him to become the first black president of the US in 2008.
Every great journey challenge begins with a single step.
A Chinese proverb slightly changed
A study by the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), reveals how racism and intolerant attitudes are becoming more prevalent in the European Union. What to do?
Read ENAR study here. A recent example of how racism and intolerance spread roots in Finland is Timo Soini’s comments on PS MP Olli Immonen’s election as chairman of Suomen Sisu.
Soini did no condemn (why would he?) Immonen’s election but compared the extremist anti-immigration association to a harmless hunting, farming or youth association.
Not only is the PS chairman and his followers responsible for fueling more intolerance in Finland by playing down or denying such a social ill completely, the silence of the big parties is equally worrying.
One researcher in the ENAR study, Mutuma Ruteere, exposes what is not only happening throughout Europe but in Finland. He said that the problem is not only the discourse coming from far right parties, “but in the fact that established mainstream parties do not reject such discourses and even often support them.”
Bingo!
If there are two shameful watersheds that will be remembered for bolstering intolerance in Finland, they were made in 2010 by National Coalition Party’s Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen and Social Democratic Party economy minister, Jutta Urpilainen. Both said that “debating immigrant issues in this country didn’t make you a racist” and massa maan tavalla (in Rome do as the Romans do), respectively.
If we look at the most recent polls, the National Coalition Party and the Social Democrats are paying a high political price, together with the Center Party, for flirting with an anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Islam party.
The silence of the largest parties, coupled with the opportunity to capitalize on anti-immigration and anti-EU sentiment in Finland by the PS, is what has gone terribly wrong with this country.
The more Finland denies collectively that it doesn’t have an issue with intolerance, the more it will continue to feed such a social ill.
We need the courage to challenge and ghostbust those myths that promote intolerance. There you will find the root of our prejudices and hatred.
One of these took place in the last century when Finland did everything possible to stop immigrants from moving to this country. As we lost hundreds of thousands of able workers to Sweden, we covered up for our mistakes with the help of ethnic myths about ourselves. In the process, we undermined diversity and fueled nationalism.
The ENAR study expresses concern over the rise of uninhibited forms of racism that have emerged throughout the EU. A good example is using freedom of expression or claiming how whites are victims of racism as justifications for promoting the status quo of intolerance.
Migrant Tales has written about this on many occasions. The aim of those who are against diversity is to point out how different a group is, which helps justify their racism and feelings of hostility for that group.
Husein Mohammed raised an important point on a recent blog entry where he reviewed Umayya Abu-Hanna’s latest book, Multikulti. He asks if the Perussuomalaiset (PS) is the only intolerant party in Finland.
He writes: “The term racism is used quite a lot in [Abu-Hanna’s] book but there’s no mention of violence, visible or about racism in [other Finnish] political parties. The general rule is that when we speak about anti-immigration [players], we mention the rise of the Perussuomalaiset as an important party [in this respect]. Not a word is mentioned of that party in the book. It’s a good thing since blaming only the Perussuomalaiset you leave off the hook other parties and players who aren’t anymore tolerant.”
How did the PS become Finland’s third-biggest party after the parliamentary election and how did they together with the media react to that party’s rising popularity?
Migrant Tales wrote on a blog entry in 2011: “The PS could have never dreamed of such success in the last election without the help of Kokoomus [National Coalition Party], Social Democratic Party and Center Party.”
Instead of challenging the rise of a populist party, some identified with PS’ intolerant and xenophobic message.
The Center Party and the Greens did put up some resistance and were punished severely in the elections.
One of the saddest cases was Social Democratic Party leader’s Jutta Urpilainen’s maassa maan tavalla (In Rome do as the Romans do) statement in March 2011.
National Coalition Party chairman Jyrki Katainen didn’t show much leadership either. He effectively let racism out of the cage in Finland by stating that “being critical and debating immigrant issues in this country didn’t make you a racist.”
He forgot, however, to mention one very crucial point: Immigrants must take part in such a debate too.
There was no open debate that included immigrants and visible minorities up to the 2011 elections. The debating landscape looked more like a PS bashing ground against immigrants with the tacit approval of other parties.
While racism is alive and well in all Finnish parties, it does especially well in the PS.
What is the difference between a person who is openly racist or one who isn’t?
If we look at the recent municipal elections, many candidates that jumped the PS ship defected to the Center Party, Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and National Coalition Party.
It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, and leaves us with the following question: Racists come in different sizes and shapes. Some are quiet while others are quite vocal about it. The quiet and the silent are, however, bonded by the same matter: varying degrees of intolerance.
When debating racism in Finland, we should not forget that this social ill has many homes in many places.
It hasn’t found a home in one party but resides in all of them.
By Enrique Tessieri
With all of the votes counted, the presidential election went pretty much as the polls had predicted. Kokoomus’ Sauli Niinistö, the front-runner, won with37.0%. Second place was a head-and-head race, a semi-cliffhanger, with Pekka Haavisto of the Greens (18.8%) beating Paavo Väyrynen of the Center Party (17.5%).
The result means that there will be a second round on February 5 since no candidate got over 50% of the votes.
Contrary to the April 17 election, when the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party obtained its historic victory thanks to anti-EU and anti-immigration sentiment, the presidential election went in the opposite direction. The two anti-EU candidates, Väyrynen and PS’ Timo Soini (9.4%), came in third and fourth place, respectively.
Apart from voters giving the thumbs down to Soini, the PS has been hurt by numerous scandals in the media that have exposed the racism, homophobia and anti-democratic credentials of some of its MPs.
The other loser was the left. Paavo Lipponen of the Social Democrats got 6.7% of the votes with Paavo Arhimäki of the Left Alliance gaining 5.5%.
The candidates that came in seventh and eight place were Swedish People’s Party hopeful Eva Biaudet, who got 2.7%, while Sari Essayah of the Christian Democrats got 2.5%.
By Enrique Tessieri
One of the political dramas that Finland is facing today is that it does not know what racism and fascism is. The Finnish media up to the April 17 election not only lost its teeth and forgot its important role in defending our civil rights but helped the right-wing populist Perussuomalaiset (PS) with its complacency.
It’s difficult to say if some journalists preferred not to write critically about PS candidates that belonged to Suomen Sisu because they were ignorant or because the racism of these candidates appealed to them.
While Migrant Tales calls Suomen Sisu a Nazi-spirited association, this was unfortunately the exception not the rule when it comes to the Finnish media.
Expo magazine editor Daniel Poohl said recently that Suomen Sisu ideology is a mirror image of fascist parties in Finland, Germany and Italy during the 1930s and first half of the 1940s.
If the Finnish media has done a shoddy job at reporting the rise of the far-right and populist threat to Finland, politicians haven’t done any better. Instead of trying to show leadership against racism and neo-fascism in Finland, they preferred to remain silent or, worse, assimilate the PS’ anti-immigration message.
Didn’t the politicians of all of Finland’s major and minor parties elect the head of the PS’ Suomen Sisu wing, MP Jussi Halla-aho, to chair the administration committee in charge of setting immigration policy?
It was only after Anders Breivik appeared on the scene in Norway and killed 77 Norwegians in July that some members of the Social Democratic party started to ask question about Halla-aho’s role in the administration committee.
Another tragedy of the media and too many politicians are their treatment of PS head Timo Soini, who tries to portray himself to the public as a good cop of a right-wing populist party that is anti-EU, anti-immigration and especially anti-Muslim.
I totally agree with Poohl. In the ongoing debate on Finland’s political future there is one important matter missing: knowing what racism and fascism is and their threat to our values and society.
Having lived, worked and traveled extensively in Latin America, I know that democracy can be shelved very easily.
Recovering it will be a real bitch.
Comment: Former Social Democrat Prime Minister Paavo Lepponen threw today a hard blow at what he called “the far-right” Perussuomalaiset MPs in parliament, according to Nelonen Television.
“It’s pretty clear that the far-right has representatives in parliament,” said Lipponen, adding that these MPs must “be isolated” and not an inch of ground should be given to them.
It is healthy and correct that Lipponen has come out to condemn this group in the PS led by Jussi Halla-aho and others belonging to Suomen Sisu association and who signed the Nuiva manifesto last year.
Migrant Tales has maintained the same concern about the PS as Lipponen. Far-right group in the PS have been responsible for systematically spreading racism, hatred and divisions within Finnish society. Lipponen said that we have seen this type of ideology try unsuccessfully to take root in Finland in the 1930s.
The Finnish Criminal Police (KRP) and Supo have classified Suomen Sisu as a “Nazi-spirited” association.
It is a good matter that a statesman like Lipponen has finally come out and sounded the alarm on these far-right PS MPs.
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Entisen pääministerin Paavo Lipposen mukaan perussuomalaisten äärioikeistolaiset on eristettävä, eikä heille saa antaa tuumaakaan periksi. Paavo Lipposen mukaan nykyiseen eduskuntaan on nyt asettunut äärioikeisto.