In a few weeks, the people of the city of Leiden will get to say yes or no to the construction of a new light rail track through the city centre. The referendum, scheduled for March 7, will be binding if at least thirty percent of the citizens cast their vote.

I really wish the city council had chosen not to hold a referendum. There are a few things in the world of politics that I’m strongly opposed to. One is the ever-growing focus on the politicians’ personalities rather than their plans. Sure, personality is important to some degree, but the road a president (or any politician) will follow depends much more on their agenda than on their looks or how easily they talk. Fortunately the situation in the Netherlands in this regard is not quite as bad as in, say, the US, but it’s clearly going that way.

Anyway, the second thing in politics I can’t stand are referendums. Common people simply are very ill suited to make such big decisions. If they even fully understand the question and the consequences of yes and no, they still are far from sufficiently informed to make a choice. I certainly am, and there are countless Leiden citizens who took less time to delve into the matter at hand.

Let’s face it, we elect city councils and parliaments and whatnot for a reason: to govern our towns and countries, because we–the common folk–don’t have time to do so. We’re busy producing food, or building technology, or teaching the next generation, or doing science, and so on. I’m quite happy doing my bit of research into how stars and planets are formed, while politicians look after the smooth running of Leiden and the Netherlands.

If I get stuck in my research, I’ll ask my supervisor or a fellow PhD student. I certainly won’t consult a member of the city council, or anyone else who knows nothing about astrochemistry. Why, then, do politicians feel the need to consult non-experts when they get stuck?

It seems like a nice idea to get everyone’s input on a question as important as whether or not to build a light rail track through downtown Leiden, but it really isn’t. Oh, before I go on, let me briefly explain what this light rail project entails. Leiden is currently served by normal railways to the north, south and east, providing fast connections to Schiphol Airport and major cities like Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Haarlem. An extensive network of buses connects the various parts of Leiden itself, as well as the surrounding towns and villages which are not served by a railway. The proposed light rail–a kind of tram/train hybrid–will run roughly east-west through Leiden and will extend to some semi-large towns on either side. Transits between those towns and key locations inside Leiden–such as the railway station, the university and college campuses, the hospital, and the shopping district–will be reduced if the light rail is built. The benefit for Leiden citizens rarely travelling out of the city is not so clear, and that’s one source of controversy. Another is the fact that part of the route will go through the historic city centre and the shopping district and no one really knows how that will work out. Some say it will create a dangerous situation for pedestrians and cyclists; others say the situation will become safer than it currently is.

So, as I was saying, it’s a bad idea to let the public decide whether or not the light rail should be built. For one thing, almost nobody knows enough about the project to make an informed decision. For another, some people will use the referendum to voice their feelings on the current city council’s policy as a whole–but that’s an entirely different issue. (A prime example of the latter happening was the Dutch referendum on the European Constitution, which many used to show their discontent with the government at that time.)

Don’t I want to have a say in a project that could have major consequences for my hometown? No, I don’t, really. I had my say when I cast my vote for the city council last year. Now it’s up to my political party of choice to represent my interests in front of the other parties. Politicians, please do your job, and let me do mine.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 21:02 and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.