- Madam President. Dear countrymen. We have a choice to
make. We are never faced with just one way, one solution. To assert so
is a testimony to incredible tunnel vision on the reality that we live
in. We are far from being the first and only nation that has had to deal
with crisis and economic collapse. Perhaps what makes our position unique
is that we are in an economic war a war with nations that are using
their positions of power to get what they want. Does that mean that all
other avenues are closed? Are there perhaps other possibilities than chaining
us with the burdens of foreign debt far into the future?
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- It certainly makes sense to lower our interest payments
as soon as possible but is there perhaps another way? Why can't we look
at, or at least discuss, the possible solution of declaring a debt moratorium?
The numbers I hear on the national debt are so huge and such a high percentage
of our GDP, that according to all the standards we use, we are technically
bankrupt. Is it maybe better to face reality before it is too late? Is
it maybe better for our nation to take the crunch immediately instead of
continuously adding to our foreign debt? Do we want to offer our children
the hopeless conditions that many underdeveloped countries have had to
offer their future generations? Do we want to be just another country that
does not do anything other than pay off interest on foreign debts? What
is the worst thing that could happen if we declare debt moratorium? Will
the sky fall? Will we starve? Will we never again be able to get loans
from the international community? Of course not.
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- We have heard from many experts that horrendous tales
of the International Monetary Fund. They warn us against continuing on
the road we are on. Do these fine individuals know what they are talking
about? One of them is a Nobel Prize winner in economics and worked for
the IMF a long time, the other was an economic hit man and yet another
one is a world renowned economist. Some experts have proposed that we join
other nations that have defied the IMF, or at least seek advice from nations
that have fared badly under IMF conditions. Will we be able to preserve
economic independence, if we continue to believe that the only possible
solution to the debt problem is to create more debt? People who are dealing
with excessive consumption of some sort should probably not use this cure
since the solution seems to be to consume more to cure the over consumption.
I simply don't understand this methodology.
-
- Unfortunately, the reality is that if we continue on
the way the government is going our nation will be crushed under the interest
burdens of foreign debt. Payment of foreign debt will take a big chunk
of our economic growth and our GDP. The government proposes two ways out
of this problem, slashing our welfare state and increasing taxes. Furthermore,
we have not seen any reasonable proposal to correct the injustice that
the public has suffered. How can you expect the nation to shoulder such
burdens as the proposed cuts and tax increase suggests if you can not trust
that the hardship will have positive results in the end? It simply can
not be expected.
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- We now need to make decisions based on hope, justice,
and the resurrection of pride which comes from living in a country which
many people believe is almost uninhabitable. We can and should seek all
possible ways to find common solutions. Britain declared war on our nation
when they labeled us as terrorists the British authorities have used
economic terrorism against us by misusing the IMF, and using our EU membership
application as leverage in order to extort from us what they want in the
Icesave<http://us.mc304.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?&extraargs=%26.rand%3D810979427#_ftn1>[1]
debate. It is morally wrong to lay debts on the shoulders of the public
which it had nothing to do with in the first place.
-
- Our government doesn't seem to realize that we are indeed
in an economic war and that the nation has been attacked in such a way
which makes a courteous response impossible, and it being impossible as
well to state without blinking that we should pay the debts of financiers
that mortgaged the work of the nation undisturbed while the administration
slept.
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- The demands of Britain and Holland regarding Icesave
have to be rejected on the basis of national well being and security. If
the government tries to honor the Icesave agreement and follow the IMF
program it could lead to mass emigration, damage our healthcare and education
system, diminish the workforce, inhibit productive investments and usher
in a period of permanent national decline.
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- I object when our leaders claim that we the people are
obliged to pay debts we never incurred. On what basis should every man,
woman and child be forced to pay ¤20,000 each? I have heard that
we have to pay the British and the Dutch because they are using their strong
position to stop our loan from the IMF. I have heard that their MPs were
ruthless and rude to our visiting MPs last week in the European Parliament,
and had said more than once that if we didn't pay we could not join the
European Union. I don't know about you, respected government and prime
minister, but I think the time has come to get out of this bind and seek
alternative solutions.
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- The Movement supports the following ideas for action
to bring us out of the economic calamity we are in:
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- First, we should rid ourselves of the IMF presence in
our country using all available means. The European Union has also been
hostile to Iceland in the Icesave debate and hence it would be inadvisable
to continue with our membership application at this time.
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- Secondly, we should initiate measures to control speculative
trading, first by placing a 1% "Tobin-tax" on all financial transactions
and profits, including derivatives, stocks, currency transactions and commodity
speculation. Additionally we should halt the repossession of homes and
businesses and update our regulatory framework for banks and financial
markets.
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- We are now heading into familiar territory where left
and right are positioning themselves in the usual opposing trenches. Lament
is now heard from a familiar corner about how the cutbacks aren't large
enough or that its unfair to tax those more who can afford to pay more.
-
- We have often heard that we need to get around this left-right
paradigm which places people in opposing camps. It has never been more
important than right now to lift the discussion on a higher plane than
the trench warfare of obsolete values.
-
-
- When I see the task of this government I see a number
of important issues on the agenda and I pledge our support to much of
the legislation being proposed. Much has been discussed about a broad based
national coalition government and a non-parliamentary government . Such
arrangements have not fared well in the past, but the total collapse of
our financial system may justify that all elected representatives shoulder
collective responsibility of resuscitating our economy. Unfortunately our
president has lost his symbol of unity and any such government appointed
by him would leave much to be desired.
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- This year I and my friends in The Movement have have
thought about what could unite us to seek a way out of our troubles. What
could make us believe that it was sensible to try working our way out of
these trying times and injustice. Is it realistic to expect that the public
take on the difficult times ahead if they can not unite on something to
work through this? It is often said that we parliamentarians are a disparate
group of people reflecting the different views of society. Maybe our next
big task should be to find a common way which we all can go. Maybe we
need to think beyond the next four years. Maybe we need to really discuss
what kind of nation we want to be. Many people walk wounded from the boom
time in which they took part, they got swept by the current and now feel
guilty. Others never took part in any of this and feel its unfair that
now they are called on to pay for this whole mess when they never were
rich in the first place. The pulse of the nation is rapid and raging.
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- The new Iceland isn't the Iceland that the people called
for. They wanted democratic reforms, but legislation now being proposed
in this area is weak and not in tune with the people's demands. The nation
needs a constitutional convention in which citizens take part but the expensive
advisory convention for a chosen few which the government proposes is a
distortion of the unity such a convention could bring if a different metheod
were used. In November a few energetic individuals will call together a
national convention and it is my hope this endeavor will guide us on this
path.
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- We parliamentarians are here to represent the will of
the people. But the people have to make up their minds as to what it is
that they want. It is clear that no matter which government will be in
charge, they will always be unpopular in the trying times ahead If we
are not to have a persistent government crisis it is important that Parliament
take back the powers it was originally intended to have. At the moment
the executive branch holds Parliament hostage. It is healthy for democracy
that the executive branch refrain from using its MPs as a rubber stamp
for their decisions. The government has set an example for all and called
for the parliamentary minority to work according to their conviction, cf.
European Union application - it must apply to the majority as well. Heard
mentality and leader adulation brought us down. Let's make sure it doesn't
happen again. The Movement wants to speak for the public; we have no interests
to guard but your own.
-
- Halldór Laxness[2] had a unique insight into our
nation's soul. "Maystar," his poems of hope, sings in my heart
when I think to my nation these days, and in particular this verse:
-
- There are difficult times,
- there is a labor dispute,
- I have nothing to offer,
- not a scrap I can give,
- but my hope and my life
- whether awake or asleep,
- this hope that you gave me
- it is all that I have.
-
- There are difficult times and a hard winter lies ahead,
but let us never forget that the darkest hour is always before dawn and
there is hope if we find it together. In order for this to happen we must
square up with the past and implement real changes. If we can see a purpose
with our sacrifices this nation can continue to perform small miracles
and make the impossible possible, then this depression will perhaps not
last as long as it seems at the moment. It is unrealistic to argue that
next year we will see the end of the crisis. But it is realistic to set
goals that we can all agree on. What these goals are is yours to decide
and ours to implement.
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- [1] http://us.mc304.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?&
extraargs=%26.rand%3D810979427#_ftnref1
- [Icesave refers to the branch banks set up by the Iceland-based
private banks Landsbanki and Kaupthing in the deregulated banking sectors
of Great Britain and the Netherlands. These branches were seized by London
and The Hague at the height of the Lehman Brothers panic in September-October
2008. These governments, backed by the IMF, then demanded more than $6
billion from the Icelandic government to bail out the depositors. This
is the attempted extortion which Ms. Jonsdottir is speaking against.]
-
- [2] http://us.mc304.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?
&extraargs=%26.rand%3D810979427#_ftnref2
[Laxness is the most beloved modern Icelandic writer and the author of
Independent People; he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955.]
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