ABSTRACT
A few years ago, in an unguarded moment of visible irritation, the then Dutch Prime Minister, Jan Peter Balkenende, allowed himself to be drawn into appealing to the country to follow the positive example of the Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie – the Dutch East India Company (voc). The footage of these words being spoken in the Lower House of the Dutch parliament suggest that he too was somewhat shocked by his own bold comparison. ‘Don’t you think?’, he added in slight hesitation. Mild embarrassment seems to have descended on the parliament, accompanied here and there by disbelief and derision. The political and media reactions were predictable: there are so many painful questions surrounding the voc that the Prime Minister should never have referred to it so lightly. And that is where it ended. Parliament does not debate history, unless it really cannot be avoided. 1
