Bram van Ojik

Bram van Ojik
Leader of GreenLeft in the House of Representatives
In office October 8, 2012 – May 12, 2015
Preceded by	Jolande Sap
Succeeded by	Jesse Klaver
Member of the House of Representatives
In office September 20, 2012 – May 12, 2015
In office April 21, 1993 – May 17, 1994
Personal details
Born	Abraham van Ojik (1954-09-22) September 22, 1954 Veenendaal, Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Political party	GreenLeft (1990-present) Political Party of Radicals (1973-1990)
Children	1 son, 1 daughter
Residence	The Hague, Netherlands
Alma mater	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Occupation	Politician, economist

Abraham (Bram) van Ojik (born September 22, 1954 in Veenendaal) is a Dutch GreenLeft and former Political Party of Radicals politician. From 2012 until 2015 he was leader in the House of Representatives for GreenLeft.

Political career

Political Party of Radicals

Van Ojik comes from the Political Party of Radicals, one of the four parties that merged to form GreenLeft in 1989. Van Ojik had been member of the PPR since 1973. Between 1972 and 1980 Van Ojik studied economics at the Free University. He specialized in development economics. Between 1978 and 1981, he served on the board for radical education. As a conscientious objector, Van Ojik did his alternative service at the development organization NIO. After that he worked for the scientific bureau of the PPR until 1983. Here he wrote a book on basic income. In 1986 he co-authored the PPR's election program. Between 1985 and 1988, he was editor-in-chief of the PPR party paper. Between 1988 and 1990 he was party chair of the PPR. As chair of the PPR, he was involved in the negotiations over the formation of GreenLeft, a new political party formed by the merger of the Pacifist Socialist Party, Communist Party of Netherlands, and Evangelical People's Party. Van Ojik had always favoured cooperation between the four parties, but the PPR party board soon wanted to abandon negotiations. Van Ojik had to defend this, although he did not support it. The formal PPR delegation was replaced by an informal delegation by former party chair Wim de Boer. In 1989 the talks led to the formation of a new party. Van Ojik became a member of the first party board. In addition to these activities, Van Ojik freelance journalist and advisor on the subject of development cooperation. Between 1990 and 1993 Van Ojik worked for Oxfam NOVIB.

GreenLeft

Between 1993 and 1994, Van Ojik was member of the House of Representatives for GreenLeft. He replaced PPR member Ria Beckers. He spoke on agriculture, development cooperation and science. He prepared an initiative to limit the use of wood from the tropics. It was finally proposed in 1994 by Marijke Vos. At the 1994 election Van Ojik was put on the seventh place of the GreenLeft list, the same place he had in 1989. GreenLeft only won five seats. He also co-authored the GreenLeft election program.

In 1997 Van Ojik again co-authored GreenLeft's election program for the 1998 election.

For GreenLeft, Van Ojik chaired a committee which evaluated the municipal elections (2006), parliamentary (2006) and provincial (2007), all of which GreenLeft had lost. Then he became chair of the committee which oversaw a debate within GreenLeft on the party's principles, strategy and organizations. This led to a new manifesto of principles in 2008 of which Van Ojik is one of the co-authors.

After national elections on September 12, 2012 the size of the representation of the GreenLeft party within the House of Representatives was reduced from 10 seats to 4 seats. On October 8, 2012 Van Ojik became leader in the House of Representatives for GreenLeft; some days earlier his predecessor Jolande Sap was forced to step down as leader in the House of Representatives for GreenLeft by the board of the GreenLeft party.

Further career

After not being re-elected for the Dutch House of Representatives, Van Ojik worked for the environmental organization MilieuDefensie between 1994 and 1997. In 1995 he co-authored a book on corals together with Labour Party politician Max van den Berg. In 1997 Van Ojik switched to the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he became director of public communication on development cooperation. In 1998 he again co-authored a book with Van der Berg, now on development cooperation. In 2001 Van Ojik became ambassador in general service. He organized external contacts for the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation. In 2003 Van Ojik became the Dutch ambassador to Benin. In 2006 he returned to the Netherlands to become director of the inspection for evaluation of development cooperation policy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He also helped the government prepare policy to meet the millennium goals for the fourth Balkenende cabinet.

On May 12, 2015 his resignation as leader of GreenLeft and as member of parliament was announced. Jesse Klaver took over his role as leader of the party, while Rik Grashoff took up Van Ojik's seat in parliament on May 20, 2015.

References

• (Dutch) Parlement.com biography