ANP
News from the NOS•
John Lilipaly, who was in the PvdA House of Representatives from 1986 to 1998, has died. This was reported by party colleague Lodewijk Asscher, who wishes his relatives strength. Lilipaly was the first parliamentarian of Moluccan origin and for many years he devoted himself to integration and education. He was 79 years old.
Lilypaly was born in 1944 in Ihamahu, on the island of Saparua, in the Moluccas, and arrived in the Netherlands at the age of 5. After graduating from the pedagogical academy, she taught at an elementary school and subsequently taught at the academy himself. He then worked for years at the Ministry of Education, where he eventually became an education inspector, a job he swapped in 1986 to become a member of parliament. Shortly before, he had switched from PPR to PvdA.
The son of a KNIL soldier who also had to travel daily from Vlissingen to the ministry in The Hague, he was extensively confronted with prejudice and racism after the train hijackings in Wijster and De Punt in 1977. In 1987 he recalled in a conversation with the Nieuwsblad van het Noorden who sometimes faced this on the train. “Are you going to hijack?” a traveling companion had bit him.
“The Chamber must reflect the population”
Education, a path that he said came about because his father refused to support him in a career as a professional footballer, said it was the most important tool against racism and integration problems. Education was therefore the topic on which he spoke as a deputy for the PvdA. “The only thing you can do is make people of color resilient,” he thought at that moment. “This has to start with education, that’s where the roots are.”
Although the Netherlands had treated the Moluccan community coldly for decades, and he had made his entrance into Dutch politics by speaking out against it as vice-president of the Moluccan Involvement Body, he said shortly after taking office that he did not want to. stay with history for a long time, stay still. “On the contrary, we must move forward as a people.”
He also said, at the time the only black MP, that parliament should reflect the composition of the population and could contribute to this. For years he has therefore continued to defend ethnic minorities, education and, like Zeeuw, who also spoke for his Oosterschelde party, improving water quality for years.
John Lilipaly was also the father of Carolijn Lilipaly, presenter of MTV, NOS, Canal + and CNBC Europe.
