Matthijs of Hollandia
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| Office | Chairman of the Communist Party of Hollandia, former Chair of the International Communist Party. |
| Term of Office | CPH: 23 March 2006 - present / ICP: 05 May 2006 - 09 June 2006 |
| Predecessor | N/A (first ICP Chair) |
| Successor | Karl Marx |
| Date of Birth | 8 September, 1950 |
| Place of Birth | New Amsterdam, Hollandia |
| Political Party | Communist Party of Hollandia |
Matthijs of Hollandia(born 8 September, 1960) is the current Chairman of the Communist Party of Hollandia. He had been active in the CPH for a long time, before he became the de facto leader of his country when he established the socialist government of the Democratic People's Republic of Hollandia on 23 March, 2006, which then joined the ICSN.
He was a co-founder of the ICP, and was elected its first Chair on 5 May, 2006, winning an election against RedHerman of Cansydia by majority vote. He held this position for one term before losing the second round of new Chair elections to Karl Marx of Marxist Paradise.
He is believed to have been responsible for the eventual accession of his nation to the New Pacific Order by strongly agitating for it, and represents his nation in this alliance.
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[edit] Biography
There are few reliable sources about Matthijs' early life. The general consensus is that he was born on 8 September, 1960, to uncertain parents, in New Amsterdam, the capital of Hollandia. One thing that is agreed on is that he was found by a couple of rebels, who took him in and raised him in the middle of the First Hollandian Civil War(see "History" section in Hollandia article) between the Marxist guerrillas of the May Day Movement(MDM) and the Hollandian government, which would have a profound impact on his life. As of yet, no traces to his original family have been found. In official documents, he is referred to as either Chairman Matthijs, or Matthijs of Hollandia.
He attended elementary school from age 4 to 8, but due to the civil war, he, as a child from a communist family, was no longer safe there. He received his further education, along with political schooling, in a Revolutionary Schooling Collective organised by the MDM. He would later gain inspiration from this when working for the Commissariat of Youth & Education during the short-lived socialist government of the MDM, which was established when he was 20.
[edit] Guerrilla Activity
Two years later, conservative and nationalist elements within the Hollandian Army, led by general Kamp, and funded from abroad by several fascist states, staged a revolt against the MDM government, starting the Second Hollandian Civil War. Matthijs then led several operations against the Army, but had to go into hiding again when the MDM government was overthrown after eight years of fighting, and several of its key figures, including his adoptive parents, were tortured to death.
He gathered remnants of the MDM, and started a rural guerrilla movement against the nationalist government. MDM guerrillas managed to control significant parts of the countryside, setting up their own taxation system and reviving the Revolutionary Schooling Collectives, but failed to make a decisive move, as the Hollandian Army refused to engage the MDM in open field, instead keeping the peace down in the larger cities and towns.
After fifteen years of bloody fighting, while Matthijs was 45 years old, the MDM could finally make its move: its fighters had infiltrated the Army in most cities and towns, managing to take it over, and Matthijs personally led the 1st Battallion which marched on New Amsterdam. After a hasty trial, general Kamp was executed by a shot to the neck for "crimes against the people", the MDM was renamed "Communist Party of Hollandia" with Matthijs as Chairman, and the Democratic People's Republic of Hollandia was officially founded.
[edit] ICSN
As de facto leader of the newly-founded socialist government, Matthijs ensured the country's accession to the International Coalition of Socialist Nations. He was heavily involved in discussions regarding the ICSN and its affairs with other alliances, and founded the International Communist Party along with Harry Pollitt of Anglesey, as a political party within the ICSN. The party at first accepted Lawtonprk as a member, although they would later sever ties with him. On 17 April, 2006, the ICSN was beginning to fall apart through seemingly endless fighting among its members, and political parties were outlawed.
After many days of in-fighting, the ICSN turned out to be unable to avert a war with the New Pacific Order and the LUEnited Nations, and Hollandia was attacked by a member nation of LUE. Matthijs then decided to write his account of Hollandia's time in the ICSN, making a scathing criticism of this alliance, while insulting the leaders of several important ICSN nations. Hollandia then abandoned that alliance, and swore an oath to Ivan Moldavi, Emperor of the NPO to avoid further attacks on Hollandia, as was the condition for peace for former ICSN nations. He personally sacked the entire Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hollandia for its inability to keep the country out of the war.
[edit] ICP
He and Harry Pollitt were then responsible for the foundation of a resurrected ICP, this time in the form of an alliance. With new members being accepted, the alliance was officially founded on 1 May, the International Day of Labour, and its May Day Constitution passed. On 5 May, Matthijs was elected Chair of the ICP, and worked on improving it.
On the 9 June, elections to a second Chair term followed, in which Matthijs, Karl Marx and Drakomis participated. Matthijs, feeling ensured of victory, put little effort into campaigning. However, neither he nor any other candidates managed to receive a majority vote(see International Communist Party for exact numbers). A second round followed between him and Marx, in which Marx won a decisive electoral victory, running on a platform of reunification with all socialist alliances.
Following his defeat, he continued to work within the party, also principally being in favour of reunification with the ICSN, but unwilling to make any compromise with them in the face of what he saw as belligerence and undiplomatic behavior from their side.
[edit] NPO
On the 17 July, the Communist Party of Hollandia officially removed itself from the ICP, and Hollandia joined the New Pacific Order. Matthijs had furiously agitated in favour of this during a long meeting of the party's congress, and the motion was eventually adopted by 66.8% of the vote. This unusual amount of support for such a controversial move was explained by the position of the Chairman, as well as the explicit support from the entire foreign ministry, which was previously instrumental in the foundation of the ICP.
Then, controversially, Hollandia declared war upon the LSF collective of workers' councils known as Land&Liberty. Various explanations have been given for this. Political opponents of the CPH claim reasons such as dogmatic Stalinism, or a personal grudge of the Chairman against Land&Liberty's representative NKOS from their ICSN days. Other accounts, including the official one of the Hollandian government, claim that the only reason was one of convenience: the LSF was at war with the NPO at the time(while not officially being part of the CoaLUEtion), Land&Liberty was right next to Hollandia, and its defences were weak(although its military technology was superior).
The invasion of Land&Liberty was initially successful, but failed to decisively defeat its militia. This militia soon regrouped counter-attacked, dealing a smashing defeat to the Hollandian People's Army, causing chaos in New Amsterdam that would last until the end of the war. Land&Liberty then declared war on the NPO nation Republic of Texas, thinking that Hollandia was defeated for good.
Having to abandon the capital and leading guerrilla warfare yet again, Matthijs anxiously studied NPO documents on warfare. With NPO aid, he then coordinated a counter-strike together with the leadership of Texas, repelling the militia of Land&Liberty. The HPA then went on to attempt to stop the chaos in the capital, and war was declared on GATO member nation MGS:TUS in aid of an ally.
However, MGS:TUS was never attacked, because the nations of USSF, G33T3ER SC00T and Trotskyism all attacked Hollandia. While the country was in ruin, daring guerrilla raids on the latter two enemies brought anarchy to both of their nations, and the entire government and military leadership of Hollandia could return to the Republican Palace safely when the war was over.
After the war, Hollandia remained in the NPO. Matthijs was a candidate for the alliance's War Council in the August election, and Alliance Council in the September election, but did not gain enough votes to secure a position. He is currently still firmly in command of the CPH, and by extension also the country.
[edit] Personal Life
Matthijs is currently unmarried, living in his private wing of the Republican Palace in New Amsterdam. Although political opponents have long been spreading rumours of wild nights in that building, foreign diplomats have never been able to confirm any of them. In response to an interviewer inquiring about this subject, he had this to say: "I freely admit that I enjoy some of life's finer pleasures, including nice vodka, nice cigars and nice women. But the really eccentric rumours are simply untrue. One trashy magazine had the gall to claim that I 'own' a host of 'pleasure women' whose work is supposedly to see to my sexual pleasure every night. If anybody thinks they can prove this, I invite them to try. I honestly have better ways to spend my nights than on the wild booze parties that such magazines claim."
[edit] Policies and Opinions
Opinions on Matthijs are extremely divided, among both the political left and right. In Hollandia itself, he has been credited for his role in the complete transformation of the educational system at his early age, and his leadership during and after the Third Hollandian Civil War which led to the Hollandian transition into a socialist economy.
A minority in the Communist Party of Hollandia has formed a bloc against him when he sacked the entire Foreign Affairs Department for their inability to handle the country's ICSN membership, even though he had never criticized the Department before the war began, thus also accepting ICSN membership. They accused him of hypocrisy, and have become more vocal when he started personally interfering with the Economics Department. Although Hollandia's prosperity has greatly increased as a result of this, the opposition fears his "dictatorial" influence.
Within the ICSN, opinions on him were greatly divided. Most leaders of important member nations had worked together with him at some point during the many power struggles within the ICSN, but he has maintained permanent good relations with only a few of them. However, he claims to have been consistent in his ideology and policies for the ICSN, and blames any animosity within that alliance on the nature of the power struggles that went on at the time, which were marked by often changing allegiances.
During the NPO-ICSN War he eventually became known internationally when he denounced the ICSN and initiated the foundation of the International Communist Party. During this time, he actively made his presence known on the international scene, appeasing the NPO and LUE and giving them his point of view on the situation. The few leaders who remained in the ICSN criticised him for this, along with his publicly giving information on the inner workings of the ICSN and some of its members, which further damaged the reputation of that alliance and aided the NPO and LUE in their war and propaganda efforts.
Outside of the ICSN-related conflicts, however, opinions on him are less polarised. Most find him fair to deal with, although some have criticised his failure to condemn violent revolutionary movements in other nations, some of which are affiliated to his party.
He again became criticised during the Second NPO-NAAC War, when he publicly applauded the NPO's war effort, even though it was believed by some to be a war of imperialist expansion. He replied to this by saying that the NPO was justified in its war, seeing as that is the consequence of spying on the NPO, and that he is not alone in his respect for the NPO. Indeed, both GATO and The Legion joined the war against the NAAC shortly thereafter.
With the advent of The Great War, the ICP was divided, causing the CPH's withdrawal from that international movement, and Hollandia's controversial entry into the war. Land&Liberty was attacked, and ICSN nations soon started giving aid to that country, supplying aid and waging war against Hollandia.
[edit] Martens World
In Kaiser Martens World, Hollandia, also known as Jayapura, was a city state on New Guinea, before it united with other socialist nations on that island to form the Democratic People's Republic of Hollandia.
Matthijs is a revolutionary leader whose May Day Movement took over the city of Hollandia, declaring it independent of the rest of the territory. As the rest of New Guinea also experienced socialist revolutions, he was eventually instrumental in uniting these territories, forming the DPRH, which was declared on 12 October, 2006.
His personality is similar to that of his CN version.
[edit] Speeches and Writings
Matthijs' speeches and writings no longer exist in the news archives, which are often pruned, but can be requested by contacting the Hollandian Information Office here.
