Calvin Synod Herald, 1992 (92. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1992-01-01 / 1. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD- 8 -REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA Hungary and the Dawn of Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe Excerpts from Enikő Bollobás’ lecture at the Associate Professor of English and American Literature Foreign Affairs Spokesperson of the Hungarian Democratic Forum We Hungarians were of course delighted when the events of the second half of 1989 took their course. Even if they meant that we no longer were occupying the world’s headlines Hungary’s emancipation from communism has been a gradual and usually un-spectacular affair. True, in a sense, we started it: we dismantled our part of the Iron Curtain in July 1989, and presented President Bush with a chunk of it, suitably mounted. That allowed tens of thousands of young East Germans to escape through Hungary to the West, which in tum brought down Honecker and then the Czechoslovak regime. On 23 of October (the 33rd anniversary of 1956) Hungary formally became a democratic republic. The news, then, went round the world. Since then, we had our first elections, installing a government of the centre-right Hungarian Democratic Forum. How this was achieved is a good question — and perhaps we shall never quite know the answer, because we all remember the Leninist rule: “never wright anything down.” In any event, the Party itself took the lead in dismantling Communism. It was infiltrated by non-Communists (as happened in Estonia or Lithuania) and eventually, with Soviet encouragement, it re-named itself and launched the new Republic last October. Hungary has seen Western Europe flourish. It was a humiliation for us to see how much better life was just over the border, and joining “Europe” — in whichever capacity, and whichever form “Europe” takes — is a matter of life and death for us. Although the Hungarian language is notoriously an odd-man-out in an indo- European continent, Hungarians strongly feel part of Central-European civilization. We were very much part of it in the Middle Ages, and we can look back on the nineteenth century and say that, then, we managed to do what we now have to do, and rebuild the country. Hungarians have had a very battered twentieth century, losing half of their country and with over three million Hungarian speakers living in the neighbouring countries which profited from 1919—1920. Being part of Europe is for us an essential part of the renewal process. We have much hope that a strong Europe will emerge, and that Budapest will be among its greatest cities once more. In particular, we hope that the new Europe will follow President Mitterrand’s suggestion — in a speech in Budapest last January — and become a continent, not of changed borders, but of transparent ones. Nowadays, nationalism is quite out of fashion in most countries, the problems of nationality having been, mainly, solved. For us, there is still a certain difficulty, in that the position of the two-million-stong Hungarian minority in Transylvania still gives us great cause for concern. We mean no harm to the Rumanians who since 1918 have been in possession of Transylvania, but the Hungarians who live there do deserve the elementary educational and cultural rights of which Ceausescu cruelly deprived them. In the new Europe, a properly-worded declaration of rights could do so much for the future of a truly multi-national Transylvania that all Hungarians — and Rumanians, I trust — will warmly endorse President Mitterrand’s words. But can Hungary develop from Communism into the ways of democracy and become a European state like others? Bringing about a radical change, in the direction of free-enterprise economy, is very far from being easy, and though the country is still in a state of euphoria at its freedom, there are problems ahead. Two things make these problems easier. In the first place, Communism did have the curious effect of teaching people the virtues of free enterprise. This occurs through the black economy: our people have become remarkably skilled in business, and now we can tum what was once a black-market criminality into a whitemarket virtue. You in the West will of course be familiar with the energy and adaptability of Hungarian emigrants, and we are rather proud of that. That energy can now be used at home, and if we can handle the political side and the social consequences, we might manage this transition faster than other, larger countries which have not had our experience of gradual de-communizing. Politically, at any rate, things have gone quite well. The country is quite united as to what should be done, though there are differences over who should do it. The plethora of parties with which, inevitably, we started off last winter has now been greatly reduced. The Hungarian Democratic Forum won the elections, but has extended a welcoming hand to the chief loser, the Free Democrats. The Germans in the 1920’s used to demand a government of überparteiliche Fachmänner — above-party experts — which was mocked as really meaning “extreme conservatives”. Our coming government does contain experts, but we are not extreme conservatives: rather, we are looking for common-sense, European solutions to things. Being here in Bordeaux has been a privilege for me, and I am most grateful to you for inviting me. It may well be, and of course we all hope to see it, that Hungarians will take their proper part in European institutions; it may even be that we shall be turning up as part of a new Central European Federation — another of President Mitterrand’s ideas —, including several of the old Habsburg lands. For, despite the differences in language, we all have a very great deal in common, and if we can use the twenty-first century to overcome the great tragedies of the twentieth, then, dare I say it, Hungary has deserved a place. My trip to Hungary (Continued from Page 7) conference did continue until June 30, 1991. There was also much joy in Hungary because on June 19th the last Russian aggressor left Hungarian soil. To commemorate this occasion, on June 30th at 12:00 Noon, all the church bells in Hungary were to ring for one hour. Many of the 18 people in our group all left Hungary with the same thoughts in mind. It was a wonderful and beautiful trip. We had all accomplished a great deal. We had visited family loved ones that still lived in Hungary, visited many beautiful places, enjoyed the fabulous and tasteful Hungarian cuisine, tasted the wine and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We departed knowing that accomplishments and hope had been made for more unification and world encompassment of all Hungarian Reformed Churches. All were eager to return home but in the back of our thoughts was a wish that someday we might again return to Hungary. Edmund Vig Chief Elder Allen Park, Michigan
