Hungarian American Coalition News, 2004 (13. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
2004 / 1. szám
Hungarian American Coalition March 2004__________________________________________________________________________Vol. 13, No. 1 AUTONOMY A Solution for Minority Self-Governance Many of the post-Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe still struggle to achieve democracy and economic stability. Without exception, the Hungarian national minority communities in these countries embrace these goals and are actively engaged in creating more modem, open and prosperous societies. Some of these Hungarian communities number in the thousands, but in Romania and Slovakia, where they number about 1.5 million and 600,000 respectively, the Hungarian minorities carry substantial demographic, political and economic weight in the regions they inhabit. In recent years, Hungarian minority leaders have proposed various types and degress of autonomous institutions to create self-govemance for their communities. In addition to ensuring the longterm cultural and linguistic survival of national minorities, autonomy is a way to ensure a fully democratic and modem society. Indeed, autonomy has a long history in Europe, and it is also (as demonstrated by present-day examples in Western Europe) entirely compatible with a modem democracy. Autonomy is a means of ensuring that all significant segments of society - the minority as well as the majority - are able to participate effectively in public decision-making on issues which affect them. The following is a general summary of some of the proposed forms of autonomy. (See article on page 2) Hungarian American Coalition Supports Autonomy Aspirations of Transylvanian Hungarian Community The Hungarian American Coalition supports the autonomy proposals of the Hungarian national minority community in Transylvania, Romania. Hungarian minority communities in Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, and Ukraine have served as important catalysts for regional stability and democratization in post-communist Central Europe. Ethnic Hungarian political parties in the region have supported power-sharing arrangements in order to promote Western democratic values and to assume responsibilities for governance beyond their own particular interests. Their autonomy proposals aim to protect ethnic identity and to strengthen local democracy and self-governance within the existing state structure. These proposals would fulfill the legitimate needs of sizeable communities. The Hungarian American Coalition believes that if the 1.5 million-strong historic Hungarian community in Romania is to survive, it must secure effective methods to preserve and nurture its unique cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic identity. Territorial and cultural autonomy are such methods. Romanian leaders have repeatedly claimed that Romania’s minority policy is exemplary, but the facts prove otherwise. While the Romanian government has granted some concessions to reverse long-standing minority rights abuses, its progress has been lacking in other key areas. Most notably, the Romanian government has failed to make significant progress in returning the 2,140 properties illegally confiscated from Hungarian churches. Other shortcomings include the following: 1) denial of the aspiration for a Hungarian-language state university; 2) under-representation of ethnic Hungarians in the civil service and police force; and 3) the Romanian authorities’ opposition to any suggestions of regional economic development for Hungarian-inhabited counties. Romanian officials continue to depict ethnic Hungarians as “internal enemies” of the state. (continued on page 3)
