Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)

Annex

Annex - Kálmán Petőcz

ment about compliance with the State Language Act. The proclaimed purpose of the order issued by the education minister was to encourage ethnic Hungarian pupils to leam state language. But teaching Slovak language (or any other language, for that matter) is primarily a pedagogical, methodological and didactical issue.2 The country’s education system obviously has great reserves in the field of teaching languages - not only Slovak but foreign languages as well. Since politicians pay next to no attention to this issue, the reader would certainly agree that studying Slovak (or any other) language is primarily the matter of motivation. But what motivation to learning Slovak can ethnic Hungarian pupils have in the atmosphere of anti- Hungarian sentiments? Or, even more importantly, what motivation can have their parents and teachers to making the pupils leam?

E. The very argument that makes attaining sufficient command of the socalled state language almost the overriding priority of minority education is completely wrong. Here, Slovak government officials make another significant logic somersault. Their argument is a carbon copy of the philosophy of schooling acts initiated in 1907 by Count Albert Apponyi, Hungarian Minister of Culture and Education, which were always extensively criticized by members of the Slovak political elite. According to this philosophy, all children in the Hungarian Kingdom were obliged to achieve good (Premier Fico uses the word “perfect” in his appeals to the members of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia) command of the state language by the time they finished the fourth grade because it was in the best interest of the state as well as in the best interest of the pupils’ future opportunities.

F. Thorough application of the constitutional principle granting ethnic Hungarians (and members of other national minorities) the right to express, preserve and develop their ethnic identity is unthinkable without allowing them to cultivate primarily their own native language. Only a small percentage of people have the gift of perfect bilingualism. So, if government makes citizens’ perfect command of other than their native language its priority, it in fact questions its true commitment to preserving fundamental rights of national minorities.

Implications for democracy and human rights

The tendency to qualify any reference to autonomy, any criticism of Beneš decrees, any attempt to unfurl the Hungarian flag or other Hungarian symbols in Slovakia or use traditional Hungarian names to refer to geographic entities on Slovakia’s territory as anti-state or at least illegal activity proves that a significant part of Slovakia’s political elite lacks a clear concept

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