Itt-Ott, 1992 (25. évfolyam, 1/119-3/121. szám)

1992 / 2. (120.) szám

Vadim Tudor, former active Ceau§escu supporters. Their expertise in mud-slinging and suburban slang has targeted the ethnic minorities as the chief culprits for the failure of democracy in Romania. Drawing on the popularity of this magazine (circulation ca. 1 million), in June, 1991 Barbu and Vadim Tudor launched a new political party, also called Románia Mare, the platform of which has a national-socialist orientation. For the ethnic minorities, for instance, only basic rights (such as the right to life and to elementary education) are to be provided. (5) Other press products (Europa, Rena§terea banateana) have also joined the choir of nationalist-chauvinist tunes. It is little wonder that they are financially supported by Iosif Constantin Dragan, a former member of the Iron Guard now residing in Italy, a former open ally of Ceau§escu.

Paradoxically enough, such an atmosphere is easy to entertain, for, in its majority, this population is the product of fifty years of tough dictatorship, under which any idea of respect for the diversity of opinion or individual rights was systematically demolished. Thus, the idea that minorities do not ask for their legitimate rights, but seek “privileges,” was quickly given credit. It was also easy to convince people who were used to being constantly cheated that these “privileges” would ultimately mean fewer rights for themselves — the habit of continuously coping with shortages has taken its toll, as it left far more psychological and behavioral scars than one would think. The lack of correct information, the grim present, and the foggy future largely contribute to the general atmosphere of irritation.

Sadly, it is not a war of words, of software that is waged. On March 19, 1990, following a wide campaign of alarming rumors, groups of Romanians and Hungarians were driven to fight each other in Tirgu Mure§, “protected” by a lenient and understaffed police force. This clash claimed the lives of six people, and there were many other casualties. The distinguished Hungarian writer and opponent of the Ceau§escu regime, Sütő András, was savagely beaten, losing the sight of one of his eyes (this “surgical” treatment took place under the permissive looks of an army officer who happened to be a leader of Vatra romäneascä too). Ironically, on that very day a state-sponsored meeting between top Romanian and Hungarian intellectuals was under way in Budapest. They were the only ones to express their deep regrets for the events at Tirgu Mure§ and solidarity with Mr. Sütő’s plight. Romanian fellow-writers have never done so, and no theater manager has thought of putting on stage one of Mr. Sütő’s award-winning works as a minimal gesture of atonement. In contradistinction, one of the peasants bussed in to Tirgu Mure§ to fight the Hungarians, Mihälä Cofariu, who was badly wounded in the street fights, became a national hero, and was promptly and repeatedly shown on TV. He was sent, together with a friend, to undergo medical treatment in Cologne, Germany, his bills being footed by the Parliament. (Mention must be made here of the scores of severely injured people in Timisoara in December, 1989, who were never granted such medical facilities, although they badly needed them.)

This case fully illustrates the atmosphere systematically entertained around the minorities in Romania. Hungarians are the favorite target, but not the only ones. Chants like “Limba romänä sä fie stäpinä” (the Romanian language shall be the master), while expressly directed against the Hungarians, deeply offended the other minority groups too. It is true that they have somewhat more freedom than before, but they cannot feel secure to claim the observance of their specific rights as legitimate civil rights, nor have they any reason to hope that such rights will be granted in the near future. As it happens too often in Romania, political, social and, naturally, ethnic matters are discussed on an emotional, sentimental ground, rather than in legal terms. Therefore, public opinion gets only additional supplies of confusion when some self-declared liberals oppose the harassment of the Hungarians, but openly share the traditional resentment of the Russians or despise the Gypsies. At the utmost, the minorities are invited to rely on the kindness and soft hearts of the majority, who generously “tolerate” them. It is needless to say that the duty of the minorities is to behave in return, and to keep in mind who the master is. In the summer of 1991, the Jewish community organized a series of commemorations of the Holocaust victims. Innumerous articles, published not only in the nationalist press, but also in mainstream newspapers, doubted that Romania had ever contributed to the Holocaust, and, accordingly, in more or less categoric terms, dismissed any Romanian responsibility for the persecution and extermination of Jews before and during the Second World War, while accusing the Jewish community of a lack of good will. As a result of such attitudes, those Germans and Jews who, for a moment, had thought of giving up emigration, are more and more persuaded that emigration is still the best alternative. Romania is thus on the verge of completely losing her German and Jewish communities, willingly depriving herself of a hard-working and skilled population, and of the surest bridge to foreign investors.

The storm and fury of hate speech and xenophobic attitudes (in which numerous personalities and publications, even independent ones, participate) is so intense that many moderate-minded individuals, who could promote a calm debate on ethnic issues, feel intimidated, forced to take sides, or, at least, to remain silent on the subject, for fear they might lose their popularity. Probably the most widespread attitude among Romanians is what could be called “hidden xenophobia,” which does not resort to hate speech, but tacitly encourages it, absolving Romanians from any negative feature. It assumes that Romanians in their totality (in such discourse usually denoted as “the Romanian people”) share the many qualities known by everybody, and, therefore, cannot harm anybody. For instance, Marian Munteanu, a well-known student leader and activist, who got beaten up by the miners during their rampage trip through Bucharest in June, 1990, later declared on TV that he could not figure out who had been those who had hit and injured him, taking into account that Romanians are, by nature, good, kind, and loving, implying thus that any wrong deeds

28 ITT-OTT 25. évf. (1992), 2. (120.) szám