(Initially published in www.romania-report.ro - Mar 14, 2005)
On Saturday, President Traian Basescu issued a new challenge in Timisoara, promising that he will crush the communist structures that still exist in the Romanian society because, he says, as long as the country does not get rid of the old system’s structures, Romania is moving ahead “with brakes on.”
President Basescu and (former) King Michael I attended, in the city on the Bega River, the events organised by the “Timisoara” Society to mark 15 years since the launch of the "Timisoara Proclamation", on March 11, 1990.
The "Timisoara Proclamation" asked for banning all former communist elite from Romanian political power structures. "The former democrat President of Romania, Emil Constantinescu, declared, when he stepped down, 'I was defeated by the communist structures still in place' and I think he was right. I assure you that I will vanquish those structures, where they exist,” Basescu told the audience.
However, the President warned, political will is not enough for the moral cleansing of the society, as we also need a change of mentality, because - Basescu considers - “the sum of democracy at individual level will eventually mean democracy to Romania.”
In his turn, H.M. King Michael I appreciated the proclamation was, and remains, a reference point, “the compass of tomorrow’s generations.” He reminded that the Proclamation presented, as a purpose of the Revolution, the unity of all the social categories of the nation, stating that respect for private property is the basis of any democratic society and that Romania’s integration in European or international organisations is a necessity in order to survive as a peaceful and prosperous state.
A particular paragraph in the Proclamation asked for the removal of all communist party activists from any public position, for a certain time interval, King Michael added. He pointed out that not all the recommendations of the document were put into practice ever since, but most of its objectives have been reached eventually and the Proclamation “triumphed indirectly, slowly but surely.”
2005 - year of lustration
The members of the Timisoara Society announced they will launch a wide project under the logo “2005 - the year of lustration,” whose first action will be promoting the draft Law of Lustration, elaborated ever since 1998 by former Christian-Democrat MP George Serban.
The document currently is at the Ministry of Culture and Minister Mona Musca promised to update it and send it back to Parliament. The leaders of the Christian Democratic People’s Party (PPCD) announced their support for this project of the Timisoara Society.
The leader of PPCD and Mayor of Timisoara, Gheorghe Ciuhandu considers all political parties in Romania that label themselves as democratic should introduce in their statute a provision in the spirit of "point 8" of the Proclamation, thus barring the access of former Securitate collaborators to any public position.
In his opinion, the Timisoara Proclamation remains in history and in the collective memory as the only document in which those who initiated the Revolution have voiced their wish to change the system in Romania. If the document had been observed, “Romania would have looked completely different today,” Ciuhandu declared. He evoked the memory of the document’s initiator, George Serban, saying “a day will come when we will celebrate the 13 points of the document as an accomplished fact, thus respecting the will of George Serban to close, once and for all, the communist chapter in Romania’s history.
“Sack the chief of STS”
Former Romanian President Emil Constantinescu, present on Saturday in Timisoara, urged President Traian Basescu to move from speech to facts in his fight against the former communist structures, proposing him to sack the current chief of the Special Telecommunications Service (STS).
He reminded that, in January 1997, the first general he dismissed through an order published in the Official Gazette was Tudor Tanase, who had led the technical service of the Securitate. Later, he was reinstated as STS head by Ion Iliescu, the same as 33 other Securitate generals who were dismissed by him and reintroduced in the system by Iliescu.
Romania Report
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