On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the declaration of Moldova’s Independence, IPN News Agency decided to depict the portrait of the current Republic of Moldova. For the purpose, it provoked a number of people, including state officials, politicians, businessmen, civil rights activists and persons without posts and titles, but who have what to say. The generic picture is called “Thoughts about and for Moldova”.
---
Andrei Nastase, chairman of the Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth”: “Republic of Moldova, on the 25th year of existence, is an authoritarian, oligarchic state conducted from behind by a criminal group”.
– Mister Nastase, how does the Republic of Moldova look like on the 25th anniversary of its Independence?
– The international diagnosis made to the Republic of Moldova is a very serious one. When the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Yangland states for a prestigious American newspaper that our country is a captive state that is on the edge of a precipice, in plain words this means that it suffers from cancer. This disease didn’t affect a particular organ or part of the body. It is a system disease that affects everything – from the kindergarten to the school, from the policlinic and hospital to the prosecution service, courts of law and central administration. It is a system based on corruption, social genocide, oppression of the own people, forcing of mass exodus or acceptance of the degrading and vitiated system.
The picture is even more awful when we realize that the Republic of Moldova, after 25 years of existence, became an authoritarian, oligarchic state led from behind by an organized criminal group headed by a former procurer. When the law enforcement and regulatory institutions, the financial flows, broadcasting and, especially, the electoral bodies for massively falsifying and rigging the elections are controlled, the people of Moldova cannot fully achieve the desiderata stipulated in the Declaration of Independence that was destroyed by individuals from the upper circles of the regime.
– Nevertheless, do we have achievements in the period? And what are the biggest failures in your opinion?
– The accomplishments related to the Independence can be now reduced to our national symbols: tricolor, language, right to history. Free and independent media outlets were established in time, but after the state was captured by a political-criminal group, especially during the last few years, the free press was destroyed and only several oases of freedom remained in this regard. But these oases have been permanently attacked in a group by bandits from the captured legal system. The latest threats to the journalists who honestly do their job made the foreign embassies to react promptly. In fact, we owe these small islands of free media namely to the international organizations and development partners of the country.
It’s hard to speak about failures when the power is usurped and the state is captured. The others – the underground economy, the social system based on genocide, the exodus, astronomical corruption and abject poverty seem to be complementary to the biggest crime committed by the Plahotniuc grouping against the own people.
– What mistakes did the government make? What about the people’s mistakes?
– I do not accept the argument that the people are to blame and that they didn’t choose correctly. This is not right as the people every time offered chances to parties that came and promised a better life. Sangheli promised in 1994 and the people chose him. He didn’t deliver on his promises. He lied and robbed the people and in 1998 remained with zero seats of MP out of 57. That’s why I think that the governments were and are responsible for the deplorable state in which we are now. Absolutely all the regimes that existed after 1994 were concerned about one thing – to steal public property, either by illegal privatization or by parasitizing on the state enterprises, by controlling the financial flows or by robbing banks. Everyone took part in the discrediting of Moldova as a state so that we now speak already about the danger of imminent bankruptcy of the state.
– How would you like the country to look like? What should we do?
– It’s simple: the country must be freed from captivity and democracy and the rule of law must be restored. The people’s hope in a prosperous future must be rebuilt, with those who left should be able to return home to a country that is close to the development level of the Western nations. If the government had been legitimate and democratic, there wouldn’t have been problems. In our case, it is about an odious criminal regime that does not understand that it is detested by about 95% of the people. The only solution is for the government to leave, to accept early parliamentary elections and to stop subjugating the law enforcement and regulatory bodies. This can happen only if popular and international pressure is exerted.
The ordinary people now have a huge chance. Now they can change the data of the problem if they realize the country’s state of cancer. Besides informing themselves correctly, the people must also remain immune to the propagandistic dejection of the mogul Plahotniuc, who lynches through the media the real leaders of the democratic opposition. The people should also renounce the poisoned electoral ‘alms’ and should not allow the rascals to fix the elections or to rob their votes. It is absolutely necessary for the people to unite, to organize themselves and to attentively monitor the electoral process. If they don’t do it, the bandits will continue to steal billions from the country’s reserves, until they impoverish the people up to bankruptcy.
– Who or what can be Moldova’s Independence compared with?
– If we refer to a particular country, the Republic of Moldova is very close to the independence of some of the banana states that I do not want to name and where corruption is even smaller than in our country. We are regretfully the only ones in Europe and Asia because only the Republic of Moldova is recognized as a state that was captured by a gang of bandits. We cannot compare ourselves with Nigeria either, even if the level of corruption there is greater than in our country. However, during a year the new Nigerian President managed to restore US$9 billion into the country’s treasury. As regards the situation of our people, it can be compared with that of slaves on oligarchic plantations. It is very hard to speak about independence in a state captured by criminal oligarchs.
– How do you see the Republic of Moldova in ten years?
– I prefer to say how I see the Republic of Moldova in two-three years. If we manage to ensure the change on October 30, in two-three years the Republic of Moldova will be a state of dignity returned to its people, with an economy that broke the deadlock and with a well-planned social system, with functional and fair justice and with bandits jailed by a reformed judiciary, with the stolen billions returned to the National Bank of Moldova and the budget and with a large part of the diaspora returning home. For this purpose, we need a correct and massive vote on October 30. Without this, the Republic of Moldova will not be able to exist.
– If a child asked you why he should be proud of being a citizen of the Republic of Moldova, what would you answer to him?
– We should not mix up country with the regime. A child, as actually we all, must be proud of Moldova because it was ruled by Stephan the Great, Alexandru cel Bun, Petru Rares and Vasile Lupu, because it has special people appreciated all over the world, because it has a nature that looks like a part of heaven, because our land is fertile, because we have the Nistru and Prut Rivers and because we want all these things to be inherited by our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The Moldovans are hospitable, peaceful and intelligent people who can build a prosperous future.
---
Andrei Nastase is a Moldovan lawyer and a politician. He is a founding member and the leader of the Civic Platform “Dignity and Truth” and the chairman and founding member of the Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth”.
Mariana Galben, IPN
The articles of the series “Thoughts about and for Moldova” started to be published on July 18. Among the protagonists are: Dumitru Alaiba, Iurie Ciocan, Ana-Maria Ţulea, Ion Manole,Olga Gagauz, Stella Ciobanu, Iurie Leancă, Victor Parlicov, Doru Curoşu, Igor Meriacre, Valeria Şeican, Ciprian Raeţchi, Andrei Năstase, Ghenadie Gâlcă, Arcadie Barbăroşie,Valeriu Matei, Eugen Doga, Dumitru Postovan, Petru Macovei, Tatiana Negruş, Maia Sandu, Viorel Soltan, Valentin Guţan, Gheorghe Erizanu, Mariana Onceanu-Hadârcă, Viorel Cibotaru, Victor Micu, Sergiu Prodan, Igor Dodon, Aureliu Batrînac, Alexandru Pleşca, Dionis Cenuşa, Kalman Mizsei, Petru Bodarev, Marian Lupu, IUlia Iabanji, Pavel Filip, Andrian Candu.
