Does Moldova face the risk of experiencing the Ukraine scenario – intervention by another state on the pretext of ‘protecting’ the speakers of Russian, Romanian or Moldovan, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Gagauz etc? What should we do for the country’s people to feel at home in Moldova? IPN Agency is producing a series of articles where politicians, experts and representatives of national minorities provide answers to these and other questions.
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Andrei Munteanu, specialist in education economy and a consultant of the Mediation Council of Moldova, said that both the government and society are responsible for the tense interethnic situation in the country. The government should show maximum prudence in its internal and external policies. In this respect, there were committed a series of acts that can be perceived not as technical mistakes, but rather as serious moral integrity problems. This fact can make the minorities have an aggressive behavior and defy the government, society, the statehood and even the policies that are good, but are not respected even by the government that adopted them.
According to Andrei Munteanu, in the case of Moldova, the approach ‘one nail drives out another’ is very dangerous. The irresponsible behavior of the government can determine even a more defiant attitude of the national minorities, instigated from outside. And vice versa. If the government shows sufficient prudence and integrity, it will attenuate the aggressiveness of the ethnic minorities, even if the reforms leave much to be desired. The technical mistakes can be overlooked much more easily than the lack of integrity. If the government shows sufficient integrity, even if the implemented reforms are not very successful, Moldova would inspire more optimism in the population in cultivating the feeling of confidence in this country’s future. If this does not happen, the ethnic minorities become more aggressive because it is much harder to cultivate the feeling of attraction towards Moldova when it is missing even among the majority population.
Andrei Munteanu said that education is the most vulnerable area. The nonprofessional approach to education represents a factor that mainly divides and exacerbates the tensions in society, and, as a consequence, seriously affects all the spheres of the social life. Therefore, the education system as an ‘industry’ of forming the social conscience must be assessed through the angle of economic productivity.
According to the expert, the risk of promoting separatism exists. Society must understand and cultivate the freedom as a precondition for economic development. The non-solving of this problem will help certain external forces to use the ethnic minorities to destabilize society. The abolition of the visa requirements for Moldovans by the EU is an important step, but not a panacea. If Moldova continues to be weak and will not be able to strengthen itself by renovated and modernized education, the risk of promoting separatism will exist even after the country possibly becomes an EU member state. Even if this happens, there can appear groups in the EU that will say the government does not make them have confidence in their long-term future and, possibly, will start to plead for creating local governments. The secessionist manifestations in different countries closely correlate with the economic problems and the lack of social equity. The modification of the situation in education and the government in general is the most important factor in changing the course form a depressive state to a constructive one.
As an expert in education economy, Andrei Munteanu considers that Moldova invests the least in human recourses compared with the western countries, and few of the young people remain in Moldova, at a time when this unfavorable aspect shapes the social problems faced by the country in tense situations. The young people perceive the education system as a corrupt one and few of them understand that the very low educational productivity is in fact the quintessence of the problem. Corruption can be eliminated by changing the curricula policy too. Unfortunately, in Moldova even the graduates who consider that the education system is of a good quality expect to take the Baccalaureate exams as quickly as possible and to go abroad. “In Moldova, we need attitude towards the education system, as in the economically developed countries. If the government there is not able to solve the problems in education, the adult population understands that the chance to live quietly after retirement is much lower and thus they take steps, including stage revolts, until the situation improves,” stated Andrei Munteanu.
The expert added that the realities in Moldova impose the necessity of preparing different specialists in the economic assessment of education and continuous formation. In the contemporary world, the most dynamic competition is in the area of production of ideas and improvement of critical thinking in society, without which it’s hard to imagine a competitive economy. Without good economy, the capacity to resist destructible internal and external factors, which want Moldova to be vulnerable, will not develop.
Andrei Munteanu considers that knowledge of the Romanian language must be made obligatory by law for those who want to obtain elective state posts. This step will show that the principle of gradualism in learning the national language is respected, without pressure, and that sufficient flexibility is manifested towards the linguistic problem. As to the extensive interethnic communication, it would be reasonable to promote the culture of bilingual dialogue – in Romanian and Russian – for an undetermined period. Thus, Romanian becomes a necessity for the Russian speakers and vice versa. This will be an essential period of transition when learning of the Romanian language by other language speakers will be facilitated without great costs and effort.
According to Andrei Munteanu, mockery and ridicule towards persons of other ethnic groups speaking Romanian with mistakes must be combated by all possible methods. If mistakes are made, one can put additional questions in order to clarify the situation. A serious and understanding attitude to the mistakes will considerably change the attitude of the other language speakers, who will want to speak Romanian and to make progress in this respect.
If the mentioned problems are addressed in an appropriate way, the state of affairs will improve and the risks will diminish essentially. Otherwise, this will not happen, stated Andrei Munteanu, specialist in education economy and consultant of the Mediation Council of Moldova.
Alla Tofan, IPN
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IPN note: In this series of articles, IPN also presented the opinions of Prime Minister Iurie Leanca, head of the International Relations and Politology Department of the Free International University of Moldova Mihai Cernencu, politologist Vitalie Andrievschi, who manages a network of information-analytical portals in Moldova and Ukraine (ava.md, apn.md, and avaukr.com), and head of the Union of Ukrainians of Moldova Svetlana Mislitski, program director at the Foreign Policy Association Victoria Bucataru, the Bashkan of Gagauzia Mihail Formuzal, and Deputy Head of Parliament Andrian Candu. Among those who accepted to answer the Agency’s questions are also MP Alla Mironic, head of the National Roma Center Nicolae Radita and head of the Bulgarian community in Moldova Fiodor Sabii.
