The Republic of Moldova should economically integrate into the European Union, should maintain good commercial relations with other partners, such as Russia, and should develop a national project that would unite all the ethnic groups that coexist on this territory, Emil Ciobu, expert for external relations of the Public Dialogue Platform “Statehood – Moldova” and Moldova’s ex-ambassador to Romania, stated in the public debate “Unionists, statehood supporters and ‘nostalgic people’: confrontation of ideas about the right and capacity of the Republic of Moldova to be an independent state” that was staged by IPN and Radio Moldova.
“The statehood promoters represent the Moldovan state by words, by deeds and in the soul. In the USSR, we knew that all the laws came from the upper level, as if from God, and there was no politology and no sociology so that the people didn’t know what problems existed. After the declaration of Independence, we do not yet have a school subject that would teach the children what the state means and what the history of the Republic of Moldova is. On the other hand, Romania is not to blame. We must learn from this state how to consistently promote our interests,” said the former ambassador.
Emil Ciobu noted that separatism in Moldova does not derive from inside the country. “Go to any block in Chisinau and you will see that there are no clashes between persons of different ethnic groups living on the same stair. In our country, everything comes from the upper level,” said the expert.
Referring to communism, Emil Ciobu said that this cannot exist for ever. It was an experiment and an attempt to make the people think similarly and this could not last. “I cannot be nostalgic. The USSR cannot be rebuilt, but we remained at the level of the political elite with communist thinking, no matter how the party of which they form part is called. If we, before the independence, worked and said that communism was close, now we say that we will soon integrate into the EU and will have everything, that the French people will work and the English people will pay us. But there should be economic integration first of all,” he stated.
Emil Ciobu criticized the rulers, saying that these do not make effort to work out a social project, an idea for reunifying the country or at least sector strategies for overcoming the problems. “Those who are in power center on the European integration idea so as not to speak about each sector apart and not to think up strategies. They only say that the integration will resolve everything. One can struggle for national ideas for tens of years and some can be jailed for these. The state of spirit in society – separatism - does not contribute to promoting the national idea,” he noted.
The public debate “Unionists, statehood supporters and ‘nostalgic people”: confrontation of ideas about the right and capacity of the Republic of Moldova to be an independent state” is the 59th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates”, produced with the assistance of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”.
