“For the moment, we don't have such a great song to mirror the Moldovan's soul more relevantly”. Info-Prim Neo interview with political analyst Serghei Nazaria
[- After the Communists Party came to power in Moldova, the government changed the official name of the day of August 27, from the Independence Day to the Republic's Day. Moldova had been a republic till 27 August, 1991, yet it was not independent. Do you think this modification to be justified?]
- I sincerely recognize that, for me, this day is the Independence Day and I do not recognize any other name for it. Any other interpretations are deficient, in my opinion.
[- Du you think “Limba Noastra” (Our Language) – Moldova's anthem – is describing for it? For example, do the Moldovan sportspeople, whose native language may not be the official one, feel mobilized by the anthem's lyrics? How timely do you think might it be to change the anthem?]
- I do not rule out the possibility of changing the name of Moldova's anthem, in theory. However, in practice, I find it difficult to suppose if it will happen in the near future. Your question is not correct, in my opinion, although it has a right to be there. It is not correct because now we don't have so great a song (neither lyrics, probably) which would mirror and express the Moldovan's soul more relevantly. And the example with the sportspeople is absolutely improper. If we guided ourselves by your logic, then any anthem of any country can arouse confusion with a part of the population. A relevant example may be Romania's anthem "Desteapta-te, romane!" (Wake up, Romanian!) Over 20% of the citizens of that country are not Romanians and this does not mean they have to ask the anthem to be changed, or to ask questions as "How timely is it to change the anthem?"
In my opinion, your questions can only cause instability and arouse the spirits. Moreover, if you pose these questions, then why someone else can pose other questions. For example: "Maybe we should change the state flag?" “Maybe we can change the name of the country? Or even more absurd – we may liquidate the country and join it to Romania?” The row of these questions, in my bad-will opinion, can be endless... But this does not mean at all that somebody is forbidden to ask questions. As for me, there should be no restrictions on this issue.
[- The fact that the current Moldovan Constitution declares Moldovan as the state language leaves unhappy many representatives of the academic environment, of the Moldovan intelligentsia, first of all. At the same time, if the official language were Romanian, certainly, that could leave unhappy other categories of citizens. How would you suggest to solve this dilemma?]
- Your question contains the answer already. Some like the language name “Moldovan”, other – "Romanian". Probably we should leave to the people to call the language as they want to. Yet, any healthy person knows that those names actually express the same linguistic phenomenon. In this respect, the Moldovans and the Romanians are no exception. For example Dutch has three names: Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans; also Serbian is called Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin. Even Luxemburg's Constitution states that the state language of this country is Luxemburgish, although everybody knows it is German.
There are more examples of this type. We should not politicize the things artificially. This wish refers to everybody, including the Romanian politicians, who, too often, teach us how to live...