Democracy and Justice Under Siege

[Ambiorix]

Democracy and Justice Under Siege
From the desk of Paul Belien on Wed, 2007-11-21 09:56
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2682

Last week, I attended a colloquium in Hungary on “Morality and expediency in politics.” Our group included political scientists, historians and philosophers. Most of them were Eastern Europeans; the majority were Hungarians. One evening, while having dinner in an expensive Budapest restaurant, the Hungarians at our table noticed that one of the former communist leaders of their country had entered the restaurant.
He was a shallow octogenarian who had reserved a table for his entire family. The Hungarians told me that this man was a former printer, who had made his career in the Communist Party (CP), rising to the position of the country’s senior economist, although he did not know anything about economics. The man had ruined the life of many fellow citizens, but after the fall of communism none of the former dictators had been taken to account, and certainly not this fellow, who the media used to describe as one of the CP’s “moderates.” The previous week the man had been on television, declaring that he regretted nothing.

My Hungarian friends discussed how they could take revenge for the suffering this man had inflicted on others. Perhaps, someone suggested, one of us could go to the buffet, fetch a bowl of soup, pass the table of the old communist, pretend to stumble and pour the soup over him. Everyone laughed wryly at the suggestion, but none of the Hungarians was prepared to be the avenging angel. They looked at me, but I, as a non-Hungarian, argued that this affair was none of my business. Besides, I said, as a Catholic I am convinced that the man, if guilty and unrepentant, will burn in hell anyway.

Again, there were wry laughs, but the feeling of injustice and powerlessness hung over our table while my friends told me how, after the fall of the old regime, the former tyrants had gone scot-free, their wealth and power largely intact.

This incident taught me as much about the topic of morality in politics as the previous two days, when we had been discussing texts by Sophocles, Machiavelli and Montaigne. All too often there is no morality in politics. And yet, the absence of it undermines the legitimacy of a political system and makes people revolt.

When the citizens of Eastern Europe rejected communism 18 years ago they were inspired by dissidents who told them that people have a right to “live in the truth” and that democracy equaled liberty and justice. Now, 18 years later, democracy is in crisis in Eastern Europe, where people have come to realize that they have not gained truth, freedom or justice. Eastern Europe is going through the same crisis of political disillusionment as Western Europe.

While in Budapest, I read the German-language Budapester Zeitung. Last week it had a front page article about the adoption of a bill against hate speech. This is the same bill that the European Union is imposing on all its member states. It restricts the freedom of the people, who are no longer allowed to say things which might be deemed offensive by “ethnic, sexual, religious or other minorities.” In Western Europe this legislation is not merely used to prosecute genuine racists, but is increasingly abused to clamp down on those who oppose the Islamization of their countries or on those who disapprove of homosexual behavior. I did not see any Muslims in Budapest, nor did I notice any signs of homosexual activism, but the authorities are already putting in place legislation to silence the defenders of Hungary’s national identity and traditional morality.

Last Sunday, Jeffrey Kuhner wrote in The Washington Times that “the communist habit of deceit and double-speak continues to haunt countries once trapped behind the Iron Curtain.” It is worse. These habits also haunt Western Europe. America’s first amendment, which allows people to say what they want, even if it is deemed offensive to others, is simply anathema to Europeans. The great 20th century American journalist H.L. Mencken once said: “The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.” The Europeans failed to stop the oppression at the beginning.

Upon my return home to Brussels, where one in every 10 women in the streets is wearing a religious headscarf, the papers were bringing the news that Redouan Siti, the Moroccan youth who kicked Guido Demoor to death on an Antwerp city bus last year, has been released by the Court of Appeal. According to the judges, the six months that Siti spent in jail are sufficient punishment for the death of Mr. Demoor, a father of two who had interfered when Siti and his friends bullied other passengers.

Tomorrow, Antwerp bus drivers will hold a silent vigil for Mr. Demoor in protest against the release of his killer. They feel as powerless and frustrated as my friends in Hungary. And they, too, have lost their faith in democracy and justice.
 
This piece was originally published in The Washington Times on November 21, 2007 .