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Speech by Filiz Hyusmenova at the 6th National Conference of the MRF |
Esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen,
Today’s conference held on April 1 will surely provoke media jokes about the truthfulness of what is going to be said. However, I will trust tolerance and fully in the spirit of this day have entitled my speech “The lies about the MRF guilt and the truth about illusions we have to part with.”
For a month and a half I have been following the media and I have become convinced that the Movement of Rights and Freedoms is persistently featured as a subject guilty of different crimes: appropriating the ethnic peace model, abuse of power, provoking nationalist attitudes, etc. Today’s forum is expected to yield other points of view besides those. Many of the speakers so far dwelt on these subjects. I am glad that my colleagues have given the expected answers and have thus initiated a dialog within the Movement, and in society. It will be redundant to reiterate the lies about MRF guilt as there are other more important issues.
It is an indisputable fact that the MRF prestige as a political subject has grown in recent years. The Movement has not only made a name for itself – with clear-cut positions and decisions whose correctness was proved by the supreme judge, time – it also has achieved political and power presence and influence. We all know that prestige takes a long time to build, but is quick to destroy. Suffice it, as in Andersen’s tale, that someone should cry out “The King is naked!” and we could end up being hostages of others’ interests. The MRF was pointed to by some, but it is not only because of this but also in the name of our future that we must part with certain illusory expectations.
It is an illusion to believe that “charges” to individual MRF members or to the Movement itself are superficial and not worthy of attention. It is true that they are part of the context – freedom of speech – it is another matter whether what is said and written is true; but it is not in the MRF’s interest to underrate the situation. To refuse to make or to postpone a real assessment as well as adequate response to attitudes and their potential is not beneficial to the MRF. What is more, they are not beneficial to society either. We have to part with the illusion that the finger pointed at the MRF will drop down. On the contrary, given the forthcoming major political events – Presidential elections, local government elections next year – and against the backdrop of political subjects who establish their image through opposition, the inertia of ongoing processes would be difficult to control. The “hardening” of positions is neither the best choice nor a fortunate outcome for national consensus.
An illusion we have to part with is to accept that politics and the changes we would like to accomplish would be understood and accepted without us presenting, explaining and continuously reiterating them. Because only dialogue preconditions understanding.
It is an illusion to think that we do not need every single day positive changes of the style, methods in work and politics, and in our attitude to them. Sometimes lack of action can also cause or serve as grounds for guilt. We have to solve a particularly important issue of democracy and development – we should continuously seek and strive for a correspondence between rights and obligations, freedoms and responsibilities which power lends, and the resources which it organizes.
And lastly, let us say the truth on the day of the lie – there is no room for illusions, nor is there room for illusionists in politics.
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