23 October 2011
Many commentators – both at home and abroad – mocked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban when he declared his election victory of 2010 a ‘revolution’. Perhaps the commentators were too hasty in their judgement.
Look at the Hungarian political landscape of October 2011: the Socialists were destroyed at the polls and have now split and the old Liberals and Conservatives have been wiped from the political map. The Fidesz Party has an unheard of two-thirds ‘super-majority’.
Important as this is, there are also other significant developments in Hungary, which, in the context of recent Hungarian politics, are equally revolutionary, including the prosecution of former ministers with abuse of office and worse, the investigation and trial of numerous public officials with charges of corruption, on-going investigations against the National Police for their actions against public demonstrations in 2006 and attempts to reduce the pensions of former communist party members.
The actions above reflect the demand of the vast majority of Hungarians for some form of justice for the decades spent under communism.
Of course the political losers – both in terms of the recent elections and the those who supported and maintained and perhaps still yearn for an evil ideology – will try and couch this demand in different terms. Yet no matter how you look at it, Hungarian society is still as divided as it was under the former regime and the victors want their spoils.
However, for the ‘revolution’ to be more effective, the Hungarian Government should consider dealing with all of the problems cited above as part of an over-arching concept of restitution and not just in terms of finance or power. They are, in fact, all elements of a broken society which has yet to address the sins of the past and the impact the communist system had on the minds of the group and individual.
In the first instance, the authorities have to get to grips with the concept of governance and its instruments. The political maturity of both politicians and political parties in Hungary is weak and professionalism is in short demand. The civil service is not only overly-politicised but obsolete in relations to the demands of modern government service. The police are rudderless – hostage to the investigations underway regarding their brutality during the demonstrations of 2006 but also a hang-over to their days as a tool of the communist regime. The public loathe them. Simply changing insignia has not brought with it a change in mind-set and deep-rooted change is long overdue. Given the numerous corruption scandals ranging from ministers and civil servants to businessmen and army officers, it is blatantly obvious that things have to change.
Arguably, however, greater change must be made in a society that is still suffering from the consequences of the past. The Hungarian people have undoubtedly been lied to night and day. The lack of professionalism of the Hungarian media must be acknowledged here – both for its long association with the former elite and for a general lack of questioning of power. Society has seen blatant inequality of opportunity arise since 1990 due the machinations of the former party ‘apparat’ that has left former communists eternally healthy despite the economic climates of the last twenty years. Financial austerity rarely, if ever, touched the influential few. More damaging is the fact that the Hungarian public have had no justice for the crimes committed against them over a period of forty years.
If Viktor Orban craves a political legacy, let him create a mechanism to address the fissures of the past – a Hungarian Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Committee. Let the people of Hungary have their day and let them find it in their heart to reconcile their differences. However, also give them justice, as without it, the Orban revolution will have no meaning to a sceptical and suspicious international media who simply think they are witnessing political revenge.