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ADAPTATION TO EUROPEAN STANDARDS MIGHT BRING ABOUT A DECISIVE CHANGE IN SLOVENIA
National Day, celebratory academy
Speech by the Preisdent of the Republic Milan Kucan
Ljubljana, Cankarjev dom, 25 June 1999
 "The future of our state does indeed depend on work, on knowledge, inventiveness and excellence in every job we undertake. It depends on our trust in ourselves. This has indeed been recognised in many companies. Their products of supreme technology are appreciated on the most demanding markets, and our companies are becoming increasingly international and sought-after suppliers for major world corporations. This, too, is the Slovenia of today, in one part worldly, and in another parochially introverted and outside the modern world".
In this evening's celebrations we are marking the eighth birthday of our state. And it is right that we should congratulate our state. The image of our country has changed in these eight years. Through statehood, the Slovenian people have gained a security and a greater openness to the world. The institutions of the state have been reorganised or entirely re-established, and they are functioning. Our economy has to a large extent found replacements for the lost markets and is now active in more demanding markets; a range of Slovenian companies are now international, and some are even global, while social conditions are stable. An agreement has been signed between the social partners on pension reform, young people have been offered a national housing savings scheme, and a national programme of social security has been fixed for the period up to 2005. Slovenia is cooperating in the international community as an equal to all other countries committed to peace, security, development and prosperity. Such is the visible, albeit very general image of our country at the end of the century.
Yet there are other, less visible, veiled pictures of life in our country. Perhaps my very position allows me to observe what most dissatisfies many people. For this occasion I could condense my observations into three conspicuous images.
The first shows us how the state has placed itself above its citizens. The state wishes to be present everywhere and elevated above the people. On the other hand, the people want the state to serve them, they want the right to control the work of state authorities and to be informed about what they are doing, they want the right to take part in public life not just at election time. Above all, they want – for the most part a vain hope – the speedy, precise and professional assistance of state officials in exercising their rights.
The second image shows our insufficiently developed political and nation-building culture. The use of unqualified and generalised criticism is becoming a way of life for one section of Slovenia's politicians and certain groups of society. They do not respect state institutions, because such institutions are not a part of and do not act according to their own political image. And they are doing this abroad, too, which is especially deplorable.
The third image relates to the excessive importance and role of politics. The clashes and feuds between political adversaries all too often dictate our everyday lives. With the will and capacity of the political parties to place the interests of the country above their own, the image of people’s life in this country – and the country itself – would be much more agreeable. Our country has had every possibility to do so, and still has this possibility.
Nevertheless, the substance of our whole life is changing decisively. Our life is better, although there are plenty of bitter personal misfortunes concealed behind this generalisation. Slovenia ranks among some of the European Union members, in which we see the rightful place for our country, as we also see it in Nato, such that alongside countries with a longer democratic tradition we might create a safe world for which the prosperity of all people and their freedom are the focus and guiding light of every action.
In these eight years the freedoms enjoyed by our citizens have been extended far and wide. This is true of political freedom, freedom of political convictions and allegiances, and for private initiatives and enterprise. Yet freedom and democracy never simply create themselves. There is great truth in the old saying that freedom is like the air we breathe. We are aware of it only when someone tries to take it from us.
We can now see that the younger generations have assumed responsibility for the country and for life in it, and they have brought with them new ideas about life and new responses; they are ready to cooperate and not to exclude, they are tolerant and able to live with differences. Wisdom demands that in new responses, the experiences of the past are taken into account, and that unburdened consideration can be given to past mistakes and wrong decisions. Only in this way can there exist that vital, common historical memory, without which there is not even a national identity, let alone any responsibility for the future. Another part of this common memory is those experiences of national and social lack of freedom between the two world wars in the first Yugoslavia, the desperate struggle of our nation in self-defence against genocidal Fascism and Nazism, the heinous collaboration with the occupation forces and fratricide during the Second World War, and all the evil acts, aberrations, dead ends, mistakes and illusions after it. All these experiences of ‘non-freedom’ bind us to protect freedom through actions and not simply by talking about it. And freedom is also a responsibility. Unpleasant or unprofitable consequences cannot be passed on to others. And the state in turn must do a great deal more to ensure that alongside political democracy there is greater room for freedom of economic, social, cultural and spiritual initiatives from our citizens.
The safe and peaceful world of prosperity is close by, indeed we are linked to it and we are already entering it. But we are still just as close to the world of war, of people driven from homes, of killing, the world of terrors which today’s children of the Balkans will carry with them all their lives. We are duty bound to ask ourselves, what have we and what will we contribute, to make sure that in this part of Europe, too, the human person with rights and freedoms will be worth more than the arbitrary will of that person’s master. Slovenia is a Central European country governed by the values of this part of Europe. It also has a hard, seventy-year political experience of the Balkans, and with this the knowledge to put forward useful proposals in international projects to settle the crisis-ridden and turbulent south-east of Europe.
This part of the continent also requires freedom, democracy, stability, development and prosperity. If it ever was, then it is absolutely clear now, at the end of the military clashes in Kosovo, that the future world order, which can be traced out on the horizons of the coming millennium, will no longer accept the systematic and mass violation of individual and collective human rights brought about by invoking the higher interests of the nation-state and hiding behind the sovereignty of such states. International law of the future will sooner or later place human rights above national sovereignty, and intervention by the international community against any violations of these rights will be regarded as a duty.
In creating such a world of values in international relations I see a great opportunity for Slovenia. Let us therefore move more quickly to becoming a completely open society, towards a new balance between a nation-state and a citizens’ state. Plodding from scandal to scandal means plodding far from the goals of our country, down side alleys, where we soon lose all memory of the obligations carried by our political leaders, right from the emergence of our state, to the people, to their aspirations, desires and needs. In the political mayhem stirred up by the sponsors and cultivators of scandals, there is no space or time for attention to people who live in poor conditions, who are marginalised from public life and who are worried about the future of their children.
The macroeconomic results, which are indeed good, are not providing sufficient prospects for development, and are not providing everyone with bread and hope. People’s bread and hope is jobs, new companies with modern technology, good schools accessible to them, too, and respect for employers, the state and its institutions. Slovenia needs the contribution of every person to create their own and a common prosperity, and everyone is worthy of the chance to ask what he or she might do for themselves and for the community. A state that does not see this is not worthy of respect from its people.
I listen to economists, financiers, scientists, young business people and researchers. They express their great commitment to change, and a new developmental impetus, as well as their dissatisfaction at the irresponsibility and the lack of proper conditions for them to do their work, conditions which are, like everywhere else in the world, within the jurisdiction of the legislative and executive authorities of the state. I share their opinion and expectation that the adaptation to European standards might also bring about a decisive change here; and that for this reason Europe in turn might come to us.
The future of our state does indeed depend on this, on work, on knowledge, inventiveness and excellence in every job we undertake. It depends on our trust in ourselves. This has indeed been recognised in many companies. Their products of supreme technology are appreciated on the most demanding markets, and our companies are becoming increasingly international and sought-after suppliers for major world corporations. This, too, is the Slovenia of today, in one part worldly, and in another parochially introverted and outside the modern world.
For the younger generation, whose sense of national borders is being wiped away by modern information technology, who are coming to see the entire world via the Internet as their own, the values of the older generations are paling into insignificance. Young people are seeking new goals, as well as opportunities for and ways to measure the success of their work, happiness and fulfilment. If their home environment does not suit them – and I am sad to say that there are increasing numbers of young, capable people who tell me that in a home country that devotes more attention to the past than to the future, they are finding it difficult to see any developmental prospects for their own future and the future of their children – they will seek and surely find a more promising environment abroad. This in itself is not so terrible, nor indeed will we lose a part of Slovenia’s future, but they should at least leave this country well educated. Then, through their knowledge they should be able abroad to help in creating Slovenia’s future. I am certain that they will want to come to their homeland, that they will return, if their homeland can welcome them back warmly and if it is able to use their knowledge and ability.
So let the worldly Slovenia prevail, that we might finally make our way to the open world of competition, a world that waits for no one. For it is a different world, single, connected and interdependent. Soon there will no longer be any isolated and idyllic islands. This will be a world of individuality, but also of close connection and interdependence. It is becoming increasingly a globalised world of global responsibility. Everyone is responsible for what he does in his home, and is equally responsible for what others do if they act against common values. And our Slovenia could today be a part of this world, too. We are determined individualists, we are inventive, hard-working, hungry for knowledge, we help each other and we are responsible. Time is calling on us to bring together these qualities and strengths into common goals. We were unanimous when we founded our own state, we were in harmony when we wrote our own constitution; now let us achieve a consensus on the future of Slovenia.
This future lies in a united Europe, for which we may justifiably expect that it will be established as a community of equal, yet nationally identifiable and distinct large and small European countries that will live in peace, cooperation and competition. We should not be afraid of this future. On the contrary, I am firmly convinced that we are capable of playing our part in creating it.
In its eight years of statehood, Slovenia has earned a reputation founded in part on our self-confidence, and also on our successful work and cooperation in the international community. The visits by the highest statesmen of numerous countries, most recently the President of the USA, are another expression of the serious level of recognition and respect for our well-considered independence, for the reforms already implemented and for the democracy of our state, and for its stability and our activities in the world we live in.
The recent visit by the leader of the most powerful country in the world may be seen as a recognition of the success of our state and as an invitation to Slovenia to join those countries that are forging a path to a different and better world. I also regard his visit as a message that to create such a world, the size of a country is not important; what is important is that country’s actions at home and in the international community, that country’s ideas and initiatives, and that country’s credibility.
Events at home and the expectations of Slovenia’s citizens call for a new, third consensus of all those who were democratically entrusted with the leadership of the state and the managing of public affairs. Slovenia needs consensus to create a new quality of life, consensus on decisions and actions towards a new developmental impetus, to bring politics out of areas that should belong to the professions, and to put politics into the world that belongs to it: a world of global developmental questions and answers and the legislative responses to them. The state is never perfect nor does it entirely fulfil the expectations of its citizens. Yet it should at least be such that its citizens will accept that state as their own. Slovenia is a state of its people. May it be yet more so. And may this be our wish for it, and a commitment for us.
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