A Hypocrite Government that Preaches Integration but Practices All Form of Anti-Gypsyism
#Antigypsyism Meet Laszlo Jakab. He is a young Roma from Hungary who graduated from Central European University, Public Policy. He was one of the representatives of the Roma youth in the European Parliament at the conference: “Anti-Gypsyism:lost cause?” organised by MEP Draghici Damian on 7th December 2016. Laszlo Jakab was talking about how Antigypsyism is affecting Roma Young people nowadays.
Full Speech below:
“I am speaking as a Roma man from Hungary which is a racist society.
No matter how much you hear them talking about democracy, equality and that the country performs better because there is a hypocrite government that preaches integration but practices all form of anti-Gypsyism.
As Malcolm X said: “I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands even if it is wrong than the one who comes up like an angel and he is nothing but a devil.”
Hungary is governed by a group of people who in any ways do not believe in the equality of people. People, who do anything from their power to see that a Roma never gets to the same seat or the same level where they are. At the same time, on regional and local levels the number of Roma voters is in decisive majority in certain localities. This decisive majority exist in 130 settlements out of which only 34 is having Roma in their municipalities. The reason behind this anomaly in many cases is not the inability of Roma to run for mayor or local councilor, but different kind of threats. Based on my experience I have heard: “if you do not vote for me I will take away your social benefit, you will be fired from public work, or I will make your life a living hell”. I have to emphasise this is just one way out of the endless box of gaining the votes inhumanly, immorally and in an anti-Gypsy way from Roma so the Roma put this man in position of power beyond considering the person’s intellectual or political ability to govern, who after will have such an influence on the decision making process that will uphold the status quo of the Roma community with the increasing level of poverty, no access to quality education, and unemployment. This kind of anti-Gypsyism hinders the awakening of the Roma in any age.
Furthermore, the lack of political representation and participation of Roma in the Hungarian – it can apply to the European political stage as well – has led to the annoying situation when any kind of legislation, policy or strategy is proposed that benefits the a is usually formulated, chopped up, and fixed up in a way that when it comes to the implementation level the Roma are the one who do not benefit from it. Just one simple example: When Hungary is talking about integration of Roma in education in English they use the word integration, but when they do it in Hungarian the expression is Catch-up. Meaning the Roma has to catch-up to the non-Roma. Therefore the Roma are in a lower position compared to the non-Roma. So they have to be segregated in school until them catch-up to the non-Roma. As Julia Szalai a distinguished scholar says: “In a way we can say that, by driving Roma interests away from the institutions and stages of meaningful politics, these attempts and arrangements help to reinforce the distancing of Roma from the scenes of true politicisation while they extend the control of the majority above all needs, issues and claims with potential implications for distinguished Roma articulation.” On the other hand they always find token Roma who are puppets and at the disposal of the people in power to pin-point they have Roma contacts and real knowledge of the Roma. These token Roma are just as hypocrite as the government since they justify the anti-gypsy actions of the people in power. I also have to mention those Roma non-governmental organizations who turned the Roma cause into an ethno-business and have no connection whatsoever with the Roma community and became a project writing machine that is invisible for the Roma community. This kind of anti-Gypsyism hinders the awakening of the Roma in any age.
I am just saying that Hungary is governed by a group of people who in any ways do not believe in the equality of people and keep its society a racist society because it is for the benefit of the people in power. They spent more than 25 million Euro on a hate campaign that was so successful that the society hates Muslims more than ever in the history. In a year, they achieved to spread hate against the Muslims in an extent when you ask a 6 year old that he or she will say “I hate Muslims”. As comparison Roma are living there for more than 6 decades. It is silly to assume that Hungary will implement a policy out of good will to change the situation of the Roma because depriving the Roma is in the benefit of the government. I believe that similar reasoning exists in other member states. This is the level of anti-Gypsyism that hinders the awakening of Roma people in any age.
(Inspired by Malcolm X)”
Comments are currently closed.