By: Dr Janez Juhant
The forums we have witnessed in recent weeks can be a welcome stimulus for exchanging opinions and strengthening collaboration. However, the exchange is credible – not just socio-political promotion – when people consistently demonstrate their dialogical and open democratic attitude everywhere. This especially applies to state and religious officials who provide the appropriate message to their citizens and believers.
When we listened to the words of the President of the country at the interfaith dialogue forum in Koper, regarding the importance of faith in strengthening dialogue in the Balkans, we, the citizens of Slovenia, wondered if she is also our president. Do her words about peace, interreligious cooperation, respect for human rights, and equality apply not only to the residents of neighbouring countries but primarily to the citizens of Slovenia? Why does the President ignore the faithful citizens here? She attended the Pride Parade and raised their flag, so why does she not support movements for life or similar civil initiatives embraced by the faithful? She was in the Vatican and at the forum, so why does she not attend Holy Mass for the homeland? Why does she not firmly advocate for the burial of the silenced and exhumed victims of the revolution, Roma people, Slovenian Home Guard members, and other similar victims, just as she does for the victims of the Holocaust, Srebrenica…? All victims are victims, whether it is the victims of conflicts in the Balkans or Ukraine or those in wars and revolutions here who await a dignified burial. Why does she not support the legitimate rights of all citizens, including the faithful? Will you, Madam President, stand up for the right to a dignified life for all, especially when the ruling authorities want to legalise murder with poison? We have not heard you speak out against the erasure of memories of our recent past and present, which this government is doing. Do we, the affected victims and all the faithful and other citizens who have entrusted us with the sacred heritage of faith, humanity, and our nation, not have the right to equal treatment, rather than being excluded as second-class citizens by the ruling authorities? And respected bishops – a smaller issue compared to the actions of the ruling circles, but still. We, the faithful, ask and await you to strengthen dialogue among yourselves or, more generally, among us in the Church, so that we can be stronger against the attempts of the ruling authorities to divide us and govern us more easily. Do we in the Church firmly oppose the ruling circles who try to divide us from the background and create discord within the Church, thus hindering dialogue among Catholics and among religious communities in Slovenia as a whole? Dear President, are you not a Catholic yourself, and yet, considering the number of Catholics, you appointed a representative of the European Commission in Slovenia. And respected ombudsman for human rights, how did you appoint a lobbyist for international leftists as your representative? Are these forums only preaching to others, rather than actively addressing domestic issues, which you as representatives of the state and the Church should primarily take care of? So, respected participants, how is dialogue at home with us?
This year’s commemorations of the victims of the revolution and war, as well as our efforts towards forgiveness and reconciliation among ourselves, are placed in a rather foreign social context: According to experts’ assessments and increasingly widespread public opinion, after thirty years of statehood, we are in a serious crisis of democracy, the rule of law, the realisation of human rights, and social dialogue overall.
The authorities increasingly disregard legal and procedural principles and even basic human rights in their actions. We should be increasingly concerned about the personal and wider subsidiary domain and the protection of individuals and groups from the arbitrariness of power, which employs exclusion or even implements totalitarian measures. The representatives of power no longer respect legal frameworks; the title minister, meaning a servant, is becoming increasingly hollow. Instead, we are presented with politicians who primarily care about their own or narrow interests of party or other semi-state lobbies, rather than serving the interests of citizens, which they are democratically and legally obliged to do.
Visible signs of this disregard and ignorance of the public are arbitrary interventions by the ruling authorities against the interests of citizens, for whom they are democratically and legally obliged to act. Signs of such arbitrary thinking and practices include the abolition of the Museum of Independence, the further erasure of the Day of the Victims of Communism, the violent takeover of the public broadcaster, and let us not forget the preparation of a law on so-called euthanasia, which would actually mean allowing participation in the killing of older, sick, or incapacitated people with poison, as the Nazis did. Another sign of this insincere democracy is the absence of the President of the country at Kočevski Rog and the Tree of Reconciliation, where in previous years, the former President Borut Pahor regularly accompanied us. He expressed his support for our efforts by confirming the publication of his speech at last year’s gathering, and he also confirmed it with his visit to the memorial mourning ceremony at Rog. This loyalty is also expressed in his critical response to the current socio-political conditions, which is a sign of his upright statesmanship and ethical orientation. Dear participants of the Interfaith Forum and the Liberation Theology Forum: Why were there not concrete initiatives to address these issues in our country, as peace is threatened by any state that does not address its disputes within society, which pose a constant danger of new social upheavals?
In light of the described state of the country, the memory of the calvaries of our compatriots reaches even deeper into the hearts of enlightened Slovenians and democrats, as such behaviour by those responsible in the state does not promise the necessary steps for ending the revolution and rehabilitating its victims, especially the urgent burial of the excavated victims of Macesnova Gorica and the Roma people massacred in Iška on May 17th, 1942. It is as if those in power are endorsing this mass, cruel, heartless, industrial, and impersonal torture and killing of people. Zygmunt Bauman once said that only people with modern technological methods, who turn people into obedient numbers, can do such things. However, the perpetrators no longer respect laws; instead, they execute impersonal orders, discriminate against people, kill without trial, and shoot in the neck. Because when you look into someone’s face, their human appearance draws compassion from you and prevents you from doing harm. Pascal wrote, “The heart has its reasons”. Totalitarian systems forcibly raised heartless, obedient, and insensitive executioners who labelled victims as inhuman, assigned them numbers, bound them en masse, and threw them into abysses to hide the monstrosity of their actions from themselves and others. The late academic Kajetan Gantar rightly warned that today’s cyclists use the same methods as the Hitler Youth once did.
Therefore, dialogue among us is just as necessary as it is in the Balkans, and we will demonstrate its authenticity by implementing it in decent political and social competition, as such international forums for peace will also be beneficial for Slovenian peace, reconciliation, and the strengthening of democracy in Slovenia, rather than mere promotion of the authorities who should first and foremost serve their citizens. We must consider how to cooperate with those who are dismantling democracy and the rule of law, systematically cutting the roots of human ethical and Christian foundations, abolishing the memory of victims, and rejecting the burial of the dead. Systematic neglect of the heritage of Christianity and the Enlightenment means the dismantling of healthy family and social foundations and relationships, particularly the sexual indoctrination of children with reprehensible lessons and the rejection of the rights of children, especially the unborn. Dialogue requires genuine confrontation with our problems in society and the Church, rather than turning a blind eye to the pressing problems of Slovenian citizens.