By: Dr Jože Dežman
Dear Mr. President of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Robert Golob! The announced abolition of the Museum of Slovenian Independence and the Museum of Recent History of Slovenia, from which a new public institution would then be created, triggered lively echoes. In fact, it is a continuation of the memory and culture war, in which the titophile, pro-communist camp defends the thesis that Slovenia’s independence is an easy transition from a failed regime to a new one, while the opposite is the claim that the Republic of Slovenia is fundamentally different from the Socialist Republic of Slovenia.
If we were to test one and the other group, I would first ask them whether they agree with the following statement by Peter Jambrek: “In my opinion, the term capitalism is an extra-constitutional category. However, to be a bit personal, the constitutional category is socialism. In the sense that it is unconstitutional.”
In considering the “central values of rebellion and freedom”, Jambrek starts from the fact that Karantania, Kocelj, peasant riots, camps, Maister, the rebellion against the occupier of the Slovenian nation “shaped its identity. According to their effects, none of them resulted in that nation, the fateful and definitive historical process represented by the building of a modern nation.
The promise of the nation’s freedom within its own country was only fulfilled by the spiritual and political movement, which in four years (1987-1991) carried out the programme of national independence from the idea to its constitutional and state validity in domestic and international law.”
And whatever any Slovenian government does it, “it does it, whether it realises it or not, whether it wants to or not, in permanent dependence on the value centre of the Slovenian Republic, whose seat is in the sacred area.”
This area of the sacred deserves its own museum, its own museums.
Therefore, it is more than necessary that we get some concrete answers to the so far unanswered questions from the Government of the Republic of Slovenia as soon as possible:
When will the expert analyses that dictate the abolition of two museums and the establishment of a third be publicly presented?
What will be the name of the new institution?
What will be the assets of the new institution?
What will be the organisation of the new institution?
What will be the conditions for the operation of the new institution?
Once we know this, substantive discussion is possible. If even the Government of the Republic of Slovenia does not know this, then this is a bold mockery of the Republic of Slovenia, a democratic and legal state. And, of course, contempt for the period of democratisation, independence, and defence of the Republic of Slovenia as the highest achievements of the Slovenian nation.
Good luck!
Dr Jože Dežman
