OPINION Aldous Mina: “Romania’s elections will strengthen its credibility as a unified country willing to shoulder the burden of a true Democracy”

Opinion by Aldous Mina, lead consultant and managing partner of Premier Global Council Group LLC, a global network of market entry consulting group. The PGC Group LLC, operates in various countries assisting multinational organizations in developing a local presence in a host country.

He graduated from Liberty University, in the United States with a B.S. degree in International Business and a MBA specializing in International Business from the American Inter-Continental University, while actively engage in economic development in Europe and the US. He is a Vic Potter Scholar, Project Discovery Alumni and a member of the VoTech Honor Society, obtaining a journey man A.A. degree in Electronics technology. Aldous is also the founder of the International Business Council, at Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia. He has received international business training in London, Scotland, Wales and Dublin, Ireland. Aldous has also participated in foreign affairs training in Jerusalem, Israel.​

Mr. Mina has served as an economic and institutional development specialist in the U.S. Peace Corps. During his tenure, he was able to work with several diplomatic outfits, city councils, business organizations, non-profit groups, community schools, chamber of commerce, universities, and regional economic development institutions. Aldous has served in the federal government in both Republican and Democratic administrations and has handled the White House’s initiative on ARRA (American Reinvestment and Recovery Act) financing projects at the Washington DC field office. Mr. Mina also campaigned as an Independent US Senate candidate in the 2020 General Election while a global pandemic was disrupting the political season in various countries. 

What is your opinion about the Romanian elections and how do they reflect broader trends in European politics, such as the rise of populism or the decline of traditional political parties?

As an observer who first arrived in Romania a year after the country ascended into the European Union and watched it rapidly increased its capacity in a relatively short period of time. And as someone who have participated in several US-Romania capacity building initiatives, diplomatic relationship agenda and helping solidify US-Romania citizen engagement, I feel Romania is heading in a positive direction.

With this said, I am also a former US Senate candidate who ran as an independent but was not given the opportunity to engage my competitors during a global pandemic. So, I guess my personal experiences would qualify for me to share my observations via my own personal and professional  experiences. This being said, I had to utilize what was available at the time to campaign that was commonly used by the government, businesses, health care providers, school systems, local news channels, etc to communicate with the public via the social media platform.

If one reflects on the country’s history, Romania has gone through various challenging electoral events throughout the years before and after becoming a member of the European Union; which only a few Western European countries or even Central Europeans nations can claim experienced in their political process.

With this said, in my opinion, Romania is stronger, more stable and wiser today than in any of its past elections because the country and population has been able to utilize modern technology, have travelled abroad to have an understanding of social and political mechanisms of other countries and studied in some of the best universities of the world to have a reference on an efficiently functioning country.

Furthermore, most Romanians are well versed in adapting to new concepts and interacting with foreigners in various languages giving them a unique perspective of certain realistic expectations.

The European project as it was to unite the continent and align western values amongst European countries regardless of their location in Continental Europe. The rise of populism in Europe is not a new concept but it is a new exercise for countries that have always been a part of an “old school” traditionally conservative political system.

Furthermore, the rise of nationalism and other political schools of thought simply reflect that Romania is ready, open and willing to go through a higher learning in the realm of Democracy. The decline in the traditional political parties is a signal to the world that a former communist country has decided to turn its back to the old ways, though some may have changed their political names, but continue to operate like before due to their unwillingness to let go of the past systems practiced in the country.

So, perhaps Romania isn’t really being challenged in the old-world definition of political instability but is rather being catapulted to a new world political system in which it is now navigating in and will have the expertise to maneuver around the new world marketplace and political landscape of the future?

For someone who has lived, worked and interacted with decision makers in Romania, I feel that many within the halls of the executive branch of business and government are carefully monitoring the Romanian election and hypothesizing on how it will affect the region, market condition and politics vis a vie social landscape of a new Romania using a very Westernized perspective.

The country is faced with a unique challenge, a challenge that I feel as an observer Romania will overcome as long as the political parties and candidates continue to be transparent with the public and accurately inform the world as they deploy strategies and solutions that is relevant in today’s reality. The decision to reverse the outcome of the first round in the presidential election will be a historical topic that many political, legal and social scholars would opine on in days, months and even years to come.

Perhaps, the road map in the new world marketplace can be seen as an evolution of democracy, not the end of the theory that many political talking heads are claiming, simply because new school of political thoughts are emerging?

Democracy historically has never been a cookie cutter, one size fits all and my way or the highway proposition— it is laborious, often contentious and in many government systems a social disruptor. Abraham Lincoln, for example went through a substantial amount of negative treatment for abolishing slavery, though he never gave equal privileges to native Americans, and other ethnic groups in the country, but many today still believe he provided an added value to the political landscape of America.

While many around the world and various global political schools of thought may provide an interpretation regarding Romanian politics without really immersing themselves in the local culture, economy, political attitude, social tendencies, pre-existing market conditions and the overall aspiration of the population will prove short lived as Romania continue to increase its capacity.

The continent has been through turmoil in the past, and I believe Europe will be stronger with Romania in it serving as an EU and NATO member nation who have gone through election challenges that will evolve throughout the world as the world continues to utilize the social media platform it their decision-making process.

What impact might the Romanian elections have on the country’s relationship with the United States, especially in terms of security and NATO collaboration?

I believe Romania’s elections will strengthen its credibility as a unified country willing to shoulder the burden of a true Democracy, outside from the tutelage of the United States or any outside influences, monitoring their every move.

While I agree that Romania would need to share, exchange ideas and solutions with other countries to come to an optimum decision. I also feel as a sovereign state Romania must undergo the growing pains and victories in democracy to station itself into a stronger, stable and productive market economy and system.

No one can raise a country from outside, it happens from within via social experiences and local market conditions.  As a point to consider, the US and NATO member countries tend to favor stable, strong and productive government systems, because that is what increases their market potential and social cohesion. FYI—Less social friction the better a market environment will be and the more stable the government tends to be.

If one were to look into the characteristics and standards of the US and other NATO member states, they champion self-determination, the rule of law, vibrant market economy, democratic principles and a well-educated freedom loving population. Why would Romania settle for anything less? Perhaps, we should understand the meaning of a relationship and there is no perfect relationship, just simply an interaction of well accepted compromises between parties.

Furthermore, since a relationship consists of parties that are willing to compromise, I believe member states including the US should be proud to have Romania as a member country of NATO. Just like the US and other member states aren’t always going to agree on certain principles, but the fundamentals should remain intact regardless of the result of a member country’s democratic led election.

The role of the US and NATO member countries is to support the choice of the member state electorate and not to dictate who they would want to work with—after all these are countries that had a pre-existing political and market model prior to joining the EU and NATO.

For example, there are NATO member countries that do not necessarily agree with the current NATO and US policy regarding Ukraine. Will they be seen as cavaliers, lone wolf or powder keg operating outside the best interest of the group? If this was to be the case, then the US will never meet the prerequisite of such a standard anywhere since we have acted against the will of many sovereign states in the past and systems that we have agreed to. Just like in Romania, we in the US also, embark in various seasons of political agendas depending on which party is in control of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.

Should the US and our population be ostracized for varying political convictions? In today’s world we need to understand that society and people are evolving and because of modern technology people will never always agree on a specific given subject or even solution due to the magnitude and abundance of information available in the marketplace.

We are now living in a world where context and information transfer can be misinterpreted depending on who is reviewing the material or sharing it. A person who hasn’t had enough experience in evaluating a market economy, the legal system of a country and geo-politics of a region will not evaluate information the same way as someone within the industry and interpret market conditions through their experiences and expertise.

The key is transparency and preventing disjointed interference from those who lack the wisdom, character, credibility to render an opinion pertaining to the social and political landscape of Romania.

I have been observing the country’s growth, market conditions and political environment for over a decade. I have interviewed, collaborated and interacted with many of Romania’s leaders and they all want one thing which is for their country to prosper and earn their spot in the global market arena in various degrees. Who in their right mind wouldn’t respect such aspiration? Maybe those who want to dictate to Romanians that they are better off being told what not to do and what to do, and to this I say Romania and Romanians have been there, done it and printed the shirt to prove it.

So, I wouldn’t be too concerned about being a sovereign decision-making state, Romania was allowed into NATO and the European Union because they believe in the value proposition that Romania provided during their decision making process to allow Romania to be a member state. Political agenda fluctuates worldwide and that is true in the current state of affairs in Romania.

How does Romania’s role as a strategic ally in Eastern Europe, bordering Ukraine, shape the priorities of candidates and the election’s international significance?

Romania and Romanians understand the rules of the road in Eastern Europe, they created it and are now improving it to create a smoother ride for those travelling on the highway to prosperity. The network of states throughout continental Europe can rest assure that Romania is strategically designing the political and market landscape to benefit everyone in continental Europe including Ukraine.

With this said Romania has been tested in the past, today and will be tested again in the future, but throughout the many years that I have been observing Romania from the US, as someone who is often in Washington DC, surrounded by various political agendas on Capitol Hill, White House and Diplomatic community,  I feel that slowly but surely Romania is increasing its political and market capacity.

With this said, I have met some political candidates in Romania as well, some of which may have not come from the political class of Romanian society, but they are all looking out for the best interest of Romania, which I admire.

Romanians today are very interested in the common or universal success of everyone in the region and marketplace, because they know the dangers of isolation through their own historical experiences. I believe that the world community trusts the New Romania agenda because the country and population refuse to return to the tumultuous systems of the past.

With this said, I also believe that there are many decision makers in Romania who are operating outside of their own free will or even political capacity to appease certain favors and agreements from the past which is compromising their ability to deploy an optimum solution to the current political quagmire in the country.

The Ukraine conflict is a very interesting subject, but to put it in perspective, the world is monitoring the situation between Russia and Ukraine and are for the most part interpreting it as news and facts manifest itself via various decision-making channels, platforms and policies.

Romania is just one of the other countries bordering Ukraine, for example, Hungary, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Russia and Slovakia and Belarus all border Ukraine, and not all of them agree with NATO, the EU and the US decision on Ukraine’s political engagement with Russia. This is a fundamental truth due to their constitutional prerequisite to support their national interest.

Romania has always supported NATO, the US and EU’s agenda in various countries. The Romanian military has supported NATO in conflict theaters abroad, so it has proven its allegiance to NATO as a collective military system. With this said, why would Romania feel the need to prove itself worthy to be a member state of NATO in the context of Ukraine? Every country in the region would like to see the region return to normalcy and even the Russians and Ukrainians feel the same sentiment, so, why not return to normalcy if there is an overwhelming consensus? I believe every Romanian political candidate has expressed their desire to bring the region back to normalcy, therefore the world community should support that agenda.

Geopolitics in the past was dictated by those who are wealthy, powerful and hold the microphone, which created an even more disruption than providing an amicable solution.

I would like to emphasize that Romania is a NATO partner that provided value to the system and will continue to provide value to member states as long as Romania is given the opportunity to provide value—-as previously stated decision makers saw Romania as a country that provides value within the EU community and NATO as well as to the American peoples agenda to preserve peace and prosperity in Europe regardless of who is in the White House or are in charged in Brussels.

What are the main challenges facing Romania’s democracy, such as media freedom, judicial independence, or political polarization, and how do they manifest in this election , from your point of view?

Media freedom can be a tricky standard in a marketplace where media can take shape from independent sources, industrial base agendas, political attitudes and market forces triggered by an economic condition. Having said this, Romania has always embraced media freedom, but simply weren’t fully able to regulate the structure very efficiently which is often the case within an emerging or frontier market. Without a doubt Romania champions democratic principles,  the rule of law, freedom of speech, political discourse but not everyone fully understands the concepts or are willing to entertain the spirit of democracy.

When I first arrived in Romania, as a part of the US Peace Corps mission back in 2008, Mr. Trian Basescu, was faced with challenges in unifying the country. He had to convince the population regardless of party to support Romania’s ambition to become just like any other Western European country and he even came head-to-head with the ethnic Hungarian population of Romania, where they were calling for social justice as ethnic minorities in the Transylvania region.

As political polarization was present at those times and Brussels watching over Mr. Basescu’s interpretation of Democracy vis a vie his daughter Elena and their party, the country was against the wall on political maneuvering outside from the original policy of their party.

The rights and freedoms of certain Romanian populations weren’t considered a priority which created a polarized segment of the ethnic Hungarian population in places like Mircurea Ciuc and Targu Mures etc.

Fast forward to today’s election, I feel media freedom is in tack but is sponsored by various special interests and political agenda that just like in the past tainted public perception of the candidates or their motivations. While this sort of activities and events is not unique to Romania, I do feel that the country is struggling to define the course of action to take to control, manage and mitigate issues that trigger political polarization mainly because the country’s ambition to be a leader and be accepted as an equal in Europe is creating various competing forces within the decision making process of political leaders.

Furthermore, judicial independence is a new concept for many Eastern European countries and even Western Democracies, simply because historically they were previously ruled by monarchs and parliaments that consist of a mix bag of political maneuvering, economic conditions and religious agendas.

The nature of judicial independence stems from the agreed mechanism to discriminate against outside forces of jurisprudence to not create a bias in the function and deployment of the rule of law. When there is a bias or a legal opinion is muddied by outside conditions because the legal system failed to discriminate against decision making interruptions or convoluted agendas then judicial independence will not be consistent with its authority to deploy a fair and balanced interpretation of the rule of law.

The decision to reverse the outcome of the first round of the presidential election in Romania will prove to be an interesting event and will most likely be followed, talked about and reviewed by political scholars worldwide in years to come. While it set the precedent, I believe just like in the past that Romania will manage to sort things out to benefit not just Romania but the region as a unit. That is if the US, EU and other stakeholders would support Romania by exercising it’s sovereign right in decision making and execute checks and balance with her electorial process, procedures and outcomes.

What strategies are political parties and candidates using to engage the Romanian diaspora, particularly in the U.S., and how influential are their votes?

I have heard that several Romanian politicians visited the Romanian diaspora in the US to introduce themselves, voice their political agenda and even entice them to consider returning to Romania and contribute to the advancement of the country. So, they were up against a tough crowd in having to convince them that the New Romania agenda will be better and stronger than the country that they had opted to escape from or have decided to leave.

As an observer, I have seen various forms of progress in the country and I believe those can certainly play a role in helping attract Romanians and foreigners to consider Romania as a place to hang their hat. With this said, the Romanian diaspora is well educated and have interacted with people from various backgrounds; they provide additional value to Romania’s aspiration to define its new role in the new world marketplace. So, yes, it is worth the effort to connect with the Romanian diaspora abroad. But the flip side is to also accept their unique interpretation of certain political policies and economic conditions as they pertain to Romania.

I also believe that quality of life, modern standard of living and western style amenities is fast entering the Romanian market. While there are still plenty to be desired, I would submit that most Romanians today are able to enjoy the same lifestyle of those in Europe if not even better from Romania. And as, politics would continue to play an important role in Romania, I do not feel that it is a good precursor when attracting Romanians to return.

Having said that, many Romanians continue to contribute to Romania, may it be in the form of remittance, investments, or family support and even public service via job creation while residing abroad independent from their political affiliation or attitude towards Romanian politics.

What lessons can other countries, including the U.S. draw from the dynamics of the Romanian election in terms of democracy, voter engagement, and geopolitical influence?

We can learn a great deal from Romania in America, one of which is the ability to entertain ideas, concepts and agendas that are not common, popular or widely accepted. Democracy defined is a system of government in which power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or through freely elected representatives.

Romania came from a tumultuous past and her history is laden with many unknowns with a substantial number of question marks, as well as a disjointed agenda which Romania had to adjust and learn from rapidly.

Because of those challenges, Romania unfairly received a negative reputation from the international community which was mainly from the West.

Today, the west could learn a thing or two from Romania, because the country transitioned from a non-EU country in 2006 to a fully functioning very western European like country in a short period of time. Would I say, I agree with such rapid leapfrogging of culture, markets, politics, society? I would submit this, as an observer, I often worry that the Romania that I fell in love with would become just like any other country that has lost its core values, limit potential, national character and alienate everyone in the country including the older population that motivated themselves to join the EU for the sake of the younger generation all through voter engagement.

Many of the Mosu’s and Baba’s of Romania never had the same life, amenities and experiences like those younger Romanians of today, but in spite of their challenges they still wanted a better life for the next generation of Romanians. A significant measure of wisdom amongst the older population is that even though they were afraid that Romania’s traditions and conservative values would escape the next generation of Romanians, they still supported the new Romania agenda created via collaboration with the West.

The Geopolitical influences in Romania has substantially increased Romania’s market value but should we say at the expense of the Romanian national identity? Perhaps voter engagement should be seen via the free will of the population to make an informed and optimum decision via freedom of choice and not be silenced based on the political agenda of the ruling class of elites— my humble thoughts.

Romania today just like in the past will succeed against the challenges it currently faces in its electoral landscape, and that makes Romania a stronger country and partner for the world.

The world should and would need to support Romania’s democratic process and allow its citizens to tailor their country as they see fit and if requested with the guidance of partners that they value.

In summation, the current events, geo-politics and market conditions are a testing environment for Romania as it continues to advance in her aspirations to lead the region and bring decision makers to the table.

With this said, I believe Romania is firmly proving to the world that it has earned its position to lead and provide a solution when needed.

And as I reflect on the many years I’ve lived, worked and interacted with Romanians, I wouldn’t say it was all a walk in the park “hypothetically” but a mixture of ”ciorba de burta”, “sarmale”, and “ardei umpluti with smantana” leaving me wanting for more. The same would go for those who are now reviewing the Romania political system and market economy of the country vis a vie the current presidential election and Romania’s role in the region. The best is yet to come.