How the small became big

One of the hot topics of recent weeks has been Romania’s potential territorial re-division. But nobody knows the real reasons why the idea was made the subject of public debate...

July 2011 - From the Print Edition

What are we to expect from such an administrative revolution? Will it really make budget savings? Will we be able to attract European funds more easily? Under the new system would it be easier for the current ruling party to maintain power after the next elections? Or it is simply a diversion topic thrown by the president for us to chew, to fill the papers and the internet with comment and generate breathless talk shows on this topic?
Perhaps it’s a little of each. But what is incomprehensible is how on any subject involving the future of this country – the re-division issue being one of great importance – the ruling party can never reach common ground with the opposition.
It is incomprehensible how the president – who should be the mediator between the state powers, according to the unchanged Constitution – is the one who adds fuel to the fire and hardens one player against each other. Rather than working towards consensus, the pride and personal animus – which exist without a doubt – deepen further, and the goal seems not to find the best solution but for each camp to impose their ideas. Whether good or bad.
I wonder how they reached the “maximal solution” 8 +2. Why not 9 +2? Or 7 +2? It feels like the politicians are playing Monopoly with the country while we watch from the sidelines and see how our country – and future – is being carved up.
But some are ignored from the start, such as the opposition. Playing Devil’s advocate, I wonder: is one single idea from all of those proposed by Social-Liberal Union (USL) representatives a good one? Apparently not, since proposals that are compromises are made for a minority. And so the majority comes to submit to the minority. Exactly the opposite of what’s normal in civilized countries.
Meanwhile the 8 +2 offer was refused. For now. Is that good or bad? Or to twist the question: for whom is it right and for whom wrong? Unfortunately it is almost rhetorical – or shall we use the current buzzword of “maximal” – that we Romanians are the ones who are losing as the worst decision is no decision. Things stay the same and, as the old Romanian saying goes, all the discussions that took place were just a waste of everybody’s time.
Unless the minority comes up with its own idea. But considering that even some people in the ruling party have voiced their skepticism on the project itself, we can conclude that the idea was thrown open without thorough preparation or proper analysis by specialists.
Whatever solutions and compromises are made in the near future and whether the country will be reorganized or not, it seems to be just another topic kicked around by people who are playing with the country’s future. “After us the deluge...”