IRU COULD OFFER USEFUL PASSPORT TO DEMOCRACY
The new IRU leadership emerging from the recent Riga congress tops its programme with a not-so-new plan to distribute a Roma Passport. They hope that with the negotiated backing of the Red Cross it could gain recognition as a valid inter-state travel document, in addition to a means of self-identification as a member of the Roma nation.
While most Roma within Europe theoretically enjoy the right to free movement, this document could have added value as a passport to democracy, vitally needed within the broader Romani movement. However, those who went to Riga expecting support for a full-scale democratic transition came away disappointed.
The UK delegation led by Valdemar Kalinin, chair of Romano Ekipe, will hold a post-mortem next week in a meeting about the merits of the IX World Roma Congress. On the agenda is their failure to get a hearing for a resolution calling for the creation of an electoral commission tasked with examining ways for introducing electronic voting. A modest proposal, it simply asked for recommendations to be made to the next congress, due in 2019.
In the weeks prior to the Congress, president-elect Normunds Rudevics, a former Latvian MP, replied to the idea in these words: "We support the initiatives, think they are extremely relevant and will definitely make the IRU stronger. It is included in our agenda."
Phien O'Richteagan, co-chair of the ER, says it would be unfair to blame the IRU. He had arranged with Rudevics to put the resolution to the Congress in the context of a prepared speech but had to leave Riga early due to a family crisis.
Whatever the circumstances that allowed the proposal to go undebated, if accepted it would have helped the IRU to regain credibility by leading the way in the democratic transition now afoot. However, the possibility remains that the identity document could itself help keep the ball rolling. The Memorandum issued by the congress lists as its first objective empowerment through a passportization programme.
Wrong doing has been alleged by both sides in the factional fighting before delegates met up in Riga. And I will not draw attention to unsubstantiated claims. But it is relevant to say just as with earlier passport schemes a caution has been posted by former IRU general-secretary Zoran Dimov that this may be little better than a business enterprise. Open accounting alone can take care of that particular warning.
However, as a former general-secretary myself, I am prepared to put forward the view that empowerment must be enhanced if the holders of the IRU-issued passport are to gain therewith a right to vote in future internet-based elections. That added-value factor would go someway to putting the proposed document on a par with state-issued passports which confirm the right of citizens to participate freely in elections.
"We all know the Romani movement is in a deep crisis," comments Orhan Tahir, a graduate activist in Bulgaria. "The challenge is how to promote real democratic elections, Roma voting for Roma." Tahir believes the biggest barrier facing those who want to see a democratic transition is the wide-spread patron-client matrix into which groups and NGOs have fallen over the past decade. This has tended to erode and stifle the earlier ideals of the Romani national movement. It can only be truly re-vitalized, says Tahir, from the grass-roots up.
Speaking from Belgrade, Petar Antic, who helped set up the voting system which allows 60,000 to vote in elections for the Roma National Council of Serbia, is optimistic that this will happen. Together with the Nis-based Roma League, he is working on a plan to bring about further democratization within and perhaps beyond the boundaries of former Yugoslavia.
While a possible demonstration of a people's sovereignty through a Roma nation mandate may yet be far off, local models could show the way for later scaled-up electronic voting. You don't have to be a visionary to see where this could lead in a world where fast evolving technology is changing concepts and the old ways of doing politics. A virtual Romanistan may one day raise its voice alongside territory-occupying nation-states in the arena of global politics.
The IRU yet has a chance to be part of this evolution. But for now it is not without is detractors. A faction dissatisfied with the Riga Congress wants to challenge its legitimacy. It seems a foregone conclusion that Rudevic's presidency will be accepted by the European Roma and Traveller Forum, with which the union has continued a partnership down the years.
Unfortunately, ERTF is facing its own difficulties since the Council of Europe together with George Soros's OSI decided to switch efforts to the setting up of the European Romani Cultural Institute. While welcome in itself, the abandonment of the ERTF threatens to leave the movement without an effective geographical focal point in Strasbourg or anywhere else. Some will say we can rely on the world wide web.
This is happening at time when the fast deteriorating situation in Europe and around the globe demands a strong and determined leadership based on mass action at grass-roots level. A big multi-city mobilization on 8 April Roma Nation Day is still the unfulfilled dream of young, radical activists. The IRU claims it represent the Roma nation. It has faltered once due not necessarily to the lack of competent leaders but through lack of transparency and accountability, together with an absence of resources to carry out its proclaimed tasks.
After Riga it must prove its capacity and capabilities. The issuing of the Roma passport looks to be an early test. Those desperate to find a way forward may go for it should the purchase of this piece of printed paper include the right to a vote. It would then represent a step in the direction of the urgently sought democratic transition. Lacking that guarantee, it may prove to be a passport to nowhere.