On March 12th, in the Turda city hall where a grandiose marble staircase leads to a Baroque-style meeting room, about 40 students are preparing to speak to five council members about improvements to their school system. Turda is a city of about 30,000 in Romania’s Transylvania region, and used to be an important industrial center in Romania. The Ratiu Center for Democracy, a foundation committed to strengthening the research and practice of democracy in Romania, has organized this special meeting to give the youth of Turda a rare opportunity to take change into their own hands.
The students have basic requests, from providing sanitary supplies for the bathrooms to repainting the second floor hallway. Moving around the council room, the students from the seven schools in Turda present high priority and cost efficient improvements to their schools that would have high impact on student morale. The expectation is not for the government or the school system to make the changes in the schools—the students just want the funding to buy the supplies and make the improvements themselves. The students will do the hard work of painting, refurbishing, and procuring materials; all the council has to do is give them the financial support.
Four of the city council members and the vice president of the city council have attended the special meeting to hear from the town’s youth. Two of the councilors tell the students that the time period to request funds has already passed and that the students need to go through the proper channels. After dismissing the youths’ requests, two of the councilors get up and leave half-way through the meeting. One council member, while claiming to be supportive of youth, shifts the blame to the national parliament, stating that nationally, the government does not prioritize youth issues. The last council member lauds the students for coming to city hall to vocalize their concerns and is very friendly to the group. However, by the end, no promises are made, and the students are left with no concrete response to their requests.
But this was the expected result. The youth were not requesting immediate support from the city council, but were instead asking the council members to keep the interests of the students in mind as they create the budget for the next year. If the council is willing to engage the schools in the next budgetary meetings, then this event was a success. The students are realistic about their expectations; they know that that change does not come quickly in local Romanian politics.
Romanian politics is a complex mélange of inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Elected officials can change parties without losing their seat, leading to strange and opaque political shuffling that dilutes the idea of representative government. In the case of the Turda city council, the method to request non-refundable, one-time funds is through the clunky and ultimately broken city council website. The unwieldy system ensures that the public is kept out of budgetary concerns, and makes sure that only the select few adults with the time and courage to go to city council meetings can have an impact on anything political. Local governments will go out of their ways to fund pet projects and expensive demonstrations of power instead of focusing on building infrastructure and improving government systems.
On a national level, one does not need to search too far to encounter corruption and red tape. Large-scale public projects are poorly managed and money sink-holes—from the still unfinished Transylvanian highway to the rise in overly expensive, low efficiency “green” projects. Last year, the Romanian Parliament passed an amendment to the constitution that deemed the president and members of parliament no longer “public officials.” This amendment essentially means that politicians can no longer be held liable for abuse of office, bribery, conflicts of interest, and other forms corruption.
All of these challenges, at every level of the Romanian government, breed a deep distrust for publicly elected officials, a feeling that is especially true among Romanian youth. However, the Romanian public is still stuck in the Communist mindset of statism that expects the government to do as much as possible for the people. These counteractive ideals lead to a situation where the public does not believe the government will help them, but yet does not have the experience or the know-how to hold their elected representatives accountable. This public sentiment has led to a very defeatist attitude among much of the youth population of Romania, who feel that they can have no impact and that they have no real choice when it comes to politics. After years of repression under a dictator, poor implementation of democracy dampens the spirit of political participation and spawns a generation of disenchanted youth.
But the students of Turda still maintain hope. They plan on sharpening their message and attending another city hall meeting—one with hopefully more than five councilors. Even if they do not get the funding from city hall, most of the student groups from the seven schools plan on financing the project themselves, by raising money in the community. This will be more difficult, and there will be no guarantee that they can get enough capital or get sponsors for their projects. They do not want to have to reach out for international donors or EU funds—they want to take change into their own hands and build a better future for themselves and for their schools. After all that is where change begins.
Akshan de Alwis is a senior at the Noble and Greenough School and will be attending Columbia University in the fall. He engages with youth and civic participation programs in Burma and Romania and writes on political transitions.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's May/June 2014 print edition.
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Youth Inform Democratic Participation in Romania
May 15, 2014
On March 12th, in the Turda city hall where a grandiose marble staircase leads to a Baroque-style meeting room, about 40 students are preparing to speak to five council members about improvements to their school system. Turda is a city of about 30,000 in Romania’s Transylvania region, and used to be an important industrial center in Romania. The Ratiu Center for Democracy, a foundation committed to strengthening the research and practice of democracy in Romania, has organized this special meeting to give the youth of Turda a rare opportunity to take change into their own hands.
The students have basic requests, from providing sanitary supplies for the bathrooms to repainting the second floor hallway. Moving around the council room, the students from the seven schools in Turda present high priority and cost efficient improvements to their schools that would have high impact on student morale. The expectation is not for the government or the school system to make the changes in the schools—the students just want the funding to buy the supplies and make the improvements themselves. The students will do the hard work of painting, refurbishing, and procuring materials; all the council has to do is give them the financial support.
Four of the city council members and the vice president of the city council have attended the special meeting to hear from the town’s youth. Two of the councilors tell the students that the time period to request funds has already passed and that the students need to go through the proper channels. After dismissing the youths’ requests, two of the councilors get up and leave half-way through the meeting. One council member, while claiming to be supportive of youth, shifts the blame to the national parliament, stating that nationally, the government does not prioritize youth issues. The last council member lauds the students for coming to city hall to vocalize their concerns and is very friendly to the group. However, by the end, no promises are made, and the students are left with no concrete response to their requests.
But this was the expected result. The youth were not requesting immediate support from the city council, but were instead asking the council members to keep the interests of the students in mind as they create the budget for the next year. If the council is willing to engage the schools in the next budgetary meetings, then this event was a success. The students are realistic about their expectations; they know that that change does not come quickly in local Romanian politics.
Romanian politics is a complex mélange of inconsistencies and inefficiencies. Elected officials can change parties without losing their seat, leading to strange and opaque political shuffling that dilutes the idea of representative government. In the case of the Turda city council, the method to request non-refundable, one-time funds is through the clunky and ultimately broken city council website. The unwieldy system ensures that the public is kept out of budgetary concerns, and makes sure that only the select few adults with the time and courage to go to city council meetings can have an impact on anything political. Local governments will go out of their ways to fund pet projects and expensive demonstrations of power instead of focusing on building infrastructure and improving government systems.
On a national level, one does not need to search too far to encounter corruption and red tape. Large-scale public projects are poorly managed and money sink-holes—from the still unfinished Transylvanian highway to the rise in overly expensive, low efficiency “green” projects. Last year, the Romanian Parliament passed an amendment to the constitution that deemed the president and members of parliament no longer “public officials.” This amendment essentially means that politicians can no longer be held liable for abuse of office, bribery, conflicts of interest, and other forms corruption.
All of these challenges, at every level of the Romanian government, breed a deep distrust for publicly elected officials, a feeling that is especially true among Romanian youth. However, the Romanian public is still stuck in the Communist mindset of statism that expects the government to do as much as possible for the people. These counteractive ideals lead to a situation where the public does not believe the government will help them, but yet does not have the experience or the know-how to hold their elected representatives accountable. This public sentiment has led to a very defeatist attitude among much of the youth population of Romania, who feel that they can have no impact and that they have no real choice when it comes to politics. After years of repression under a dictator, poor implementation of democracy dampens the spirit of political participation and spawns a generation of disenchanted youth.
But the students of Turda still maintain hope. They plan on sharpening their message and attending another city hall meeting—one with hopefully more than five councilors. Even if they do not get the funding from city hall, most of the student groups from the seven schools plan on financing the project themselves, by raising money in the community. This will be more difficult, and there will be no guarantee that they can get enough capital or get sponsors for their projects. They do not want to have to reach out for international donors or EU funds—they want to take change into their own hands and build a better future for themselves and for their schools. After all that is where change begins.
Akshan de Alwis is a senior at the Noble and Greenough School and will be attending Columbia University in the fall. He engages with youth and civic participation programs in Burma and Romania and writes on political transitions.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's May/June 2014 print edition.
