Analysis: Czech politicians don't understand the law and Roma pay the price
After 1989, Czech society resolved to "build, protect and develop the Czech Republic in the spirit of the inalienable values of human dignity and freedom as the home of free citizens who are aware of their obligations towards others and of their responsibility to the community, as a free and democratic State founded on respect for human rights and on principles of civil society, as a member of the family of European and world democracies." This beautiful idea is incorporated into the preamble of the Czech Constitution.
I don’t know who the "culture workers" were behind those words, but I do know that today such people would be denied access to the floor in both chambers of Parliament. This is an enormous tragedy, because today most of our politicians are only able to read these words without necessarily understanding them (and unfortunately some, like Senator Doubrava or former MP Řápková, probably couldn’t even handle reading them through).
To this day, these politicians do not understand what the word democracy means. I am completely convinced that any survey of Czech politicians on that question would definitely produce catastrophic results.
Democracy does not consist of intentionally buying up land slated for the solar production of electricity to turn a profit on it, as happened in Telnice, and it does not consist of Chomutov municipality leasing 30 hectares of land, a hotel, a ski tow, and a car camping site to someone for just CZK 250 000 per year (a price that corresponds to the rent on a larger office space there). These moves by those politicians are simply authoritarian and utilitarian.
I would like to focus here on these words from the preamble: "…who are aware of their obligations towards others and of their responsibility to the community." In the context of the recent discussion on the floor of the Czech Senate regarding Romani integration recommendations made by the Council of the EU, these words have now become a complete joke.
Senator Doubrava, for example, was angered that recommendations have been made to the Member States to facilitate Romani children’s access to education. In his view, Romani people should be glad that instruction [in the "practical" or former "special schools" – Editors] and its intensity has been adjusted to meet their capabilities and prospects, and he insists it would be an error to back down on this.
Senator Zeman responded to that by saying the Romani "gypsy" community doesn’t work and just lives off of others’ taxes. As is evident, on the one hand Romani people are being denied their right to an education, while on the other hand they have no chance of finding jobs without one.
During communism, as many as 80 – 90 % of Romani children were led through the "special" education system. Back then the intentionally segregated graduates of the "special schools" (called "auxiliary schools" at the time) had the option to at least continue their studies for two or three years of technical training.
After 1989, when demand increased for educated employees, most Romani people unfortunately ended up unemployed. That fact did not inspire politicians to start taking an interest in their situation – to say nothing of actually resolving it!
Even today, senators are clearly sending a message to the citizenry through their posturing that it is not desirable for Romani people to be employed in the Czech Republic. After all, we comprise "only" 2 % of the population.
The Czech Republic has long been under fire from international critics over its education of Romani children. Between 1999 and 2005 as many as 70 % of the pupils attending "special schools" were Romani, and they frequently lost the opportunity for quality education as a result.
The most recent investigation by the Czech School Inspectorate reports that the former "special schools" are still 28 % Romani – and that many of those children are not even diagnosed with disability. Some might object that 28 % isn’t that much if 72 % of the children attending these schools are from the majority society.
However, when we look at the numbers in more detail, we reach a shocking conclusion: The Romani pupils attending the former "special schools" constitute 28 % of the 32 533 pupils being educated in these classes, which are intended for children with light mental dysfunction. That means a total of 9 109 Romani children are being educated in this way.
Demographic data on the Czech Republic show a total of 807 950 pupils attending primary schools of all kinds, or not quite 8 % of the country’s population. An estimated 150 000 – 200 000 Romani people live in the Czech Republic; I will be generous and triple the estimated number of Romani children enrolled in primary education of all kinds so the result won’t seem quite so horrifying.
That number, 24 % (8 % x 3) gives us an estimated total of 48 000 Romani pupils currently enrolled in all kinds of primary education in the Czech Republic. In that light, the 9 109 Romani children without diagnoses being educated in the "practical schools" represent approximately 20 % of all Romani children attending primary school of any kind here.
That means every fifth Romani child is being deprived of a future and probably will be dependent for the rest of his or her life on welfare. For comparison’s sake, if 20 % of majority-society children were having their futures stolen in this way, that would mean approximately 160 000 majority-society children attending the "practical schools".
These are children who will have an extremely difficult time finding a place on the labor market. Politicians support these arrangements because they are secure in their positions of parliamentary immunity and are afraid to give that privilege up.
These politicians have been consciously committing a crime – and they proposed and approved of the law that makes it a crime without even understanding what they were doing. They must have been asleep when this bill was being read:
Penal Code Section 402 – Apartheid and discrimination against a particular group:
(1) Whoever practices apartheid or segregation based on class, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion, or any other similar discrimination against a group of people, will be punished by five to 20 years in prison.
(2) The perpetrator will be punished by 10 to 20 years in prison
a) if he forces a group of people into difficult living conditions through the deeds mentioned in paragraph 1) or
b) if he exposes a group of people to inhuman or degrading treatment through such a deed.
(3) Preparing to perpetrate such a deed is also a crime.
