Commentary: "Fear and Loathing" in the Dawn of Direct Democracy party
Czech author Bohumil Hrabal once wrote about his friend Vladimír Boudník that he was renewing the myth of Dionysius (the drunken beauty who is the source of all creative action) and the myth of Antaeus (the hero who was only strong as long as he remained touching the earth). Czech MP Tomio Okamura is now reviving a few myths of his own as well.
Okamura is reviving the myth of Schweik (the apparently simple-minded idiot who in reality is toying with everyone around him) and the myth of Goebbels (the cynic who exploits racist ideology as a tool for acquiring personal power). Okamura is much more dangerous than he seems.
"I don’t understand. [Klára Samková] doesn’t have one drop of gypsy blood. Some of her ancestors are from Italy. The fact that as an attorney she had Romani clients does not means she agrees with or supports them. I know her opinions and she is no supporter of inadaptable citizens – she wouldn’t be able to run for Úsvit if she were." This was Okamura’s response when asked why Klára Samková was running as a candidate for his movement in the elections to the European Parliament – the questioner believed Samková to be Romani and Dawn of Direct Democracy (Úsvit) to be fighting against "inadaptable" citizens.
That commentary captures the essence of Okamura’s movement, which is the fight against "inadaptable" citizens, primarily Romani ones. There are two main reasons he responded as he did.
FEAR
Úsvit uses fear to mobilize its voters. The movement’s program for the EP elections lists its first aim as the achievement of a self-assured, strong Czech state.
This ideal is described as under threat from "inadaptable immigrants and religious fanatics", from the dictatorship of Brussels, and naturally from those "shameful" citizens who take more from society than they contribute. Even though Úsvit lists its main aims as introducing a general referendum, making it possible to recall all politicians and ending tax increases, its flagship is these attacks on the Romani minority.
A brief glance at the movement’s Facebook page shows that the most-liked posts are those describing the Romani minority as dangerous and living solely to the detriment of the "decent" majority society. That’s why no "supporter of inadaptable citizens" could ever run for Úsvit during the EP elections.
Every Romani person is considered an "inadaptable" citizen by Úsvit. Even though the party speaks of a vision of a self-assured Czech state, its rhetoric creates the exact opposite image, that of a state sucked dry by parasites, threatened by religious fanatics, and managed by the dictates of Brussels.
Úsvit needs exactly that kind of state in order to succeed. For that purpose, it does its best to create the image of the dangerous, "inadaptable" Roma.
This is not hard to do, as it merely requires building on stereotypes that are already widespread in Czech society. In this respect, however, it is important to understand that even if all the stereotypes about Romani people were true, Úsvit’s posturing would be no less pathological.
In order for it to even exist, Úsvit requires this fear of "inadaptables" and other elements undermining the sovereignty of this society. It is then supposed to become the cure for the very problems it is actually creating.
The party is not interested in solving problems, however, but in preserving them. These problems are the only way it will ever have a reason to exist.
LOATHING
Okamura’s statements often seem naive, practically single-minded. It’s hard to imagine any other politician with an instinct for self-preservation publicly using the expression "gypsy blood", for example.
Just like Schweik, however, Okamura is not as naive as he seems. On the contrary, he knows exactly what he is doing.
If antagonizing the Romani minority is Úsvit’s aim, Okamura’s statements are the path toward that goal. When Okamura talks about "gypsy blood", this is an effort to define the Romani minority in opposition to the majority society and to objectify the difference between them.
Popular folk stereotypes claim that Romani people do not work, that they steal, that they abuse the welfare system, that they are noisy, that they live in filth, and that they do not know how to raise their children. When we ask why they are this way, we often hear that they have these characteristics "in their blood".
In other words, such attributes are theirs and theirs alone. On the basis of this logic, if one then ascribes such characteristics to them, to do so is not an example of discrimination or racism, but merely a statement of fact.
This approach, of course, tells us nothing at all about Romani people. It does tell us a great deal about the majority society in which they live.
Romani people serve in Czech society as "the Other" onto which society projects all of its unpleasant aspects. The weakness of all of society is transferred to this unpopular minority so the majority can go to sleep with a clear conscience.
The stigmatization of the Romani minority by the majority society makes it possible for Czech society to avoid solving its own problems, because it views those problems as belonging to someone else. The construction of Romani identity as fundamentally different facilitates this activity.
This construction creates the appearance of neutrality and turns these problems into ones that are a priori unsolvable. It suppresses awareness of the fact that the social problems linked to the Romani minority are in fact a product of the conditions established for them by the majority society.
In the past, Okamura has expressed support for the idea of a Romani state, justifying it by the right of all nations to self-determination. During the 2011 census, however, only 13 150 inhabitants of the Czech Republic identified themselves to the authorities as being of Romani nationality – so in the interests of determining who is Romani here, we probably would have to take blood samples.
Why is Okamura such a successful purveyor of racism and xenophobia? He offers people the opportunity to hate the Roma without any pangs of conscience.
It is somewhat paradoxical that it is Okamura who has succeeded where political parties such Sovereignty or the Workers’ Party have failed. He has described himself as a half-Japanese person who experienced racism during his childhood here, drawing the conclusion that he therefore cannot be racist.
How else would he be able to place Klára Samková, who is famous for defending Romani people in criminal proceedings, at the head of his candidate list for the EP elections? Okamura’s own ethnicity permits him to relativize all of his statements.
"My whole life I have been asked, until I became well-known, whether I am Chinese or Vietnamese. I’ve dealt with this my whole life, having to constantly explain my origins, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The reality is that everyone has some kind of origins – you too, why should we be ashamed of them?" These are the kinds of remarks that make Okamura more dangerous than [former Republican Party chair] Sládek or [DSSS chair] Vandas.
On the one hand, Okamura’s remarks objectify characteristics that are often associated with the Romani minority, and on the other hand he relativizes them by saying that "everyone has some kind of origins". There is no need for his followers to be ashamed of criticizing Romani people, because the pathological social phenomena associated with them is a product of their origins, not of the society in which they live.
However, Okamura is not just a racist demagogue exploiting social tensions to acquire power. He is also an avatar of the hatred that exists toward the Romani minority in the Czech Republic and many other European countries.
In this respect Okamura reminds me of the end of the film "Ghostbusters", in which the main heroes have to choose a form for the monster they are trying to destroy. One of them, in good faith, chooses a seemingly harmless advertising character, which really does wreak havoc when it assumes a larger-than-life size.
It is similarly bizarre to see a man who appears to be just another sympathetic young entrepreneur from Halina Pawlowská’s "Banana Fish" talk show as the leader of a xenophobic political movement. Tomio Okamura and his aggressive rhetoric should not be underestimated, however.
Societal tension is the breeding ground of his movement, and he is not hesitating to loosen the reins on his unacceptable statements. His electoral reward in the recent parliamentary elections could be just the beginning.
First published in Czech at http://suchanekpetr.blog.respekt.ihned.cz, reprinted with the consent of the author
