At Hungary's parliament in Budapest, Secretary
of State Clinton speaks
at the opening of Budapest's Tom Lantos
Institute, dedicated to the
now
deceased Hungarian-American lawmaker. Clinton's
message also related
to the state of Hungary's democracy, which appears
under some threat.
Vasarnapi Hirek, Hungary
Hillary Clinton 'Speaks Frankly' to Hungarians
"Twenty
years ago, the elder Bush called us a 'budding democracy,' and now President
Obama's secretary of state is trying to caution us about the withering of our
rose."
Annette Lantos, the wife of former U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, speaks about her husband at the inaugural ceremony at the Hungary Parliament for the Tom Lantos Institute. Lanton and his dog are depicted in the painting below.
No matter the skill displayed
by the Orbán government during Hillary Clinton’s visit for the inauguration of
the Tom Lantos Institute, embarrassing messages from Washington were to be
expected. Just as predictable, given the simultaneous unveiling of a statue to Ronald
Reagan commemorating his role in ending communism, was the applause Prime
Minister Orbán raked in from the U.S. Secretary of State and political big-wigs
(with the help of his loyal media) - even as Orbán's
own camp of supporters all but disappeared.
Even in her briefing en route
to Budapest, the State Department chief, and therefore the White House, expressed
"concern” about developments instituted since the beginning of 2011. In
particular, a government “media control body” empowered to censor and fine
“offensive” media outlets. Over the past few months, American and European
media authorities have said that the agency is a threat to democracy in Hungary.
Secretary of State Clinton, we were told, "will speak quite clearly on
this" when she arrives in Budapest.
And so she did. Speaking to her U.S.
Embassy staff in Budapest, she had a few choice words for the occasion. Relying
on the obtuse language of diplomacy, she noted that she held an "open,
frank” discussion with Orbán about “all the sensitive issues.” Roughly
translated, that means only that the U.S. bluntly stated its wholehearted
concerns. What also struck those who appreciate diplomatic nuance is that the
Hungarian prime minister didn't even allude to these “sensitive” topics - but
of course, in Clinton's presence, it would have been risky to admit to those instances
in which Orbán honorably noted that, "The U.S. administration is lying.”
There is no real need to
decode any of this. Based on Clinton's public statements, we can get an idea of
what this "frank exchange” was like. As usual, the opposition cried
traitor, but Hungarian politicians that qualify in this tale as (at the very
least) disloyal weren't pleased that the namesake of the Tom Lantos Institute held
that the partisanship of politicians in his adopted country were all "on
the same side: for freedom and for democracy.” Even fewer were happy about
Clinton's caveat that, “We cannot allow democracy to retreat anywhere” (again
referring to the previously-mentioned concerns). “The stakes are too high,” warned
Clinton, reprimanding countries in which the priority of economic growth
appears at odds with freedom and human rights.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Such a thought might have
been useful a week ago in the context of the visit to Budapest of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (who, in Orbán's self-glorifying rhetoric, was lifted to the ranks
of "Hungarian ally"). What could she have been thinking when she
described the importance of the rule of law - pointedly referring to "political
vengeance or partisan meddling” in the path of justice? Not only did she discuss
the predominance of checks and balances as being part of classical democratic
principles, but she emphatically brought up the preservation of an independent judiciary.
Twenty years ago, the elder Bush called us a "budding democracy," and
now President Obama's secretary of state is trying to caution us about the
withering of our rose. Of course, the stakes aren't only high for Hungarians,
but for Americans as well. To certain
nations, the state of democracy remains a concern, regardless of who one's
"allies" may be.
