"Jöjj és lásd!"

A protest against apartheid

'A right delayed is a right denied'
Martin Luther King

Dear President of the Republic!

It is not good to be a Gypsy in Hungary! It is bad enough that the economic crisis is hurting the Gypsy community hardest of all, a community which has already been struggling for decades with poverty and unemployment, and which is now being held responsible for our own wretched situation.

We stand accused of being lazy and work-shy, when in fact the majority of Roma would gladly work, if work was offered. There would not be so few qualified, well-educated Roma, if our children were not pushed aside in the primary schools, if they received quality education; if the municipal councils did not sabotage the development of the poorest regions; if we were not handled in every sphere of life as second-class citizens. If this were otherwise, then perhaps we could do more to improve our own fate. We are not asking for privileges, but for equal rights, and equal opportunities.

Those are the opportunities for which we, the Association of Roma Civil Rights of Jászladány, and those who support our movement, are turning to you now.

Nowadays almost every political grouping agrees that one of most fundamental tasks of the Hungarian nation's destiny in the 21st century will be the integration of the Gypsies in the majority society.

In America the blacks and those of Latin American origin have reached the point, after decades of fighting for their rights as citizens, where an Afro-American can be elected President of the United States. That movement could not have achieved its epoch-making success if it had not enjoyed the support of the sober-minded, sympathetic majority. And within that majority, of such presidents who dared to risk their own popularity, by taking a stand against prejudice.

As Hungarian citizens we are now appealing to your sober vision and sympathy in our plight. We ask you to take the lead in the struggle for the integration of the Roma. Fulfill the task which you are under oath to fulfill: act as the embodiment of national unity, and raise your voice for those who are shut away in ghettoes, who are excluded, and whose voices are not heard. It is the common responsibility of honest Roma and non-Roma people, all of us anxious for the future of our children, to take the wind out of the sails of those who artificially generate enmity, and to stand together to resolve the problems.

Please, raise your voice in public on our behalf! Appeal to the government and the municipal councils to:

• put an end to the harmful practice of school segregation!
• guarantee quality education for Roma children!
• dismantle the ghettos, and make it possible for the Roma to live in the same communities as the wider society!
• do not beautify the gypsy districts, but create dignified living conditions for the most needy!
• do not make the Roma the scapegoats for an unemployment situation which no government has been able to resolve!
• instead of pushing the poor to engage in street cleaning and other demeaning half-solutions, provide real work opportunities in a competitive market-place!
• let those really in need gain access to European Union funds, and not the companies which excel in writing funding applications, nor the rich local councils!
• let those sources which are available for development be distributed fairly, taking into account issues of region and accessibility!
• let the Roma be genuinely involved in decisions which affect them, in which they are regarded as partners not as vassals who can be bought off!
• guarantee equal access to common land and common services!
• initiate preventative programmes to improve the tragic state of health of the Roma! Let the Roma have the right and possibility to live as long as the majority population!
• help end a public discourse which places the collective blame on the Roma! We have had enough of both open and disguised hate-speech towards us!