Chisinau's Burning! My Perspective on the Moldova Riots



As many of you know, I spent over two years in Moldova. While the country certainly had its problems, I found my time there to be quite rewarding. I made many wonderful friends and was rewarded with a unique insight into what is a fascinating culture in many ways. The recent outbreaks of riots following the elections, in which the communist party won over 60% of the votes - by most accounts, fraudulently - was, for me, at once surprising and wholly expected.

Since gaining independence, Moldova has remained controlled by the rich and elite. To say the country is corrupt is an understatement. Corruption defines nearly every aspect of life. Schoolteachers regularly expect bribes as a determination of children's grades, and the police seem to exist solely as an institution for bullying and money-taking.

By and large, the rich and powerful - since the fall of the USSR - have been members of the Russian speaking minority. They maintained their status since the fall of the Soviet Union and have strived to maintain that status ever since. Worse, the Russian minority holds to the view that they still belong to some avante guarde of Russian imperialism. They seem to believe that, so long as they stay true to the "motherland" and keep Moldova as Russian as possible (which, to them, means being communist) that some day Russia will reward their efforts by embracing Moldova once again and bringing the country back into the Russian fold. To this end, most of the media - controlled of course by Russian nationalists - is in Russian or, worse, from Russia itself. Hence, a Stalin/Putin communist mandate is driven into the minds of the population, even in the most remote of villages. For the Moldovans, then, to elect the communist party is expected. The communists control the media, which means the communists control what many Moldovans think and believe. It was, then, no surprise that the Moldovans elected the communists into power yet again. What was surprising was the backlash against these results.

The protests and demonstrations in Chisinau were the first of their kind in this fledgling country. Thousands of youths stormed the streets, some of whom even became violent and ransacked the parliament building. The question is not: Why did they do it? The reasons are self evident. The communist party manipulated the votes, registering thousands of dead people's names to bolster the numbers of votes they received. When elections are so clearly manipulated, it is quite common for the population to rise up against the State and demand justice. No, the question here is: Why now? The thing is, this is certainly not the first time that the communists have rigged the votes. As noted above, corruption is rife within Moldova, and this is certainly true within the election process. No one would be surprised to learn that the elections were handled unfairly. Indeed, it would surprise people more to learn that the elections had been fair. So, the Moldovans certainly did not protest because of the novelty of a corrupt election. What, then, was the cause? Why did they protest this time and not in previous elections, protest so strongly in fact that the demonstration became a riot?

First of all, it should be understood that, in the past too, people were angry at the communists and were often disappointed by the election results. Here, by "people" I mean those who are educated and intelligent enough to see beyond the Russian propaganda of the media and who have a more worldly outlook. These people, although they live in a small and rural country, are by no means a minority. for the most part, these people are citizens of Chisinau where approximately one quarter of the country's population lives. By "people", too, I do not mean only Romanian-speaking people. While Romanian-speakers are generally more antagonistic towards the communist party than their Russian-speaking counterparts, there are plenty of Russian-speakers who denounce corruption and want to live in a fair and free Moldova. So, by "people" I mean simply those Moldovans who are aware of what is going on in their country and are tired of the corruption in their government. These people have long been fed up with the depression, corruption, and poverty that prevails in their country and want a change, a change that they know the communist party will not give them. Indeed, as communist president Voronin often stands in the way of progress, pocketing state funds and allowing Moldova to remain depressed to better serve the interests of his Russian masters, the communist party seems to stand in the way of progress. So, for many years, people have been unhappy with the communist party and have been disappointed every time they won the elections. So, again, what changed this time? Why this time did people take to the streets in protest?

For one thing, Moldovans had recently begun to believe that change was in the air. In the last mayoral election in Chisinau, non-communist Dorin Chirtoaca was elected to the seat in what was a surprising - and welcome - break from the normal course of corruption that prevails in the country's politics. This was seen as a sign of hope for many Moldovans. They believed that, finally, the people's voices were being heard and that the country was moving away from the communist ideals of the past. For the communists to have won such a surprising majority of the election this time around, then, was a shock. Many assumed, even if the communists did win, they would win by a much smaller percentage than in the past. After all, one quarter of the country had elected a non-communist mayor. For the communists to win over 60% of the votes, then, was seen not only as an obvious sign of corruption, but as a slap in the face of the progress many Moldovans were anticipating. Their hopes, which they had been waiting for and counting on for so long, were dashed by the communists. It is no surprise, then, that after these elections the Moldovans were even more angry than before and were perhaps more willing to take to the streets. They had, after all, proved that their votes could matter with the mayoral elections, and they were not about to have that recent change in fortune taken away from them now.

Another reason for why the protests happened this time had to do simply with the possibility for organizing such a protest. As noted above, for a long time the media has been controlled by the communists in Moldova. Certainly, the media would do nothing to help organize such demonstrations. However, these days - as with much of the world - Moldova is better connected. Online sites such as Facebook and Twitter were responsible for rallying many of the protesters together, and cellphones were used when internet service was cut off. The recent expansion in internet and cellphone access by Moldovans allowed them something they never had before: a free media by which to share information and call for action together. Of course, it is no surprise that the communist government continues to block Facebook and other sites. The government knows it is in the wrong, and wants to oppress its people and the truth as much as possible in order to maintain its corrupt, illegitimate power. To this end, the communists and their Russian masters present ridiculous excuses for what caused the recent protests. For example:

* Romania incited the riots in order to take over the country [“We know that certain forces from Romania masterminded these riots,” President Voronin said, according to the Interfax news agency. “Romanian flags which were planted on state buildings in Chisinau prove this.”] As a refutation to this claim, see http://savemoldova.blogspot.com/2009/04/comunist-conspiracy.html

* That some insidious masterminds had manipulated the Moldovan children against their own country [“The organizers of the worst crime in the history of the Republic of Moldova are again preparing to use our children to stage riots in the government’s office on Friday and Sunday,” Prime Minister Zinaida Greceanii said.]

* That President Obama of the USA organized these protests [according to Russian political scientist Aleksander Dugin]

These excuses, of course, are all nonsensical accounts meant to detract from the real issue at hand: the Moldovan people are tired of being treated as second class humans, not only by the rest of the world, but by their own government, and they are not going to stand for it any more.

And this is the real reason why the protests happened now: because the sentiments of the Moldovan people had finally reached their boiling point, and the Moldovan people are not going to take any more. And this is why, ultimately, no matter what the communists do they cannot hold onto their power much longer. They can't blame the young and turn the country's sentiments against them. (In fact, after the protests, high school and university teachers were all forced to sign a document saying they would prevent students' protests. In response, a crowd of 3,000 older Moldovans showed up to protest in Chisinau on Sunday. This is clearly not a generational issue.) They can't close the borders to Europe and cut off the internet, because these actions will do nothing to curb the sentiments of the people living in Moldova. And they cannot blame the outside world - Romania or Ukraine or the USA - because the only reason the Moldovan people are sick of the communist party is because of the corruption within the communist party itself. The Moldovan people, long regarded as peaceful "cows" who would take whatever suffering they were given, have finally risen up. And there is nothing that the communist party can do now about it, and no matter what propaganda they spin or what oppressive measures they take, the communists' days are numbered.

These protests happened, as protests everywhere always happen, because the Moldovan people have spoken: They will not take the lies, corruption, or incompetence of their government any longer. They will rise above.