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NOW IT IS THE TIME FOR US TO SOW
Anniversary of Independence of Slovenia, celebratory academy
Speech by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Milan Kucan
Ljubljana, 25 June 1996
"Tensions and frictions, as well as deliberate internal oppositions, which Slovenia too cannot avoid, hold back our progress. We are also held back by the ambitions of political parties, whenever they try to appropriate the state, its institutions and even its national holidays, and subject them to their will; whenever they forget that they must serve the state, and that in turn the state must serve its citizens, open up opportunities for work and creativity and guarantee security. We are held back, too, by an unreadiness to find a consensus on vital national interests and enable a common thinking about Slovene visions and about the future of Europe and the world; and about the path ahead."
Tonight is a time of remembering. A time when we may remember together that evening of five years ago; and that day when we crossed the threshold into our own independent state. It was a magical moment of transcendence and pride. In its greatness and splendour the dreams of the Slovenes were transformed into the right and duty to choose for ourselves. The right to our own state. And from that moment on, we witnessed a new time, a time of responsibility for our own state.
"To very thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven," it was written long ago. For the Slovenes that time came five years ago. It was as if we could reach to the stars. And so we did. We had a clear, common goal. We had the will and courage to reach out. Differences, personal gain and the past were all put to one side. We were alone with the reality of our decision. We made clear choices. Honourable and true was the path upon which we set out. We forced our will on no-one, we harmed no-one, and violated no person's rights. Yet not all understood us. With good hearts and minds we traversed the storms of war. We desired a peaceful solution, in order to avoid violence and war. And we sought and found friends in the world.
The Slovene state was born. It was able to live its own life. The world now recognises and respects us. Slovenia is increasingly deeper and more closely connected in the modern world, and is involved in the common responsibility for the world's future. It is observing that tradition of thought in which responsibility for what it does is not linked solely to loyalty to a group, to a party, or the state, but to the whole community, to life on the entire continent and to all life on Earth. It is becoming a part of the connected and vitally interdependent world.
It was a time for us to reap our harvest. And we reaped what had been sown over hundreds of years by the generations before us. Their dreams, their toil and sweat, joy and hopes, setbacks, suffering and death, confusions, good and mistaken choices, and their victories. All of this is our history, our common harvest. We may add to our lives everything from it that was good; and we may take as a lesson and a caution all that was bad in our history, so that it might not be repeated. We should not seek in our history a solution for our times. We should accept it, so that we might properly value freedom, respect those different from ourselves, and so that we might live openly, in tolerance, peace, and mutual respect.
Now it is time for us to sow. The generations after us will reap the harvest. We do not want to leave them with unfulfilled hopes and broken promises. It is time for us to reach agreement on how we want to live in the state which we are now administering; so that we may hold in the forefront of our attention a respect for human dignity and rights, and for human freedom; so that we may create enough strength to develop for the future, and consolidate the economic foundations and human solidarity for success on the path we took in the plebiscite of December 1990. Tensions and frictions, as well as deliberate internal oppositions, which Slovenia too cannot avoid, hold back our progress. We are also held back by the ambitions of political parties, whenever they try to appropriate the state, its institutions and even its national holidays, and subject them to their will; whenever they forget that they must serve the state, and that in turn the state must serve its citizens, open up opportunities for work and creativity and guarantee security. We are held back, too, by an unreadiness to find a consensus on vital national interests and enable a common thinking about Slovene visions and about the future of Europe and the world; and about the path ahead.
We are entering into European economic, political and security ties. We have gained the possibility to cooperate in the joint consideration over the future of Europe, over the European associations, over our own future. We may ask ourselves whether in these associations we will actually exist as a nation, and preserve our spiritual identity. We will, if we ourselves are able first of all to consider our own future, as it is being mapped out in an increasingly recognisable way; and if we can establish our future on solid material foundations, created through economic growth and a high quality of development. It is only with such consideration that we may cooperate creatively in the common European thinking. In this way alone lies the sense of our entering into Europe and saying our piece. More than ever before, we now need a political agreement on Slovenia's European orientation.
The centuries have marked out the truth about us. We always lived together with different peoples, but never entirely as their equals. Yet we survived. Now we are a modern people with our own state. And we are capable of continuing to live alongside different peoples in the future, too; with the simple difference that we will now be equals. Together with other peoples, we will create our own and our common European future -- in solidarity, and with equal rights and duties. What kind of culture, substance and way of life, what kind of country we will have, how well-inclined we will be towards our own people, and what we will hand on to the future generations, will depend on us. And may their inheritance be worthy of respect.
The season of summer will pass. As autumn approaches our view of the future will come into stark focus. Differences will be more important than the common responsibility for the benefit of the country, if the managers of public affairs are not aware of their duty, which they must not shirk, even during the forthcoming election campaign. This will be a time for us to judge how far the expectations of our citizens have been fulfilled, and what share of responsibility for our life and for the future of Slovenia we may entrust to the political parties in the election. And how much we may trust the new promises. Our judgment should be severe, since this will be a time in which we decide about how we are going to live: together with each other, alongside each other or against each other.
This night is a time of celebration. And our memory should be an inspiration! We may rejoice in what we have. For we have a great deal: a beautiful and peaceful country and everything we might need for a free, creative and harmonious life. We have our own country and democracy; and we also have the realistic promise of economic strength and growing prosperity. We have earned all of this for ourselves, and through the understanding of those friends whom we enjoy in such numbers around the world -- and whom we have also earned.
The tenth anniversary of Slovenia's National Day will be celebrated in the next millennium. Humankind is investing great hopes in this next millennium; it should be a civilisation of cooperation and love. It would be entirely senseless if, in the coming millennium, we squandered everything that we had worked so hard to achieve in the millennium now drawing to a close. May our fear of trusting in our fellow humans not divide us again so that we cannot find the path to them. Now is the time for everyone in this country to be bound together in our responsibility for Slovenia, for the Slovenes across the borders and in other parts of the world, and for the future of the Slovene identity. Responsibility for the harvest we have reaped, and for sowing the seeds that we owe to the future.
I wish you all a full and unspoilt celebration.
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