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Good evening! In Latvia, it is a tradition that on the New Year’s Eve, when the festivities have already started and there are only a few minutes left until the midnight, we get serious for a few moments and think about Latvia.
I would like to talk about goals. This year, by joining the European Union and the NATO, we have achieved the goals that we were pursuing all these years. The European Union and the NATO served for as a frame of reference, based on which we made decisions on many other issues. This year the goals were achieved, and many of us are not sure what to do now. What are our main goals now? Where should the country head now? What is our new vision?
On the one hand, the answer is simple – let us think of what we dreamed about on the barricades and let us ask ourselves if everything has already been achieved?
I do not remember us sitting around the bonfires those days and talking about joining the European Union. Our goal was not to join Europe, but live like in Europe. Our goals were freedom and security, not NATO. Have these goals been achieved? At least one of them has not. The goal of living like in Europe has not been achieved.
Now, however, nobody will any more provide us with any roadmaps, plans and timetables on what, when and how we should do things. The EU and NATO were specific goals. They did everything to help us in many ways. Now we have goals for achieving which nobody will give us a roadmap. Nobody else but we must think about it and come up with a plan. The situation has changed completely, and everyone should understand it. During the last 14 years we have gone a long way from being an occupied country under the Soviet Union to joining the European Union and the NATO. In a few minutes time the lats will be fixed to the euro. In these 14 years we have accomplished a distance the significance of which is hard to grasp. Nevertheless, the most difficult task is still ahead. The question is – what will we be able to achieve in the next 15 years? Now we ourselves must create the roadmap and plan for the coming years. This is not an easy task.
It is not an easy task, because we cannot make use of a plan that exists only on paper, neither do we need yet another working group that would write such a paper plan. We have enough working groups and more paper plans than anyone can read through. What we need is a strategy that is written not on paper, but in our hearts. Although it may sound elevated, we need a strategy that is not adopted by some working group, but lives in the heart of the nation.
In the last 14 years we have achieved a lot. As regards laws, we are a modern state. Public administration can always be improved, but the major tasks have already been done. As regards taxes, we are a very competitive country. Free press, human rights, monetary system, and the indicators of economic freedom – judging by all these aspects Latvia is a developed modern democracy. There are sectors that still require significant improvements, but in many areas we are even ahead of the old democratic countries.
Yet, there is a question – if everything is all right, then why are we the poorest country in the European Union? Even more – why are we the poorest among the Baltic States? Why do we drink Lithuanian milk instead of Latvian? Why are Estonians, according to some estimates, ten years ahead of us? We have not had a serious discussion in Latvia about that. The only opinion voiced is that the cause of all this is corruption. Of course, corruption is an evil that must be combated mercilessly; still corruption cannot be blamed for everything. Corruption is not the reason why there are Lithuanian, Estonian and Norwegian shops on every corner, not Latvian ones. Corruption is not the reason why there is a catastrophic shortage of young scientists. Corruption is not the reason why we have so few entrepreneurs.
There are other reasons, why in the last years we have started to fall behind our closest neighbours, and these reasons are not in our legislation. These reasons are not in our tax system or regulatory enactments. These reasons lie in us. In the complicated knots of our relations, in the weak places of our system of values. We lack unity and patriotism. In our small country we have almost thirty reciprocally hostile political parties participating in the elections, and there are altogether sixty registered. I think, we need to think why this is so. I truly hope that this government will be a turning point in Latvian politics in this particular aspect.
We, the Government, must show an example. I hope that we are mature enough for this. This will by no means be easy. Not everyone will like everything. We will need confidence, steadiness, and statesmanship, in order to understand that differing opinions on an issue are not the end of the world, that compromise is an integral part of teamwork. This will not be easy, but if we succeed in showing an example for the people and lessen mistrust, then everything will be good for Latvia.
Turn on the television or the radio and you will hear a Latvian blaming another Latvian all the time. You will hear a Latvian telling he is the only clever one, while all others are stupid. In my opinion, this is a lack of patriotism – a person cannot be a patriot, if he considers his compatriots to be dumb and bad people. We lack unity, and we are ready to help any foreign investor in any possible way, but we would never help a Latvian investor. We are even ready to bring our disputes to international forums, only to do harm to another Latvian. We have no time for creating our own retail chains and factories; we lack strength for work. Latvians sell their businesses at first opportunity, yet nobody has asked, why this happens. Therefore, if I was to be asked what we need to change, I would say – first of all, attitude. Attitude towards each other. We need an agreement at a new level. We need an idea of the future that lives in our hearts and in which we can truly believe. We are a small nation; therefore we need a big and strong idea. Therefore we need a big and strong agreement. An agreement that would turn into unity.
Together we can achieve everything.
Happy New Year!
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