Education law is a revenge

Signatory of the Act of Independence of Lithuania and a former advisor to President Valdas Adamkus – Czeslaw Okinczyc believes that adopted in March this year by the Lithuanian parliament a new law on education is the revenge of the Lithuanian authorities for the fact that Poland showed a too small or too big an interest in certain issues concerning the Polish minority in Lithuania. In journalistic “Savaitė” (“Tydzień”), awarded by the Lithuanian state television, Okińczyc pointed out that the immediate reaction of the Polish authorities on Friday’s strike in defense of Polish schools in Lithuania shows the importance of the Polish Lithuanian Poles.

“This law was adopted only for political reasons and is a revenge for the first picket at the Presidential Palace” – said former adviser to President Adamkus in the ether of the Lithuanian state television.

According to yesterday’s Okińczyc visit to Lithuania, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, demonstrates the importance of the Polish minority in Lithuania to the Polish authorities. In an interview with leading software Okińczyc intimated that this visit should not be regarded as “not diplomatically” move on the Polish side. “I think all the steps between the neighbors and strategic partners are normal and possible. The heads of government, high ranking officials such as Prime Ministers, should openly talk” – he said.

Czesław Okińczyc also said that the discontent of the Polish minority in Lithuania because of the force from first of September changes in the education system of Lithuania is an internal problem, not Polish. In his view, this problem has neither become until such publicity, if the Lithuanian authorities have prepared a longer transition period and allowed the teaching according to a new program from the initial classes.

Okińczyc is convinced that the strong reaction of the Polish minority in Lithuania, the Lithuanian authorities, some of it is not unusual. It proves “too soft” behavior of the authorities towards the ethnic minorities living in Lithuania, which is a perversion of the foundations of democratic states.

http://www.wilnoteka.lt/pl/artykul/cz-okinczyc-ustawa-o-oswiacie-jest-zemsta

Tłumaczenie Michał Sadowski w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu Translated by Michał Sadowski within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu

Korekta Małgorzata Juchniewicz w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu