Taking on the far right

By K.V.Krishnaswamy

BERLIN: The centrist government in Germany, led by the Social Democrat, Mr Gerhard Schroeder, has decided to seek judicial sanction for banning an ultra right party. The step is a candid acknowledgement of deepening concern over xenophobia, the most serious problem faced by the democratic polity since the two halves of the country were re-united more than a decade ago, and comes on the heels of the revelation that there has been an increase of nearly nine per cent in right-wing extremist crimes in the last nine months compared to the previous year. Neo-Nazis have taken out rallies in the past two weeks to protest against the government plans for imposing the ban.

There was a rude reminder of the persisting problem of right-wing extremism targetted at foreigners during the low-key celebrations to mark the tenth anniversary of reunification in early October. A firebomb attack on a synagogue in Dusseldorf in the former western half had marred the observances, though there were no casualties. In summer the city witnessed a bomb attack on immigrants.

The targets were clear in both attacks: the Jewish community, the old enemy, and the immigrant who had been invited to come as guest worker in the Sixties and Seventies and now finds himself unwanted by some sections of the population and up against insurmountable obstacles to claiming citizenship that should have been his due long ago. Xenophobia, hatred of foreigners, and anti-semitism, hatred of the Jew, are old diseases. The dilemma for Germany is that the country depends more, not less, on immigrant labour to keep up its high standard of living, for the impoverished foreigner to mind the jobs that the German will not care to do himself.

Acutely sensitive issue

The country has tried several palliatives. The proposed ban on the NPD (German acronym for the National Democratic Party of Germany), for instance, has been in debate for some months. Such bans had in earlier decades been imposed on both right-wing and left-wing groupings and are perhaps not the most effective of solutions but the move certainly signals the resolve of the Schroeder government to face up to the challenge of the worrisomely rising tide of neo-Nazi extremism. It is an acutely sensitive issue in a country that is struggling still to bury the ghost of Adolf Hitler and the catastrophic consequences of his ``final solution.''

Any visitor reading the German press will realise instantly that there certainly is no effort to brush the issue under the carpet. On the contrary, there is evident a sincere effort to come to grips with the problem.

The German parliament has just released more funds for what is officially described as the programme to ``reinforce the fight against right-wing extremism.'' In the new budget there will be more money allotted to the Ministries for Families and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a German (also European?) euphemism for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Mr. Schroeder has personally led his Government's strong public crusade against the extreme right, visiting victims of violence and vowing to put down neo-Nazi elements. In the battle against xenophobic brutality, his broad plan has three prongs: a zero tolerance crackdown by police and the courts, youth programmes that offer alternative activities in the post- unification era (in place of the free leisure time opportunities available during the time of the German Democratic Republic) and appeals to Germans for civil courage to confront neo-Nazism and anti- foreigner racism.

Officials and parliamentarians belonging to the ruling coalition never cease to point out that most of the criminal attacks by right-wing extremists have taken place in the former communist half and trace the malady primarily to the absence of a democratic culture of tolerance in that half for the better part of half a century. One official even included the years under Adolf Hitler to make it six decades of authoritarian regimes.

Unconvincing explanations

The elaborate explanations they offer, however, sound rather unconvincing, considering that parties like the NPD have their roots in the former western wing. Besides, with more foreigners in the west than the east, it may be wrong to assume that there is more xenophobia in the former communist land. One possible explanation offered is that symbols of authority such as the parent, teacher and policeman disappeared with the collapse of the GDR and are taking time to re-assert themselves.

Officials at the Interior Ministry in their comments in fact reflected feelings of frustration at the alleged slowness of East Germany to recover. These were an echo of complaints one heard in West Germany at the time of reunification when West Germans often insensitively accused their eastern countrymen of being work-shy, of having lost the German virtues of discipline and initiative.

The slowness of economic recovery in the eastern wing, despite massive infusion of capital from the western half, is blamed for the resurgence of right extremist crime, with the frustrated youth turning their anger at the immigrants who may have made it good. The annual report of the Interior Ministry for 1999 had this revealing statistic: on an average, the rate of acts of violence per 100,000 inhabitants was 2.19 in east Germany and 0.68 in the west German state.''

That there is widespread resentment in the eastern wing with the ``overbearing'' attitude of the westerner is an altogether different matter.

There can be no facile explanation in fact for such brutality by youth in the post-unification era which has seen much marked progress all round. The rise of the far right groups defies logic, with official explanations contradicted by social workers who have been working especially among the immigrant communities, mostly Turkish.

The far right has no doubt many manifestations and running through them is this common thread that spawns the racial hatred: all abhor democratic values, worship resort to violence and have no particular attachment to human and civil rights. But these groups are a miniscule minority with a disproportionately high potential for havoc. The fight against these forces is a concerted national effort, led by the Social Democrat-Green coalition.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : Not a balanced report