Political Hooliganism
A diplomatic row has erupted between Hungary and Saudi Arabia; and the football match that spawned it all wasn't even that great
Two weeks ago a diplomatic scandal broke out between Hungary and Saudi Arabia, the indirect result of a football friendly between the two countries. Then, the Hungarian prime minister, Ferenc Gyurcsany, remarked at at a party event that the Hungarian players "courageously struggled against the Arab terrorists." Although he apologised a couple of days later, the sick joke and bad diplomacy hasn't gone away. If anything, the fallout from it has increased -- and may yet continue to grow.
The diplomatic faux-pas erupted into a growing political scandal not only at home but abroad as well. Following a Reuters and AP report on the incident, numerous publications around the world relayed the story, often within the sport pages where those who are dimly aware of world events were suddenly subjected to a dose of politics. Extensive coverage was given in the London based Arabic newspaper al-Kudsz al-Arabi, as well as two Turkish papers, Hurriyat and Radikal. In North America, all the major media outlets ran their own versions of the incident, including the Chicago Sun and Chicago Times, the Canadian Press, the Boston Herald, the Las Vegas Sun, the Seattle Post, NBC, and South Carolina's The State. Closer to home, Bratislava-based Pravda carried the news and Internet chat rooms and blogs within Slovakia featured endless commentaries, often comparing the similarities between their own leader and that of Hungary's.
There are many reasons why the issue has failed to subside after two weeks. Aside from the extensive, worldwide coverage of the "joke", what was insulting was that the leader of a NATO member state would make such a comment. In addition to this, the apology issued three days after the incident was clearly inadequate. Gyurcsany refused to accept full responsibility for his comments, noting that what he had said was in the context of a TV show parody and that anyone who took the words seriously was driven by "political intolerance ... or even ill-will."
More importantly, the problem with Gyurcsany's comments was that he merely reinforced the same stereotypes that many Europeans and Americans have about Arabs, stereotypes which initially gave rise to George Bush's misconceived "war on terror". Accordingly, Saudi Arabia is viewed as a country that finances different terrorist organizations and it, along with every other Middle Eastern country, is full of terrorists. Such a view is a little short of obscene, and all the more so as it comes from the prime minister of a European country. In essence, it was a callous and arrogant display of political ignorance.
Not only has the fallout from the joke refused to subside, it intensified last week when the Saudi ambassador to Hungary unexpectedly returned to Saudi Arabia. There has been conflicting reports as to why the ambassador left. The government spokesperson, Boglar Laszlo, explained on Saturday that the the diplomat went home for consultations. The main opposition party, the Young Democrats (FIDESZ), see things differently and have been talking about a serious diplomatic scandal.
To make matters worse, the government spokesperson also announced that the Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, Katalin Szili, who was scheduled to travel to Riyadh, had suddenly decided to cancel her trip to Saudi Arabia. The official explanation given was that there was some serious political business to attend to at home which required her presence. Most observers don't buy this excuse, some speculating that Szili had cancelled her planned visit to Saudi Arabia because the Saudis weren't satisfied with the government's apology over the incident. Others go even further, saying that it was the Saudis who informed Szili not to travel to Riyadh. Moreover, they maintain that the Saudi ambassador didn't simply leave the country for consultations, but that the Saudi government had actually recalled its ambassador.
Laszlo denies all this, stating that the prime minister had duly issued an apology for the unfortunate remark that followed the football match between Saudi Arabia and Hungary, which in turn was accepted. She added that the foreign minister, Ferenc Somogyi, had relayed the apology in person to the Saudi government through the ambassador. The prime minister then considered the matter closed and didn't see any need to take further action.
The main party opposition, however, takes a different view on events. It sees the recalling of the Saudi ambassador as proof that the prime minister's "racist remarks" wasn't just a joke gone badly, but one that has turned into an international diplomatic incident. Zsolt Nemeth, the chairperson of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee and a member of the FIDESZ, stressed that if the recalled ambassador doesn't send a signal to the prime minister to somehow resolve the issue, then Hungary can expect further sanctions by the Saudis.
Although the FIDESZ has made some public announcements regarding the scandal, considering the scope and sensitive nature of the issue the diplomatic row has, generally, been met with indifference and sparse coverage within the mainstream media in Hungary. Under normal circumstances, details of the diplomatic row would be forthcoming; instead, it's leaking out in bits and pieces only. Indeed, more information can be had from foreign sources than from within Hungary.
Interestingly enough, this is not the first time that Gyurcsany is in trouble for making inappropriate remarks as prime minister. Soon after forming a new government in October of last year, remarks he made over Hungary and the Virgin Mary had caused an uproar among Catholics, who make up the vast majority in this small country of under 10 million.
From the very beginning, many have found Gyurcsany to be very arrogant in public, especially in his dealings with the media. He clearly dislikes probing and critical questions, which is one reason why he felt that those who took the "joke" seriously were most probably driven by political intolerance and ill-will.
Unfortunately, what the likes of Gyurcsany and others like him who don't see anything wrong in making such "jokes" fail to understand is that a public figure represents a country; thus, their views are often taken to be the views of the government, people, etc. whom they, in effect, represent. Hence, Gyurcsany's callous remark was not simply the case of a person making a joke.
Ironically, it was this same type of situation which caused deep embarrassment to the Royal family in the UK a few weeks ago, when Prince Harry went to a party dressed in a Nazi uniform. Then, he was rightly criticised in the UK and abroad for his poor choice of costume. Yet as far as the likes of Gyurcsany are concerned, Jews and others who were deeply offended by Prince Harry's costume are simply people "driven by political intolerance and even ill-will."
As a former head of the Communist Youth Movement during the former regime, it seems that Gyurcsany still has a lot of growing up to do. Although the scandal looks set to deepen even further, hopefully he is beginning to learn a few lessons in political etiquette. In the meantime, the Hungarian football team should seize the opportunity to get its own act together: next time they might not be so lucky to have an idiot clown steal the limelight away from their own, pathetic performance on the field.