Economics and Business June/July 2005

ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS
Dinu Patriciu, illusions and freedom

by Matei Paun
June/July 2005

Fraud. Corruption. Money laundering. Tax evasion: these are all words that have sunk thousands of enterprises and their leaders. From Al Capone to Enron to even the lovable Martha Stewart, society has chosen to punish those that failed to live by its rules. At the same time, society has chosen to go about its investigations and prosecutions of potential crimes according to certain assumptions, rules and procedures. In Western cultures, the process through which one is deemed guilty or not is at least as important as the ultimate verdict.

Romania’s leaders, prosecutors and judges, and large swathes of its media have yet to comprehend this. They have yet to understand that the gravity and weight of a verdict, guilty or not, is severely demonetised by a shoddy prosecutor or by a politically-motivated judge.

One of the more recent mistakes that Romania’s political class has made was to give independence to its unreformed justice system. While at first glance this statement may sound odd, one needs to fully grasp the effects of this poorly thought-out process. It does not take much to realise that it would have been far better to first restructure a justice system that has been largely left untouched since before 1989. This is particularly true at its highest and most senior levels, which is still largely dominated by communist-era judges. In fact, a condition for serving on Romania’s Supreme Court is to have been a judge for 18 years – this ensures that only former senior Communist Party members fulfill that criterion, as those were the only types permitted to become judges.

These are people whose instincts are to answer to political commands, always put the state above the individual and who generally are miles away from what anyone would consider to be a Western-minded, objective, fair and efficient system of justice. Eliminating such fossilised remnants of the past and replacing them with new blood would have been an essential first step in reforming Romania’s justice system. Romania’s politicians have now made this nearly impossible to achieve.

This brings me to Dinu Patriciu. While the oil industry certainly harbors no angels, Mr Patriciu’s crime seems to be one of too much success. At least that is the conclusion one inevitably reaches when analysing the way in which a politically-motivated prosecutor ruthlessly goes about investigating the magnate, while the justice system sits idly by, allowing such things to transpire and all the while compromising its claims of blind objectivity.
Now there is nothing wrong with a prosecutor aggressively doing his job – after all, that is what they are supposed to do – but there is a problem when the process turns abusive and is unchecked by the justice system.
If Mr Patriciu made mistakes, they are to be found in the political arena. Perhaps he has overplayed his hand, miscalculated the strength of his opponents, or chosen the wrong allies. But none of these things should land someone in jail. And if, indeed, he has committed an illegal act, then surely this is not how justice will be served.

The root of this problem lies in the fact that we still believe in the myth of a democratic Romania. A Romania where political parties have ideologies which cater to an electorate. A Romania where the justice system and the media are free and fair. A Romania where the secret services spy not on its citizens, but on its enemies. A Romania where presidents are not also prime ministers. A Romania where one can be both a businessman and have political ambitions. In short, a Romania that does not exist.

As long as we continue to harbor such illusions, we will never be free. v

Matei Paun is a founding member of the Romania Think Tank and a managing partner with the specialist investment bank BAC Romania. He may be contacted at matei@bac-romania.com