NEWS
Message of Prime Minister of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, on Rudolf Maister Day
Dear Citizens of Slovenia, fellow Slovenians!
Today we celebrate Rudolf Maister Day. This is a holiday which recognises the crucial events that took place at the end of the First World War, when the wheel of history had turned differently for Slovenia, in a much better direction than it might have. General Maister was a man without whom the borders of today’s independent Slovenia would be undoubtedly different. Without his determination and genius, the history of the Slovenians would probably have taken a different course.
The story of General Maister is a story of those individuals whose courage and determination may and can turn the course of events in a direction which later turns out to be the right one. In his time, General Maister did what he had to do. So his teaching is simple: we, our generation, too, must do what the present times require us to do. And this means that we must be prepared for changes to avoid surprise and confusion. It all looked simple with Maister: as if he had spent his entire life preparing for the moment when his firmness, capacity of assessment, determination and rapid decision making would be put to the test.
Today it seems like new and new obstacles are coming in our way. Maister’s story, however, teaches us that we must learn, like he did in 1918, to read the sign of times and pull up our socks so as to not leave opportunities untapped. To realise that these opportunities surround us because the world is changing from one moment to another. We need changes. Including those that may not seem popular at first sight. To oppose reasonable changes in such a rapidly changing world is unreasonable, it is narrow-sighted, it pave a way to a more uncertain future than the state and its citizens deserve.
The parallels between Maister’s times and our times are thus clear. Maister’s heritage is the preserved north-eastern border, without which the borders of today’s independent Slovenia would be certainly different, too. The courage and sober judgement of Slovenians of those days contributed to our history taking a better turn than it could have. To put it differently, should General Maister, people surrounding him and everybody who assessed their efforts have had any reservations, this would bring Slovenia a considerable historic disadvantage.
Maybe the time has come again when Slovenians, after a series of historical breaks, from Slovenia’s independence to its integration in the union of the most developed European countries, must decide which train of contemporary Europe and world to take: the one which will keep us in the first lines of the most important countries of the Old Continent, or the one which important actors of our history will gradually detach from the speeding train of changes. Maister’s heritage is of key importance for the present consideration. Let us try to understand and follow this heritage, because it may reveal more than meets the eye.