Roma need help to find their own way, says deputy ombudsman

Budapest, June 11 (MTI) - Roma should be helped to get along on their own instead of being fed central policies as was the case over the past twenty years, the deputy ombudsman for the protection of minority rights said on Tuesday.

The Roma have not given the chance to develop their own elite and institutional system, said Erno Kallai at a conference assessing Roma policies organised by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences minorities research centre.

The government should let the Roma take control of their own issues while at the same time implementing policies that promote equality and anti-discrimination, Kallai said. The Roma need to live up to the task, and, for instance, set up more elite-training schools where a new Roma intelligentsia can develop, he added.

Only after a self-conscious Roma community develops will it be possible to have proper Roma policies, because currently most Roma programmes belong to the category of social policy.

He also criticised a practice of the past twenty year involving Roma politicians jockeying to join political parties "as paid employees."