Ion Iliescu revitalizes Romania

Kanis Dursin, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu may have intended to put an end to his political career but the sacking of Ion Iliescu as secretary of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR) in 1971 and his subsequent isolation proved to have helped him become president of a postcommunist Romania.

When antigovernment rallies sprang up across Romania early in 1989, protesters had already chanted his name as the ideal leader to govern the country. A large number of Romanian professionals also talked about him as a symbol of opposition toward the dictatorship, and of liberty and democracy.

And so, on the evening of Dec. 22, 1989, three days before Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were executed by a firing squad, Iliescu was appointed chairman of the National Salvation Front Council, and in May 1990 was elected first president of a postcommunist Romania. During this period, Romania adopted a multiparty political system, introduced a market-oriented economy and enacted a new constitution.

Now Iliescu, who arrived in Jakarta on Sunday for a five-day state visit that will also bring him to two of the country's prime tourist destinations, Yogyakarta and Bali, is serving his second term as president of Romania, a country of over 22 million people in Central Europe.

During the return visit, Iliescu is scheduled to meet, among others, his Indonesian counterpart President Megawati Soekarnoputri and witness the signing of a number of memorandums of understanding. This meeting between Iliescu and Megawati will be their third, the first in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002 and the second in Bucharest in April 2003, when Megawati paid a three-day state visit to the country.

Born on March 3, 1930, in Oltenita, Iliescu spent his childhood and two years of primary schooling in the small town in the southern part of the country. During the third year of primary school, he moved to the capital, Bucharest, where he finished his primary and high school studies.

An engineer by training, Iliescu earned his university degrees from the Faculty of Electric Technology of the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest and the Energy Institute of Moscow.

At the tender age of 18 Iliescu demonstrated his leadership skills by cofounding the Union of Students' Association of Romania in 1948. Eight years later, in 1956, he founded the Union of the College Students' Association of Romania, patterned after student unions in Western Europe. Iliescu served as minister of youth affairs from 1967 through 1971. Also in 1971, Iliescu was appointed PCR secretary but was removed six months later due to his strong opposition to Ceausescu's Cultural Revolution, which promoted the latter's personality as a cult.

Since the 1960s Iliescu also actively supported Romania's new political trends, distinguishing himself through firm positions with regard to Romania's independence and sovereignty in its relations with the former Soviet Union. During the extraordinary session of the Romanian parliament in 1968, Iliescu openly expressed his opposition to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union.

Out of the party hierarchy, Iliescu continued to maintain his criticism of the Cultural Revolution, prompting communist leaders then to accuse him of "intellectual deviation" and exclude him from political life.

Political isolation, however, simply drew people to Iliescu's side. For Romanians, Iliescu's firm positions with regard to Romania's independence and sovereignty in relations with the then Soviet Union and his opposition to Ceausescu's Cultural Revolution distinguished him from other communist leaders.

In the Oct. 11, 1992 elections, the first after the fall of the communist regime, Iliescu was elected president, garnering 7.3 million, or 61.5 percent of the total 11.9 million votes up for grabs.

During his first constitutional mandate, Iliescu included national reconciliation, a social pact, political stability and economic reforms on the list of priorities. Under Iliescu's strong leadership, Romania managed to muddle through the transitional period with its territory intact.

Iliescu lost his reelection bid in the 1996 presidential election but regained the top post in the 2000 presidential elections. On Dec. 20, 2000, he was sworn in as president of Romania for a new four-year term.

The president has also proven to be a versatile writer. Since 1992 he has published at least one book per year. In 1993, for example, he published Revolution and Reform, which has been translated into French, English, German, Italian and Turkish.

The book deals with the details of the Romanian Revolution. In 1994 Iliescu published a book titled Romania in Europe and in the World, about the position and orientation of Romania's foreign policy. The book has been translated into English, French and Spanish. The last book he wrote was published in 2000 and titled Under the Cascade of Questions, and brings together some of his interviews.

President Iliescu, who speaks French, English and Russian fluently, is married to Elena, an engineer and scientific researcher in the field of metal corrosion.