Your Excellencies,

Honored members of the Riigikogu and the Government,

Dear compatriots in Estonia and throughout the world.

Firstly permit me to congratulate you on the occasion of the 76th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, and to thank you for the support which you have expressed to the Republic of Estonia on the occasion of today's anniversary - not only by letter and telegram, but also in your conversations and handshakes. These radiate hope - yet also concern, satisfaction about what has been achieved - yet heartache about what has not been achieved, a dignified confidence of a free people - yet an uncertainty, a willingness to make sacrifices - as well as the anxious question: for how much longer? How long will we be able to sacrifice ourselves, to feed ourselves on this immense longing for independence, which we accumulated into our hearts during the long night that was the fifty years of Soviet occupation?

Are these the first signs of weariness?

No, we are not weary, and we will not become weary. We have never tired, throughout the seven centuries, of carrying our country within ourselves, and therefore we will not tire seven months before the last of the foreign troops leave the holy soil of Estonia. No, it is rather impatience, which has been born of suffering. It is rather our illusionary optimism, that once totalitarian communism collapses, all our longings and wishes will magically come true. Fifty years outside Europe, outside the practicality of democratic politics, which daily teaches people the balance between rights and duties - has taught us only how to circle our wagons for protection, how to personally survive, the stealthy avoidance of the commands and instructions coming from the capital of the colonial empire. Our romantic optimism has been, and is still, a nurturing source, which has nurtured, and still nurtures, the dangerous illusion that the restoration of an independent state should be simple and speedy.

A nation is not born simply nor speedily. Even before I entered politics, when I spoke to you, my dear compatriots, in the language of a writer, I quoted Churchill, saying that the road we have chosen demands blood, toil, tears and sweat from all of us. The world can be proud of Estonia, because everything we have achieved in our 76 years has been achieved with hard work and patience, sweat and toil, but without a drop of blood being spilled, as is characteristic of a lawful nation. Today, standing here before you in this historic hall, I can assure you that our major difficulties are behind us, but that new trials await us. These, too, we will overcome if we unite our forces and abilities, instead of fragmenting them; if we soberly assess how much has been done and how much is yet to be done; and what is most important: no matter how many differing opinions there are between our political parties, and in ourselves, that the Estonian's calm confidence and friendly desire to cooperate must rise above all this, and unite us into a Republic of Estonia, of which we can be proud.

1. The Estonian nation and its people.

The Constitution adopted by Referendum declared the steadfast will of the Estonian people to safeguard and develop their nation. A nation which is founded on liberty, justice and law. A nation which defends internal and external peace.

It would now be an appropriate time to say that culture is politics, and politics is culture.

Culture is politics because it is primarily in culture where the national identity becomes apparent - identity is a necessary element, a substance which is difficult to describe, but from which nations are born.

Politics is culture primarily because the ultimate aim of politics is to defend the individual, to assist the individual to determine and deepen the characteristics of a person. The primary characteristic of a person is the phenomenon: that a person does not exist outside a culture.

The Estonian people have therefore created a nation for themselves. The supreme power of the state is held by the people. The state must secure the development of all the people, as well as the opportunity of every person for self-fulfillment. The mechanism for this is determined by the Constitution as the separate and balanced supreme bodies of state power - the Riigikogu, the Government of the Republic, the court system, with the President of the Republic as the balancing factor. During the last year, the supreme bodies of state power have been formed and have begun operations. The Riigikogu has done an enormous amount of work, and to date, as we heard in the speech by the Speaker of the Riigikogu Mr Ülo Nugis, at the flag-raising ceremony this morning, the Riigikogu has adopted one-fifth of the body of legislation, and has therefore created a working legislative basis. All the components are there. But the total of this is not yet a state - at least not such a state, which has the usual characteristics of European nations.

And so we are confronted by a paradoxical problem.

The Estonian people, who have been liberated from a colonial yoke, have more idealism, more willingness to sacrifice in the name of freedom, than the peoples of welfare states, who lack our tragic historical experience. Despite this, there is an increase in a skeptical attitude towards the Riigikogu and the Government. Demeaning law and order, the police in particular, has become almost a competition. The mentality of the Soviet-era serf-worker, which we have thrown out via the door, is now creeping in through the window - the attitude of: it's the master's rope, let it run loose.

Citizens do not understand the balance between their rights and obligations.

At this stage, my dear compatriots, we should ask: Is this the way to build the Estonian nation?

2. Post-communist nightmare

Let us try to soberly analyze the reasons for this problem.

My learned colleagues in the West see the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet totalitarian regime in the command economy. They say, this system was biased towards the armaments industry of the Soviet Union and simply collapsed due to the excessive burden.

This simplified explanation is only partially true. Rather, it is completely erroneous. The Soviet totalitarian regime was taken to the extreme. It commanded not so much the economy, but peoples' ability to think, the creativity of people. The ceiling for people's creativity was determined by the low ceiling of the Politburo's thinking prowess. The most tragic result of this was the complete and final liberation of people, the liberation of people from their heaviest burden - the obligation to think, to make independent decisions, and to bear the responsibility of their decisions.

In restoring our nation and economy, we must also simultaneously restore the citizen who thinks and voluntarily takes responsibility, because democracy can only be based on such a citizen. And only a thinking citizen comprehends the unavoidable dangers of belittling the Estonian nation: economic success itself does not guarantee the security of the nation, and following on from this, does not guarantee the continued existence of a state, of the people, their language and culture, and, therefore, the continued existence of the world. Estonian society is currently resolving the problems of its own re-organization, a process that only few Western academics can appreciate. The transition to democracy and a free market economy is like a leap across a crevice: the feet no longer rest on the steep cliff edge, but they have not yet landed on the other side. This instant of unsupportedness, this moment, this frightening uncertainty, has brought about chaotic phenomena in our society and, if these tendencies persist, they could open a Pandora's box.

3. Let's restore order

I see crime as the prime domestic threat. Performances in the theater begin at 5 pm. because people are afraid of walking on the streets in the dark. Even during daylight people are afraid of walking in the park. People are afraid of country roads. People are afraid of a knock on their door. Estonians do not feel secure in their own country. This is only one step away from a nostalgic longing for the past, and of alienation from the state, when we prefer to peek out from behind the curtains in the evenings. If crime rules the streets and the stairwells, we must be honest and say: Estonia is approaching dual power. A year ago, at a meeting on state security on February 25, I indicated that our priority is to guarantee security for our population. I am very concerned that today, a year later, this task is even more important. There are many reasons for this: firstly, lack of security may keep foreign investors away, because nothing will attract investors to a region of high risk; secondly, it places in doubt our trustworthiness as a partner; thirdly, it opens Pandora's box - the yearning for a strong hand. The recent rash proposal by some adventurers to use state terror to fight crime shames the Republic of Estonia.

From this podium, allow me to assure you: there is no fertile ground for either left or right wing extremism in Estonia. There is no fertile ground for the use of a "strong hand" in Estonia. But we have to reach consensus on strengthening features of our state which have become blurred. Let our first and common priority for the following year be to restore order. This is not a call to arms. This is the second Article of our Constitution which guarantees basic rights, liberties and duties. Our principal right, our thousand year old right, has been, and is, to have a safe home in Estonia. No more, but not an inch less.

Nobody should waver from this goal. The establishment of order must start from the grassroots and end with the ministers. Here it is suitable to use the words of John Kennedy: don't ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. And let us not forget that the Constitution and the rights derived from it can and should be defended only through legal means and with legal arguments.

4. National Security

The afore-said forces me to discuss priorities.

A controlled border is one of the main features of a state.

I regret that negotiations with the Russian Federation have been progressing at a snail's pace. I am nevertheless convinced that the Russian Federation will fulfil the obligation that it has undertaken and that it will withdraw its armed forces from the Republic of Estonia by August 31st. In reference to this, I am pleased to recall that last year President Yeltsin based his congratulations on the 75-year continuity of the Republic of Estonia. During his visits to Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, President Yeltsin distanced himself from the aggressive foreign policy of the former Soviet Union in a way that also corresponds to our hopes. Despite all this, we have preferred to build up our defense forces at the expense of effective border control. Now we are suffering the consequences of this decision. The loss of the feeling of security and the rise in organized crime is a direct consequence of this miscalculation. If the Republic of Estonia becomes a corridor of illegitimate trade of human beings, radioactive scrap metal, precious stones and who knows what else, it will add international security problems to our domestic ones. The international community will have difficulty regarding the Republic of Estonia as a trustworthy partner and will find it difficult to integrate her into the collective security system. A controlled border should be understood here as a feature of the state, and not as some kind of asiatic iron curtain, the task of which is to separate the Russian Federation from Europe. The foreign policy of the Republic of Estonia has always been open, open to all of the states with which we share common democratic ideals. Rapid integration is taking place in today's changing world. In a small country like Estonia, we must integrate our domestic and foreign policy into one Republic of Estonia security policy. That concept is based upon equitable economic integration, upon concentric circles, where the first circle is the Baltic states, the next the Baltic Sea states and the European Union. No matter how far away the goal may be, the time factor is stalking us like a bad dream. Like Alice in Wonderland, we have to run fast to stay in the one place, in order that we may survive. Up until now we have accomplished this, even if it has been through great effort and with great sacrifice. The highest price was paid by our older generations, our pensioners who have given life to the people, have brought them up and have fed them with the hope for independence. Now it is our time to say: independence is not born, and will not live, merely through longing. Independence endures and grows stronger, if longing and will marry. Much depends upon will, and in difficult times everything depends upon it.

In Österby village in Swedish north-western Estonia, Adeele Paavelt sat on the edge of her bed and knitted a pair of socks as an Independence Day present for an unknown soldier in the defense forces of the Republic of Estonia. Many decades ago she also knitted socks for her husband, who lies buried in Siberian earth. Now Adeele Paavelt asks you, my dear compatriots, have you knitted socks for the soldier boys. She has not run out of longing and will. Adeele Paavelt is 94 years old. We remain in her debt, and she remains our example. I hope that in ninety-four years time, someone will say the same words about our generations.

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