The other day, some private decisions, taken by some young principled officials, have brought me not only satisfaction, but also hope that dignity and courage are not totally extinct among us.

First, I heard about the decision of Victor Chirila, President of the Foreign Policy Association. He resigned as Moldova’s Ambassador to France, where he had recently been appointed. After the dismissal of the Government led by Maia Sandu, the one who named him ambassador, Chirilă decided that given the uncertainty about the future course of foreign policy he will not be able to exercise his mission as ambassador. 

Victor Chirilă’s unusual decision to give up a position that would have brought Paris to his feet for at least four years is more than a worthy, respectable, integral decision. 

How many former and current diplomats would quit their positions because the government that invested them was brutally dismissed by the exponents of an antidemocratic regime? How many would give up the benefits of working as an ambassador in a European country, on the grounds that these go against their own conscience, their own convictions of life?

On November 14, at the last meeting of the Sandu Government, Andrei Spânu, Secretary General of the Government, as well as Alexandru Voloc and Ion Dodon, two State Secretaries from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, resigned. They left after only a few months of work, during which they tried to change the lives of Moldovan citizens.

On November 19, when the new Cabinet appointed 14 new state secretaries, I read the statement of Veronica Mihailov, lawyer and state secretary from the Ministry of Justice, who did not wait to be dismissed by the Chicu Government and requested her resignation. 

On the same day she announced to her friends that she had decided to withdraw from the position of Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice. “It was a short period, and not easy at all, but an absolutely unique experience,” announced Veronica Mihailov.

She continued her message with a list of activities initiated during her term of office and which should be continued within the institution: the draft law on discourse and hate crimes, the draft law on NGOs, the law on the procedure for finding and sanctioning violations related to money laundering, the draft law on the functionality and efficiency of the National Authority for Integrity and others, insisting on the completion of all projects related to justice reform. 

I have referred here only to a few officials who, at a crucial moment in their lives, made some worthy decisions. 

In fact, the problem is not that the young professionals are leaving the Chicu Government. The problem is why they are leaving? Although they did not say it publicly, it is clear that none of them agreed to dedicate their life and energy, career and inspiration, their personal time to strengthen the image of a Government hastily assembled mainly on party and socialist principles. 

Those who remained, why not take the path of dignity, giving those invested overnight the opportunity to manifest their capabilities, so-called technocracy and true value?

Aneta Grosu, aneta@zdg.md