MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, who is facing ethnic agitation charges, and the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party are deplorable examples of how low our society has stooped in the dubious racism and bigotry league.
The PS isn’t just any party but a member of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s government comprised of the Center Party and National Coalition Party (NCP).
The silence of the PS in the face of Hakkarainen’s racist and bigoted statements in the PS’ Suomen Uutiset publication not only speak volumes about how racism is encouraged and spread in Finland at the highest levels of government and parliament.
We will translate most of Hakkarainen’s comments in Suomen Uutiset so that politicians and institutions around Europe can get a glimpse of the social illness inflicting Finland today.
According to Suomen Uutiset and Teuvo Hakkarainen, racism and bigotry are fine as long as it’s done by white Finns. Funding for the publication comes from tax-payers. Read full interview (in Finnish) here.
The asylum refugee center in Saarijärvi, a central Finnish town of 10,000 inhabitants that Hakkarainen represents, will close at the end of April.
One of the matters that surprised me a lot when I visited my grandparents in Finland when I lived in Southern California was how he related to black people. The way my grandfather saw black people over forty years ago was so negative and shocking to me that I still remember his reaction.
It must have been in 1968 because my sister and I showed him a picture of starving black children in Biafra, an eastern state of Nigeria that declared independence and plunged the country into a bloody civil war. His reaction was so strong that we made fun of his reaction and taped a picture of a starving black child by his bed, which he immediately took away.
I don’t remember exactly the picture that I showed my grandfather of starving Biafran children, but it was something like the picture above. Source:Modern Ghana.
The way my grandfather related to blacks in the 1960s reveals a lot about how some Finns continue to see diversity as a threat that must be contained at all costs by denying it oxygen and living space.
Perussuomlaiset (PS)* MP Teuvo Hakkarainen, who has made numerous racist and bigoted statements against Muslims, Somalis and gays, finally got charged for ethnic agitation by the state deputy prosecutor. Hakkarainen isn’t the only PS politician being charged for ethnic agitation. On that shameful list are Mertsu Merivireta, Terhi Kieumunki and Olli Sademies.
The deputy state prosecutor was considering charging Hakkarainen with ethnic agitation shortly after he was elected in 2011 after he appeared in a Helsingin Sanomatinterview, where he stated that “the country’s borders were awash with “n-words” and went on to mock an Islamic call to prayer.
“Bring it on if I get sentenced [for hate speech]. I’ll take care of this in my own way,” he was quoted as saying. “Of course [one should follow the law]. But this [possible sentence for hate speech] is like a speeding ticket. Everything is today seen as hate speech.”
The video below shows the MP’s first day in parliament in 2011. It is a good example of the politician’s acting skills.
Hakkarainen denies any wrongdoing and claims, after insulting near-constantly Muslims, migrants, and minorities such as gays that “everyone is innocent before proven guilty.”
Ironically, if the PS MP would have followed that advice, he wouldn’t be in legal hot water now.
Ethnic agitation charges against Hakkarainen and other PS politicians isn’t a light matter. The PS is a government party and rules Finland together with the Center Party and National Coalition Party.
While it is a good matter that the state reacts and takes action against hate speech, one matter that surprises us is that it took so long?
This is the comment by Hakkarainen that got him in trouble when he wrote on his Facebook wall in mid-July after the Nice killings:
“We’ve got to stop pussyfooting. Muslims out of this country! Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims. We shouldn’t accept Muslims from the Middle East and Africa to our country.”
The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) announced in May that countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia are “safe” to return refugees who get their asylum applications rejected. Migrant Tales documented two deaths and one shooting of Iraqi asylum seekers that returned recently to Iraq.
When asked about such cases, Migri tweets the following: “Good morning Marianne. Without confirmation we cannot comment on the fate of those [asylum seekers] that have been refused to stay [in Finland].”
We would like to introduce Reza Hasani, a naturalized Finn originally from Afghanistan, who got shot and killed on September 19, or seven days after he got married in the capital Kabul.
In August, the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) is reported to have given asylum reception center instructions that only their children can stay at the reception center if the parents have their asylum application turned down and won’t leave the country, according to MTV.
The Red Cross has already said that it won’t comply with Migri’s instructions because they breach the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Finland has ratified, and the association’s values to treat asylum seekers in a humane manner.
“We don’t want to worsen with our actions their vulnerability,” Red Cross legal advisor Jani Leino was quoted as saying.
Migrant Tales confirms that the Red Cross told asylum seekers at some camps that they won’t be abandoned by the association. “You will not be neglected or kicked out of the reception center,” an asylum seeker told us over the phone. “We are here to support you.”
While the Red Cross will not comply to Migri’s instructions, it would be interesting to see if private companies like Luona and Mehiläinen feel the same way about offering support and not abandoning those that they now serve.
Finland’s government, which is one of the most hostile and anti-immigration seen in a long time, believes that the only way to deal with asylum seekers and migrants in Finland is to prohibit and pass inhumane laws like the tightening of family reunification guidelines.
Apart from stepping up and taking concrete steps to challenge xenophobia in Finnish society, the police should increase recruitment of minorities in the police service, the advisory committee recommended.
States the Council of Europe: “The Finnish government said in a comment, that a program to educate kindergarten teachers in Samí languages will be launched at the University of Oulu, receiving special funding by the Ministry of Education and Culture. The government also wrote that a training program on hate crime prevention for police officers is scheduled before end 2016.”
Perussuomalaiset (PS)* MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who hungers for public attention, tries to surprise us with the following suggestion: The police should be allowed to ethnically profile Middle Easterners, North African and Central Asian people irrespective if it is in infringement of these people’s fundamental rights and human rights.
It’s clearly evident from Halla-aho’s comment that his own racist and bigoted statements blind his sensible judgment.
Doesn’t a lot of ethnic profiling happen in Europe today?
Halla-aho makes these types of statements because he has to feed his own bigotry and craves headlines.
But the only headlines Halla-aho makes is soiling the name of Prime Minsiter Juha Sipilä’s government and that of Finland’s image.
A cartoon by Ville Ranta after the Paris attacks of November 2015 showing that Islamophobes were the first to capitalize on the death of victims.
Ethnic appearance has little to do with what people think. That is a racist idea from the days of eugenics, a pseudo-science that fell from grace after the horrors of World War 2 Nazi-run death camps were exposed to the world.
A recent YouGov survey on authoritarian populist opinions in 12 European countries revealed something that we all knew. Authoritarian populist opinions are defined by the survey as people who have anti-immigration, anti-human rights, anti-EU institutions, and power as well as strong opinions on foreign policy.
Near 50% of the 12,000 people surveyed held anti-immigration views.
The most authoritarian populist countries in the survey were: Romania (82%), Poland (78%), France (63%), Holland (55%), Finland (50%), Denmark (49%), Britain (48%), Italy (47%), Sweden (35%) and Spain (33%).
The country with the lowest authoritarian populist opinions was Germany at 18%.
In Finland, we’ve seen the rise of authoritarian populist sentiment through the Perussuomalaiset* party supported by mainstream ones like the National Coalition Party and Center Party.
In another move to punish former migrants who are naturalized Finns, the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä plans to introduce a new law to parliament within weeks that will prohibit dual citizens from holding certain jobs that involve national security, according to Seijnäjoki-based daily Ilkka, which cites Finnish News Agency (STT).
Some sensitive national security jobs are found in defense, Finnish Border Guard, police service, customs, diplomatic service, and communications, according to Kirsi Äijälä, who heads a committee drafting the new law. She said, however, that hiring decisions are made on a one-by-one basis and the law will permit exceptions.
The new law, if passed, is a sign of how Finland is flirting with the Cold War years when nationalism and suspicion of anything foreign were the rule.
During the 1990s with the demise of the Soviet Union, there was an opening up of Finland with Western Europe. It joined the Council of Europe, in 1995 it became an EU member, drafted a new Constitution, which promoted social equality, anti-discrimination, and cultural diversity as well as passed new dual citizenship laws.
The short opening up of the country started to falter in 2011 when the Perussuomalaiset* party won their historic parliamentary victory by raising the number of MPs to 39 from 5. Instead of passing laws that promote diversity, the Finnish government is passing today laws that penalize migrants.
Apart from laws that discourage cultural diversity and promote nationalism, the government has failed in containing the rise of racism and the ever-worsening anti-immigration climate of Finland.
There has been an interesting debate on hate crime in Finland. If we’d believe the government, hate crime and racism in Finland are a far-right phenomenon and of a few racist hotheads.
Wrong.
The government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä is so much in dark and in denial about a social ill like racism that it actually believes that having a nationalist populist anti-immigration party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which bases its popularity on spreading ethnic hatred, in government, its lame stance on racism and tightening immigration laws have no consequences on rising hate crime in the country.
Wrong again.
We can conclude that the present strategy and stance on racism and cultural diversity of the government is an utter failure that promotes violence against migrants and minorities.
When the government’s anti-racism rhetoric is only air and when they tighten immigration policy they send the following message to Finns: These people aren’t worthy of dignity and are a threat to our country.
Måns Enqvist of the Finnish police service states in the YLE News story what we all know but don’t want to admit:
“Yes, it’s [hate crime] clearly on the rise,” Enqvist said. “And there are many reasons. Of course one reason is that the climate for discussion in Finland has changed. We are more likely to say anything at all. And that creates a foundation for moving from speech to action.”
A good example of the hypocrisy of the government concerning racism in Finland was the participation of Finance Minister and NCP Chairman Petteri Orpo and Prime Minister Juha Sipilä’s participation at September 24 Stop this game! demonstration against racism and fascism in Finland.
The following Monday it was business as usual. The government was accused of lowering social welfare to migrants by 10% when compared with Finnish citizens.
