"The Minister Mitrea Said that He Needs My Brains, Not My Legs"

Interview with Mr. Dinu Panait, personal council of the Minister of Transport

Railway Journal: Mr. council, because your situation is a special one, if I can say so, but very relevant for the entire human category, for the beginning we would like you to tell us how difficult is for a person with handicap to integrate in social and economical life.

Dinu Panait: If you do not have a bit of luck, it is extremely difficult. The majority of firms, for a reason or another avoids this category of people or, more precisely, they ignore it, just like that. When Emergency Ordinance no.102/1999 was voted, stipulating that the institutions, no matter which is their capital, are forced to support persons with handicap. I thought that, finally, we will be considered as the other persons that want to service in order to take care of their family. Unfortunately, it was not like this. Human moral conscious is impressed by the unpleasant image of a person with handicap and then something tells it that it can not help him. We have to understand that we do not need Christian mercy; contrary, we want to work. By our contribution we want, in a way or another, to support the development of the national economy. When you are healthy, you do not think if you can live from that income that is received by such persons. From my own experience I can tell you that, if you do not have any other income or help, it is almost impossible to succeed in such a society, that is concerned less and less by our condition. Probably many institutions are afraid of hiring such persons because they have to provide them some facilities at their place of work in order to unfold an activity and ignore the fact that, in accordance with the legislation, every employer benefits of some advantages, the most important being tax allowance. That's why, I reach the conclusion that there is no will to do such things. I do not know why it is so difficult to transform a category of people from consumers into taxpayers; the society would have this way more to gain. But, in our country, these people are paid with a small sum, which can not but sentence them to poverty. Many persons consider that if a person has a certain physical handicap, he becomes unable in thinking. Thy are wrong. My handicap can be seen at thousands of citizens. For these, I have an encouraging message: If I had this luck to find a job in a pretty big institution, they can succeed too. But there is a need for benevolence. You know what the minister, Mr. Miron Mitrea, told me? That he needs my brains and not my legs. So, if the managing factors within every institution would think the same, the persons with handicap would become sort of "normal".

R.J.: How do you "see" the position as personal council of the minister?

D.P.: Even if I have a recognized professional background diplomat in law and economy, specialist in work legislation-, there was a black period, when I thought that all these working years are destroyed, they were performed in vain. There came the day when the minister said that he needs me, namely my brains. It is extraordinary to work beside personalities and to realize that, by what you are doing, you are useful for the society and to other thousands of persons. It is a real honor when the minister ask my opinion about certain juridical, social problems or from other fields that I am specialized in, or when people come with various problems - as, for example, work contract annulment - and they ask for my help. As a parenthesis, we have to admit that many clerks have the habit to treat the person in front of them as a person that is never right. Fact that is wrong, because maybe that man is not anybody, but a person that knows what he has to do, but cannot because of this kind of clerks. Returning to our subject, I can tell that my role is to repair, sometimes only verbally, what these other clerks are wrong. It is very easy to "hit" the person with the law, it is more difficult to apply the law in its spirit, not only in its letter.

R.J.: Why do you think that the minister Mitrea understood the importance of this category of people, and others prefer to approach it with indifference?

D.P.: The minister was aware of the fact that this segment of population, far from being "ballast", or an additional hardship for the society, has, in the same time, a great potential of intelligence and creativity, which, put in a good use, can be so benefic to the society. Its isolation does not mean anything else than the loss of some values; many of them suffer of a handicap, physical or mental. There are persons that have been studied and from whom so many others can learn a lot. It's true, in the moment when you hire such persons there are some problems: you have to create special conditions for them, as a certain type of entrances, in point of dimension, adequate sanitary groups, special offices and many others. So, besides the goodwill to hire them, there have to be the possibility to offer them minimal conditions in order to develop their activity.

R.J.: Which is the importance that MLPTL management grants to this category of persons?

D.P.: Although it seems unbelievable, you have to know that MLPTL, through the persons that represent the management, support a lot the persons with handicap.
Regarding the existing situation within the ministry, I can remind the fact that G entrance gate was modified, there have been arranged special parking places, ministry inside doors are larger, so that to enter a wheel chair, and of course, the sanitary group is specially arranged. International Airport Bucharest -Otopeni have been equipped with all compulsory utilities for the circulation and access of the persons with reduced mobility. Regarding the railway stations there have been elaborated a project for works that imply platform lifting, and in the future there is aimed the achievement of a program to build special cars. The same thing will be applied in the case of common means of transportation, where the producers will be forced to build a small number of road vehicles for the transportation of this category of persons. The minister also applied the regulation named Normative for adapting civil buildings and respective urban space to the exigencies of the persons with handicap -, that was forgotten for many years and which was published recently.

R.J.: Do you think that other ministries will follow this example?

D.P.: I could not say for sure. But I am curious what will answer the majority of our representatives when those from European Union will ask them about the solution for the persons with handicap! All over the world the stores are equipped with ramps and specially built places, airports, cinemas, restaurants, even the streets have corridors meant for this category of persons. That's why we started to apply this normative, which stipulates all the conditions of quality in accordance with the exigencies of the persons with handicap and which can be extended to a larger scale.

R.J.: Mr. council, can you tell us which is the satisfaction that is given to you, as person, by this position you are holding?

D.P.: The relationship with the people, the fact that I am useful to them, as well as to the society make me think as everybody else. It is a blessing to see that you are treated as a person without any physical defects. Working day by day made me regain my trust and also physically I feel much healthier.

Written down by
Oana Bran