Jump to content

Mart Laar

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 37.28.201.153 (talk) at 16:09, 1 January 2013 (Go find another excuse. This has not been forgotten by the press. A major daily considered this to be notable enough to include in its review of 2012, published three days ago (ÕL "Bussirajad, silvergate, elektripaketid").). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Mart Laar
Laar during an EPP summit in 2010
Prime Minister of Estonia
In office
March 25, 1999 – January 28, 2002
Preceded byMart Siimann
Succeeded bySiim Kallas
In office
October 21, 1992 – November 8, 1994
Preceded byTiit Vähi (acting)
Succeeded byAndres Tarand
Minister of Defence
In office
6 April 2011 – 11 May 2012
Succeeded byUrmas Reinsalu
Personal details
Born (1960-04-22) April 22, 1960 (age 64)
Viljandi, Estonia
Political partyUnion of Pro Patria and Res Publica
Alma materUniversity of Tartu
NicknameMõmmibeebi (Babybear)[1]

Mart Laar (born April 22, 1960) is an Estonian statesman, historian and a founding member of the Unitas Foundation.[2] He served the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002,[3] and is the leader of the conservative party Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica. Laar is credited with having helped bring about Estonia’s rapid economic development during the 1990s.[4]

In April 2011, Mart Laar became Minister of Defence in the cabinet of Prime Minister Andrus Ansip[5] and served until his resignation for reasons of health in May 2012.

Career

Mart Laar was born in Viljandi. He studied history at the University of Tartu, graduating in 1983; he received his Master's degree in philosophy and his doctorate in history in 2005. Laar taught history in Tallinn, and served as president of the Council of Historians of the Foundation of the Estonia Inheritance, the Society for the Preservation of Estonian History, and the Estonian Students' Society. Laar has written many books on Estonian and Soviet history, among them War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944–1956, a book about the Forest Brothers anti-Soviet resistance movement.

Laar's political career began when he became a member of the conservative Pro Patria Union party (which later merged with the more technocratic Res Publica Party in 2006). He was elected prime minister by the Riigikogu on 21 October 1992, launching what were perhaps the most thorough economic reforms in the post-Soviet space.[6]

In the 1994 no-confidence vote Laar lost the office due to several scandals after which some members of the coalition withdrew their support to the Prime minister.[7] The scandals included the aspects of an arms deal contract with Israel; disagreements about political allies in the opposition, and the sale of banknotes in the amount of 2.3 billion Soviet rubles,[8] withdrawn from circulation during the Estonian monetary reform of 1992, to the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria by Laar's associates at an Estonian company, Maag, which was done without consulting the Estonian Parliament.[9][10][11][12]

Five years later, in 1999, Laar returned to the post, with his main policy goals being to pull the economy out of a slump and lead the country toward the European Union. He remained in the post until he stepped down in 2002.

Political and economic reforms

Laar’s reforms are referred to as the most thorough in the region and are occasionally used as a model for other transitions. The contributions to the study of transitions made by the Estonian reforms are often categorized as mainly three: lustration, economic reforms and geopolitical reorientation.[13]

Economic reforms

Estonia benefited from hindsight, in that its transition came two years after the transitions in the other former Soviet satellites of Central Europe. Estonia was able to implement many of their lessons while seemingly avoiding pitfalls.[14] Three innovations to the study of economic transitions stand out:

Geopolitical reorientation

The geopolitical reorientation of Estonia was followed by changes in international economic relations. Estonia went from near total dependence on the Soviet Union for trade before 1991[17] to a large decoupling of trade with Russia by 2007, Russia being about 9% of its total trade (4th largest trade partner). Since 2004, Estonia is a full member of both the European Union and NATO. In 2007, the EU accounted for 70% of Estonia's exports and 78% of its imports, while the share of the CIS countries were accordingly 11% and 13%.[18]

Trade with countries of the former Soviet Union, mainly with Russia and fellow EU members Latvia and Lithuania, made up about a quarter of Estonian foreign trade in 2007.[18]

Recognition

The results of the radical reforms have been recognized by Transparency International (which ranked Estonia the least corrupt country in the post-communist region), the Heritage Foundation / Wall Street Journal (whose index qualified Estonia as the most economically free in all of Europe), the United Nations Development Program (whose Human Development Index measured Estonia’s rapid rise in such quality-of-life parameters as education, health, income and environment), and the Cato Institute, which awarded Laar the Cato Institute's Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty in 2006.[19]

The Acton Institute awarded Dr. Laar their Faith & Freedom Award on October 24, 2007.

The World Bank's Doing Business project has several times recognized Estonia as the top reformer in improving the business environment. Estonia is currently ranked 17 (of 178 economies) on the ease of doing business index.

Mart Laar has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the European Association of History Educators (EUROCLIO). He is also a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.[20]

The House of Terror Museum in Hungary has given Mart Laar the Sándor Petöfi Award for his contributions to investigating the crimes of communism.[21]

Recent activities

Laar has been involved in assisting and counseling other democratic activists and reformers in the region and beyond, including in Yugoslavia (before 2000), Moldova, Ukraine (before 2004), Mexico (after its own transition in 2000) and Cuba (the Miami-Dade city council in Florida enacted a "Mart Laar Day" in 2003). Together with Václav Havel, Filip Dimitrov, Árpád Göncz, Petr Pithart, Vytautas Landsbergis, Patricio Aylwin and other transition leaders, he participates in the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba.

Laar and Mikheil Saakashvili at the European People's Party summit in 2010

Laar is a member of the International Council of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation.

Minister of finance of Finland Jyrki Katainen, Mart Laar and the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel in the EPP Summit of 2010

In 2003, Laar received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for his contributions to the development of the electronic systems in Estonia.

After the Rose Revolution in Georgia, Laar became advisor to the country's President Mikheil Saakashvili and assisted his government in carrying out radical liberal reforms.

In September 2006, Laar announced that he will come out of political retirement to run for the candidacy for Prime Minister of the new Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica party.

In January 2007, it was announced that Mart Laar would become a Mont Pelerin Society member.

On 26 May 2007 he was elected a Chairman of the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica.

On 18 February 2012 Mart Laar suffered from a stroke [22] and stepped down as Defence Minister three months later.[23]

Relationship with the media

Main article: Eesti Ajalehtede Liit § Press Friend Award

In 1994, the Estonian Newspaper Association declared Laar the Year's Press Friend. This was the first time this award was given; since that, it has been a yearly occurrence.[24]

Interestingly, in 2001, Laar was given the complementary award and titled the Year's Press Enemy.[25]

On 26th January 2012 questions, including from journalist Henrik Roonemaa regarding ACTA started disappearing on Mart Laar's Facebook page. When being asked at the government's press conference by journalist Kelli Seiton what happened, Mart Laar replied: "Probably there was no room left, if it started disappearing" [26] His remark spawned a campaign of mocking memes that gained international attention.[27][28]

Published works

References

  1. ^ "Priimägi: Kas Mart Laar on armas mõmmibeebi, tugev isakaru või ohtlik mesipuurüüstaja?". Eesti Ekspress (in Estonian). 5 September 2009.
  2. ^ "Home". Unitas Foundation. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  3. ^ Europe Review 2003/04: The Economic and Business Report By World of Information ISBN 0-7494-4067-8
  4. ^ Braithwaite, Rodric (2008). "Misreading Russia". Survival. 50 (4). Routledge: 169–176. doi:10.1080/00396330802329097.
  5. ^ Baltic Voices: Atlantic Council: Mart Laar becomes Estonia's new Defense Minister, April 7, 2011, Jorge Benitez
  6. ^ Magnus Feldmann, "Free Trade in the 1990s: Understanding Estonian Exceptionalism," Demokratizatsiya, Fall 2003
  7. ^ Hare, P. G (1999). Reconstituting the Market. Routledge. p. 205. ISBN 90-5702-329-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Smith, David James (2002). The Baltic States. Routledge. p. 91. ISBN 0-415-28580-1.
  9. ^ Sebastian Smith, Allah's Mountains, Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2005, p.132, ISBN 1-85043-979-6
  10. ^ Baltic Voices: Estonia: the Constitutional Framework
  11. ^ The Baltic Course: "Estonian rubles traced to Chechnya"
  12. ^ Template:Et icon Eesti Päevaleht 3 January 2005: "Kõvemad mehed kui Leedo: Marcel ja Tiit" by Marii Karell
  13. ^ See "'Just Do It': Interview with Mart Laar," Demokratizatsiya, Fall 2003, http://www.demokratizatsiya.org/Dem%20Archives/DEM%2011-4%20Laar.PDF
  14. ^ "The Baltic Tiger: how Estonia did it" Conference at Francisco Marroquin University. Guatemala, September 2006
  15. ^ Privatization in Developing Countries, John Nellis, SAIS Review, Vol. 27, No. 2, 2007.
  16. ^ Walking on Water: How to Do It, 27 August 2005
  17. ^ Romuald Misiunas, Rein Taagepera, The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, 1940–1990, University of California Press, 1993, ISBN 0-520-08227-3
  18. ^ a b Last year the growth of exports and imports slowed down
  19. ^ Mart Laar's Biography at the Cato Institute.
  20. ^ "International Advisory Council". Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  21. ^ Teesalu, Ingrid (2011-12-15). "Laar Receives Award for Shedding Light on Communist Crimes". ERR. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  22. ^ http://www.irl.ee/en/news/260412/mart-laar-leaves-intensive-care | Retrieved 5 August 2012
  23. ^ http://www.irl.ee/en/news/060512/mart-laar-tendered-his-resignation-to-the-prime-minister | Retrieved 5 August 2012
  24. ^ Template:Et icon Eesti Ajalehtede Liit 3 December 1998: Ajalehtede Liit valis viiendaks pressisőbraks president Meri
  25. ^ Template:Et icon Eesti Ajalehtede Liit 6 December 2001: 2001. aasta pressisőbraks valiti Ingrid Rüütel
  26. ^ http://www.delfi.ee/news/paevauudised/eesti/video-mart-laar-acta-kirjed-kadusid-sest-mul-sai-facebooki-ruum-otsa.d?id=63831002
  27. ^ Template:Et icon Postimees 28 January 2012: "Veeb täitub Mart Laari meemidega" by Martin Smutov
  28. ^ Toronto Star 2 February 2012: "Dear Minister Laar: The Internet is not running out of space"
Political offices
Preceded by Prime Minister of Estonia
1992–1994 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of Estonia
1999–2002 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Defence of Estonia
2011–2012 		Succeeded by

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mart_Laar&oldid=530770307"