Photo: Peščanik
Belgrade, March 31, 2025, photo: Peščanik

I imagine that the title of this piece might inspire all sorts of thoughts in the reader, but one that occurs to no one is that doing such a thing would actually be possible. At least for now. On the other hand, when one listens day after day to threats and calls to arrest the rector of the University of Belgrade (BU), one sincerely worries for him. This is the real image of Serbia turned upside down. Because the reader, like me, would have no problem thinking of numerous reasons to arrest Vučić. On the other hand, there is not a single legal or any other reason to prosecute and arrest the BU rector.

And yet, it’s easy for all of us to imagine the rector in handcuffs, being put in a police car and then thrown in a dungeon. While that other thing is still unimaginable. What I’m trying to say is that the dictatorship is already here, in our heads. Our imagination is set according to the parameters of dictatorship. And that instills fear. Which ultimately makes it harder to resist. The announcements of the rector’s arrest serve exactly this purpose – to instill fear and break resistance, while the arrest itself does not even have to happen. Once they get into your head, their work is done.

Since we have already started down the line of fear, let’s also say that this fear is completely rational. We don’t have to be pretentious here and refer to Martha Nussbaum, who says that our feelings are generally tightly linked to our rational judgments and are not irrational. It is a matter of common sense to be afraid of the current regime. That regime, for example, has shut down universities in Serbia with a single nocturnal ordinance.

The Ministry of Education has redefined the nature of the university by dividing the 40 hours of the working week for professors into 5 hours of research and 35 hours of teaching. This basically means the end of universities. On paper, the university was a research institution as much as a teaching one. Universities in Serbia are accredited both as research and teaching institutions. In reality, it was much more of a research institution than a teaching one. The quality of a university is practically measured by the scientific achievements of its employees, not by the quality of teaching. Employees at the university advance to higher positions based on their research, not because of their pedagogical qualities.

The Ministry of Education has erased research from the university overnight. And, consequently, erased the universities themselves. If the decree remains in force, it may happen that current first-year students graduate from universities and receive diplomas that will not be valid in Serbia or in the world. With the 5:35 division, the Ministry of Education has reduced universities to a level below secondary and primary schools. Because in secondary and primary schools, the ratio between the duties in the classroom and outside it is more reasonable – 24 hours of teaching, and 16 hours for the rest.

(Which, of course, did not prevent the ministry from cutting the salaries of the teachers as if they had done neither part of their job, when everyone knows that this is not true, that the teachers were in schools the whole time, working with the children.)

And all this just to avoid paying the teachers’ salaries in order to blackmail them to return to work. Work which they, in fact, never stopped doing. It seems, then, that it’s not about the work either, but about bare obedience, that is, punishment for disobedience. So, for such a short-sighted and short-term interest as ensuring the obedience of its subjects, the current regime is ready to wipe out the universities. So how can you not be frightened by this propensity for violence and destruction? Louis XV’s apocryphal statement, “After me – the flood,” is in fact not extreme enough for this regime; instead, the slogan at hand is – “As long as I rule – the flood!”

To say now that we no longer have primary or secondary schools either would again sound like an exaggeration. But – we don’t. Not only do we not know when and how this school year will end, we know for sure that its first semester didn’t end properly either.  The Ministry of Education closes and opens schools, interrupts and extends semesters and vacations as it pleases. The schools themselves, in the eyes of the ministry entrusted with their management, are a distant second to the priority that has been number one for over a decade – ensuring that Vučić remains in power.

This is how the ministry behaved during the epidemic and after May 3. Nothing they did made any sense, if you look at it from the point of view of the interests of the schools. But they don’t care about the schools, pupils or teachers: the only thing they care about is Vučić. And everything is subordinated to him at the cost of complete destruction. Doesn’t that instill fear? That is why we are now worried about the rector being arrested. Instead of thinking, all together, about how to arrest Vučić. Well, that’s the thing. It’s that simple.

Translated by Marijana Simić

Peščanik.net, 03.04.2025.


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Dejan Ilić

Dejan Ilić (1965, Zemun) bio je urednik izdavačke kuće FABRIKA KNJIGA i časopisa REČ. Diplomirao je na Filološkom fakultetu u Beogradu, magistrirao na Programu za studije roda i kulture na Centralnoevropskom univerzitetu u Budimpešti i doktorirao na istom univerzitetu na Odseku za rodne studije. Objavio je zbirke eseja „Osam i po ogleda iz razumevanja“ (2008), „Tranziciona pravda i tumačenje književnosti: srpski primer“ (2011), „Škola za 'petparačke' priče: predlozi za drugačiji kurikulum“ (2016), „Dva lica patriotizma“ (2016), „Fantastična škola. Novi prilozi za drugačiji kurikulum: SF, horror, fantastika“ (2020) i „Srbija u kontinuitetu“ (2020).

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Author: Dejan Ilić

Dejan Ilić (1965, Zemun) bio je urednik izdavačke kuće FABRIKA KNJIGA i časopisa REČ. Diplomirao je na Filološkom fakultetu u Beogradu, magistrirao na Programu za studije roda i kulture na Centralnoevropskom univerzitetu u Budimpešti i doktorirao na istom univerzitetu na Odseku za rodne studije. Objavio je zbirke eseja „Osam i po ogleda iz razumevanja“ (2008), „Tranziciona pravda i tumačenje književnosti: srpski primer“ (2011), „Škola za 'petparačke' priče: predlozi za drugačiji kurikulum“ (2016), „Dva lica patriotizma“ (2016), „Fantastična škola. Novi prilozi za drugačiji kurikulum: SF, horror, fantastika“ (2020) i „Srbija u kontinuitetu“ (2020).