A very important thing happened on May 11. The big old national project has collapsed in Serbia. I think that this collapse, after a series of defeats both great and small, could be seen as the final one. And so we have an unusual situation: the pro-European forces think that they have won, while, in fact, what has taken place is the defeat of the so called national forces, the champions of an old political project of unification, national coalescence, Great Serbia. In that sense, the word ‘defeat’ is stronger than the word ‘victory’, because, arithmetically speaking, a victory has not actually occurred.
The pro-European group that declared victory is not able to articulate this victory, or to interpret it in the required way. They seem uninterested in what could be further built upon that victory. It’s as if they all suddenly found themselves transposed to some new country, and now they don’t know how to go on and what to do next. As if they are still waiting for guidance from Bruxelles or some other world capitol, I’m referring, primarily, to Moscow. They themselves are stunned and would not like to use that victory to rid us of the so called ancient mud, in which we have been wallowing for 200 years in a project that was not successful. All together, this speaks to the fact that — I’m going to be provocative here —it was Serbia that needed Yugoslavia most of all, although it was from within Serbia that Yugoslavia was most contested. The moment that Yugoslavia crumbled set off the series of defeats which, in my opinion, ended on May 11.
I don’t fear the arithmetical victory of those old forces. That cannot, ultimately, succeed and it is only a waste of time, which will, in a historical sense, be punished, by prolonged poverty. So, if we lost a lot, we can lose a little more. However, what worries me, I repeat, is that on the democratic side, there isn’t enough passion, not enough strength of leadership. We do not have a person of Zoran Djindjic’s caliber. This problem is deep-rooted, because the software of the European idea is not installed in our intellectual elites. When I say “elite” I mean university professors, heads of institutes, those in the top positions in the Academy, the top positions in Matica Srpska and so on. The majority of those institutions are peopled by ideological corpses, people of a former time, former people, the former elite. Therefore, we have a former elite, we have defeated forces supported by the majority of voting public, we have a bewildered and frightened people and there is no one who capable of explaining to those people that what lies ahead cannot possibly be worse than what we have already endured.
In the past years the political superstructure succeeded in imposing itself as the main social issue. Constant negotiations, day and night, who made what statement, who called who, who is communicating with who. What was created was this aftifical sense of suspense, as if Serbia’s destiny depends on three or four political salons, outfitted with some kids who speak English and Russian, are good with computers, are well informed, advising their bosses. There are protest notes being sent, secret meetings being conviened and whatnot. This is all utter nonsense. This political elite, with its dramaturgy, its one-act plays and operettas is just treading water. That is not an elite that can lead Serbia onto the wide road to prosperity.
The real problem is the idea itself. After such succulent, juicy ideas, as the nationalist ones, how can you proffer the idea of constitutionality or the idea of the a state bound by rule of law. These are notions which to a common human mind in the Balkans feel foreign, protestant, catholic, tasteless and scentless. That Paris and London, they don’t like us. No one looks after us when we go there. The Czechs hate us too. That world is somehow alien; it seems abstract. You are talking about constitutionality after 200 years of power being money, a knife and a loaf of bread. This looks like an illusion to our common people, like a curtain that is hiding the real battle. Human rights? That’s a phrase of the non-governmental sector, which is financed from abroad and so on.
The idea of prosperity was squandered by the communists, and to large degree, the idea of modernization suffers from this problem, as well. However, I think that modernization can still function as a great idea, especially if it is connected to that cardinal need of transitional countries, and especially Serbia – the need for re-industrialization. We painted our health centers and hospitals, we are trading, selling, but there is no industry, nothing is being produced. That is why the return of Fiat is essential. That is some sort of industry; you are screwing something off and screwing it on , you can see what is being made, because C market, Delta market, Merkator, Raiffeisen, Erste Bank all seem to the ordinary man to be a whole lot of nothing. Buildings, flipping real estate and so on. It is market economy in large part, but there must be some production of value. That is why Fiat’s return became a hyperbole of progress, in the heart of Shumadija, the Serbian Detroit. That affects people, but it also has its own point.
The forces of modernization get another chance. Despite one defeat after another, they will still lead Serbia into the European Union, and they will make Serbia into a halfway decent country compared to the one we are currently living in.
We had 200 years of theory that the state is everything, that is, the project of the big state. I won’t claim that it was created with bad intentions just so one group of people could terrorize all the citizens of Serbia and all our neighbors. It was a theory based on the idea that in a primitive community government has to play an educational and an economic role. This mechanism was used up, drained of whatever possibilities it had, but it soon began to show its constructional weaknesses, which are not characteristic of Serbia alone. The project of big government has been profoundly compromised in Serbia, ultimately under Milosevic, so it would be wise not to steer in that direction any more. The idea of big government is completely compromised and for that reason we we need to go with the high-risk goal of a small government, in which, of course, the real centers of control are informal ones — the new bourgeoisie, which is often more heartless than the state and under less public control.
Karic had definitely demolished all the dignity of that state, in an economic sense. After him there is no use to a state that will say – now I control everything, because if you were not in control then, how will you control it in the future? They say that the idea of free-market capitalism is no longer applied anywhere in the world. Everywhere in the world the government is controlling something, but we have no choice, because the old notion of an honest government is completely compromised here. The degree of corruption of the government apparatus is such that the only possible remedy is to diminish its power and entitlements, at the cost of new injustices and a waste of social resources. But even that is preferable to treating the rabid government apparatus with aspirin, because that doesn’t work.
We don’t know what’s happening behind the curtain, but I believe that discussions are being held about who is going to be the doorman in some rich public company. And those discussions go on all the way to the position of prime minister. This bundle of questions on the table is tremendous. It can’t possibly take four months to work out the central issues. That means that what is being discussed is – which pickpocket from this party will get his criminal trial dismissed, and which court cases will be placed at the bottom of the drawer. As far as I know, those are the negotiations. That is a tragedy.
Serbia’s focus on Kosovo didn’t stand a chance in Vojvodina, because the question raised there is — why wouldn’t Serbia pursue its interests through Vojvodina. Vojvodina is the area in which most refuges have settled. About 20 percent of the people in Vojvodina moved there less than ten years ago. However, Vojvodina has begun to digest them and those people have begun to understand it and to gradually realize its interests, that is, their own interests in it. A Vojvodina cut off from Europe would mean economic disaster, so the election results in Vojvodina are very logical. The Radicals had a stronghold in Vojvodina, in those times when an atmosphere of anxiety dominated, when those people couldn’t ensure their sustenance, felt threatened. Imagine 300 or 400 thousand people who can’t travel to Croatia when it joins the European Union. Or that we can’t travel to Bosnia – that’s crazy.
What’s happening in Vojvodina is a rationalization of the electorate, which, of course, doesn’t mean that Vojvodina is ideologically inoculated for a liberal Europe. Absolutely not. Vojvodina is also backward, much more so, relative to the Central European region, than it ever was. Vojvodina has no elite, no real autonomy, no one even brings up the question of the Serbian constitution any more, which didn’t return anything to Vojvodina. That’s why the Democratic Party did relatively well there, because it managed to make some headway there. All changes of Vojvodina’s autonomous structure depend on the Serbian Assembly. So Vojvodina doesn’t have a meaningful autonomy, but it does have an interest in Serbia’s European progress, although it has no way of influencing Serbia institutionally. In a political sense, the results of the provincial elections certainly give the aura of a good result to the Democratic Party in Serbia itself. But that can’t be the decisive factor.
In conclusion, I don’t expect that some drama will unfold because one political group takes power in one municipality and another group in some other, because they all have the same perspective of things. These are not diverse people, not different blood cells. In that sense there is a terrible centralism in Serbia; two or three people who are advocates of certain political projects, and behind them some vague groups pulling the strings. The airplane is in the air and everyone thinks someone is manning the controls, but it isn’t clear if anyone really is. An illusion is created that it all depends on Dacic, which is nonsense. Nothing depends on the Socialists, except for their lifestyles, the lifestyle of their activists, their families, their sponsors and so on. Seriously speaking, the Socialists cannot change Serbia’s course. That party is discredited and ruined.
They can’t be revive themselves as the leaders left, so Serbia’s destiny does not depend on Dacic. It depends on the ideas of the promoters of the European idea, and the European idea is not enough in itself. It has to be reinforced ideologically, a far more complete projection has to be built, a more attractive picture for ordinary people, not a schematic picture of Europe as never-never land or Europe as a place where big capital lashes the workers for 11 months a year and drinks their blood and then lets them go on vacation to Hawaii.
I am afraid of the state’s inability to maintain the most basic order. It is actually the creator of disorder. All the large crises were arranged by it. The famous burning of the embassies, the busting of Mercator – I think evidence is coming out now which shows that, at the very least, there was no attempt made to prevent these events from occurring. I do feel encouraged, however, by the fact that the political drive for producing instability is slowly losing steam. I think that they are no longer in a position to destabilize Serbia in furtherance of their own interest. The great project of the century has failed. I do regret the fact that the big part of the Serbian population is outside Serbia’s borders, but I think that borders are no longer important and that the best place for Serbs is where they have the best life, even if that isn’t in Serbia. The European umbrella guarantees the survival of our nation as well. The nationalists should be repeatedly told – don’t worry, Europe is making sure we survive even if we aren’t.
Translated by Ivica Pavlović
Peščanik, Radio B92, 06.06.2008.
