It’s not Vucic’s fault. It wasn’t Milosevic’s either. Nor
Tito’s. Nor king Aleksandar’s, nor even Nikola Pasic’s. As individuals, they
can’t be solely culpable for Serbia’s nosedive. They couldn’t have done it alone, not with all their packs of ventriloquist dummies, ready to do any dirty deed required of them. The real question
is how they are even possible? How come they always appear, so arrogant, vain, obsessive, and
take over
unrestrained power? Or, maybe they don’t even take it? We offer it to them, on
a silver platter, and lined with doily. How do we manage to produce that pigswill for ourselves each time there’s an opportunity to lift our heads up and clear our eyes? We wag our tails like puppies and throw
ourselves on our backs, we eradicate ourselves as a society,
cancel the institutions, trample the laws, proclaim ourselves incompetent, we mute ourselves as individuals. And stare vacantly at our own demise.
This is what the Professional ethics committee of the Belgrade
University did yesterday, by referring the case of Sinisa Mali’s doctoral thesis back to the Faculty of Organizational Sciences (FOS) for deliberation,
although appeals submitted to the Committee requested that it establishes plagiarism and denies approval of the doctoral degree to Sinisa Mali. This
scandal has lasted for five years now. More than 10 committees
have tried to determine what has been going
on with
that thesis. They failed. The last opinion of the FOS Expert committee, as the
Professional ethics committee has now established, was “incomplete, vague,
and inconsistent.” So, what to do now? Apparently, refer the
case back to the same institution that not only refused to deal with this issue
for years, but whose Academic council already accepted the last report of its Expert committee for evaluating
theses. In
other words, the entire Faculty stood behind the opinion that Mali’s doctoral
thesis is almost completely fine.
What is to be expected from FOS now? That its Expert committee should now write a more complete, less
vague, and
entirely opposite opinion? And that then
the Academic council would accept it, just as it
accepted the previous, completely different
one? Or are we to expect the Expert committee to
maintain
its previous stance that only the now-legendary 6.97% of the thesis was plagiarized,
apparently making the thesis perfectly acceptable? If that’s
the case, maybe the Professional ethics committee now expects the Academic council to reject the same finding this time around? I can’t tell which of these two solutions I
like better.
“Autocrat” is a
misnomer. No one can hold power on their own. They need the selfless aid of the
whole society, the consent of “the elite and the mob”, the unconditional
support of everyone, and particularly of supposedly autonomous
institutions, and nods from self-proclaimed authorities on integrity and
morals. We made it happen so many times. We offered dictators their power on a silver
platter, and cheered them to go faster, stronger, and better. But when a university eradicates itself, when it annuls
the value of education, annulling thus also each and
every defended doctoral thesis and every earned grade, then the society
arrives to its end. When universities fall, the
entire society falls. And it lines the platter with a doily again. To make it nicer for the dictator.
Dubravka Stojanović, istoričarka, magistrirala 1992 („Srpska socijaldemokratska partija i ratni program Srbije 1912-1918“), doktorirala 2001 („Evropski demokratski uzori kod srpske političke i intelektualne elite 1903-1914“) na Filozofskom fakultetu u Beogradu. Od 1988. do 1996. radi u Institutu za noviju istoriju Srbije, pa prelazi na Odeljenje za istoriju Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu, gde 2008. postaje vanredna, a 2016. redovna profesorka na katedri za Opštu savremenu istoriju. U saradnji sa Centrom za antiratne akcije 1993. radi na projektu analize udžbenika. Sa Milanom Ristovićem piše i uređuje školske dodatne nastavne materijale „Detinjstvo u prošlosti“, nastale u saradnji istoričara svih zemalja Balkana, koji su objavljeni na 11 jezika regiona. Kao potpredsednica Komiteta za edukaciju Centra za demokratiju i pomirenje u Jugoistočnoj Evropi iz Soluna, urednica je srpskog izdanja 6 istorijskih čitanki za srednje škole. Dobitnica je odlikovanja Nacionalnog reda za zasluge u rangu viteza Republike Francuske. Knjige: Iskušavanje načela. Srpska socijaldemokratija i ratni program Srbije 1912-1918 (1994), Srbija i demokratija 1903-1914. Istorijska studija o “zlatnom dobu srpske demokratije” (2003, 2019) – Nagrada grada Beograda za društvene i humanističke nauke za 2003; Srbija 1804-2004 (sa M. Jovanovićem i Lj. Dimićem, 2005), Kaldrma i asfalt. Urbanizacija i evropeizacija Beograda 1890-1914 (2008), Ulje na vodi. Ogledi iz istorije sadašnjosti Srbije (2010), Noga u vratima. Prilozi za političku biografiju Biblioteke XX vek (2011), Iza zavese. Ogledi iz društvene istorije Srbije 1890-1914 (2013), Rađanje globalnog sveta 1880-2015. Vanevropski svet u savremenom dobu (2015), Populism the Serbian Way (2017), Pola veka XX veka. Zbornik radova povodom 50 godina Biblioteke XX vek (ur, 2021), Prošlost dolazi. Promene u tumačenju prošlosti u srpskim udžbenicima istorije 1913-2021 (2023).
Dubravka Stojanović, istoričarka, magistrirala 1992 („Srpska socijaldemokratska partija i ratni program Srbije 1912-1918“), doktorirala 2001 („Evropski demokratski uzori kod srpske političke i intelektualne elite 1903-1914“) na Filozofskom fakultetu u Beogradu. Od 1988. do 1996. radi u Institutu za noviju istoriju Srbije, pa prelazi na Odeljenje za istoriju Filozofskog fakulteta u Beogradu, gde 2008. postaje vanredna, a 2016. redovna profesorka na katedri za Opštu savremenu istoriju. U saradnji sa Centrom za antiratne akcije 1993. radi na projektu analize udžbenika. Sa Milanom Ristovićem piše i uređuje školske dodatne nastavne materijale „Detinjstvo u prošlosti“, nastale u saradnji istoričara svih zemalja Balkana, koji su objavljeni na 11 jezika regiona. Kao potpredsednica Komiteta za edukaciju Centra za demokratiju i pomirenje u Jugoistočnoj Evropi iz Soluna, urednica je srpskog izdanja 6 istorijskih čitanki za srednje škole. Dobitnica je odlikovanja Nacionalnog reda za zasluge u rangu viteza Republike Francuske. Knjige: Iskušavanje načela. Srpska socijaldemokratija i ratni program Srbije 1912-1918 (1994), Srbija i demokratija 1903-1914. Istorijska studija o “zlatnom dobu srpske demokratije” (2003, 2019) – Nagrada grada Beograda za društvene i humanističke nauke za 2003; Srbija 1804-2004 (sa M. Jovanovićem i Lj. Dimićem, 2005), Kaldrma i asfalt. Urbanizacija i evropeizacija Beograda 1890-1914 (2008), Ulje na vodi. Ogledi iz istorije sadašnjosti Srbije (2010), Noga u vratima. Prilozi za političku biografiju Biblioteke XX vek (2011), Iza zavese. Ogledi iz društvene istorije Srbije 1890-1914 (2013), Rađanje globalnog sveta 1880-2015. Vanevropski svet u savremenom dobu (2015), Populism the Serbian Way (2017), Pola veka XX veka. Zbornik radova povodom 50 godina Biblioteke XX vek (ur, 2021), Prošlost dolazi. Promene u tumačenju prošlosti u srpskim udžbenicima istorije 1913-2021 (2023).