The Influence Of Ghostly Forces

The ancient Romans were well known for their building. They built much and did it well, so that wonderful buildings have remained with us to this very day, built before the year 2,000. The Romans had an unusual custom. When a building was completed and the scaffolding taken down, the architect and main builder would enter the newlyfinished building. They would spend several days and nights in it, and so be the first to know if something had gone wrong with the calculations or construction. In ancient Rome, the same rule applied to everything that was built: it was always done in the belief that ones children would be proud of what had been made one day.

Official Serbian politics, always ready to look for help in History, have never sought inspiration in the method of work and builders' pride characteristic of the Romans. The roofs and walls fall on the heads of the people here, and not those who for years have been pushing these same people under the false roofs and walls of national salvation.The main architect does not dwell under this roof, he does not use the city transport and his shoes are never muddy, but he does know that the people have problems. An occasional brick hits one of the hicks in power. When this happens, authority is passed on to some new executor working on the national project.

People who are prepared to accept any old post in Slobodan Milosevic's architectural firm know they are expendable. It is possible to persuade the people from a partypropaganda post in the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) that the ruling party's achievements cannot be judged according to ``current social and economic difficulties which have resulted from sanctions,'' but that it is necessary to wait and see what History and the bards will say of the matter. It is easy to launch fresh slogans from a safe sinecure on how SPS policy ``is being processed and will yield fruits.'' Those who agree to a post in the executive authority, know however, that they face real problems and that that is why they must fall. They also know that when everything falls, they will not be rejected entirely, i.e., even when they are out of sight of direct authority, they will not have fallen out of favor completely.

The previous system sometimes buried its heretics alive. Architect Milosevic, by saving himself and his expendable cadre, always tries to find them a place in a bank, a deputy seat, or a lucrative post in the oil industry. Milosevic never sacrifices someone when others want it, only when he decides to do so. Those in the know claim that former Serbian PM Radoman Bozovic was recently saved by the opposition. Believing that Bozovic had compromised himself in the ministerial affair to such an extent that it was time for him to leave, the opposition demanded his head. Even though it could have earned him some political kudos, Milosevic didn't deliver him. Out of spite.

All of Milosevic's expendable people are very much alike. They are absolutely loyal to their employer; they had greater competencies in the jobs given to them than they did ideas; the state media insisted on making them seem important; they never protested and always signed what they were supposed to; they never answered to the Parliament which chose them; every new candidate was far worse than his predecessor. One of those still active in current Serbian politics, but who could soon be losing his post, is Nebojsa Covic, the President of the City government. In many things Covic is not typical SPS cadre. He belongs to a group of competent technocrats. He heads a successful firm, and at the last SPS congress, dubbed the ``congress of cadre renewal,'' he had the ``honor'' of dealing with the old SPS guard in the name of Belgrade's Socialists. At the last elections his name headed the Belgrade electoral list; this year he ranks much lower. He was viewed as a possible Serbian PM, but became the President of the municipal government, allegedly, because he was among the first in the SPS to point out that the alliance with Seselj was detrimental. Covic's slipping down the cadre ladder started this summer when he was moved from the post of Belgrade SPS branch president. Since then, and probably as a punishment, he is in charge of the municipal governmentthe driver of a machine which breaks down easily. Like the city transport company, he is drawing the anger of the humiliated, freezing and increasingly hungry citizens of Belgrade. By accepting this post, Covic found himself in the position of the man who was told: ``here's nothing but hang onto it.'' Long before Covic took over, the money and authority had moved under the wing of the centralized republican authority.

Bricks started dropping on Covic's head with greater intensity when he admitted that the SPS had received (read: blackmailed) 200,000 DM from Jezdimir Vasiljevic for last year's campaign. After Vasiljevic was proclaimed one of the main CIA, Vatican and Mossad agents working here, and what with the SPS using his money, the theory that the Socialists were as pure as the driven snow when it came to using money from abroad, disintegrated.

When Milosevic concluded two weeks ago that foreign forces and the municipal transport company were to blame for all that is happening to us, it seemed that Covic had finally reached the end and that it was just a matter of time before he would find himself another party which would know how to appreciate his qualities. It was believed that Covic would send the bill for the city's slow death to the proper addresses. After two weeks of thinking it over, the occasionally disobedient and headstrong Covic decided to run back in order that he might not be buried in the debris left by SPS reorganizing avalanches. By accepting and developing Milosevic's thesis, he even reached the conclusion that foreign forces working in the municipal company were to blame for everything. This is the reason why the number 11 tram and the number 53 bus take over an hour to arrive. Covic also accused opposition parties and representatives of independent trade unions which are allegedly financed by the Soros Foundation. That very same foundation which, for the same ``subversive'' reasons recently presented Serbia with several million dollars' worth of medicine, and which takes care of tens of thousands of refugee children. Thus Covic, who was always thought to be a liberal and ``soft'' Socialist, in the end opted for the methods used by Russian Communists who, when they messed things up, used to accuse Western radio programs and their propaganda. All on the principle that the ``enemy is hiding in every breath of air.''

Even though he is not a player who should be written off all that easily, Covic's last turnabout will not help him avoid the fate of other expendable executors of Milosevic's policy.

The cold and shivering people queuing for bread, milk or the tram have come up with a new SPS slogan for this year's election: ``We're sorry, we're terribly sorry.''

Nebojsa Covic had the chance of being the first to apologize to his fellow citizens for all that is happening to them daily, and which is below ordinary human dignity. Things which have nothing to do with sanctions.