While Father Was Away on Business

Who would have thought that in Serbia the conflict between Zivorad Minovic and Hadzi Dragan Antic shall open up and resolve issues concerning the free press, war and peace, democracy, private enterprise, a law-abiding country, even the stability of the Dinar? See how easy it is for a man to appear naive. You thought that you were not the least bit interested in the war of the two heads of a former national institution called Politika and that the only problem was in the fact that they were eating the same bone, when it turned out to be a Biblical conflict of Good and Evil.

So, if this isn't the last stage, if we haven't had enough, if there is something worse to see, then they shall have to appear before us black-skinned, with horns and tails, as they are biting each other in the midst of foul smelling sulfur evaporations, while swearing that they were only performing God's deeds.

Therefore, it doesn't matter that Politika has gone down the drain a long time ago, along with the other national institutions, along with its people. The only important thing being Minovic and Antic. Between the two of them, we are to decide whether we shall redeem ourselves and become happy or whether we shall not. The convenient thing being that this major decision has fallen on the biggest news agency, so that, whoever wins, we immediately find out that we are saved. The way things look now, our savior is Antic, but the situation was so tense and uncertain that it could have been Minovic. Even the police force had to intervene to whisk off the evildoer just as he had managed to, with the help of the Board of Directors, replace Antic without a quorum. And we know what the quorum means to the Serbian people. Which is how Antic managed to, with the help of the same or similar Board of Directors, replace Minovic the very next day. I would rather not open up the issue of the police on this occasion since it has obviously deserved our deepest admiration for its alertness and efficiency while protecting all that is sacred to us. As I am inclined towards ignoring what is regarded as nationally sacred, I must admit that I am not even interested in the quorum, that is, whether Politika's Board of Directors did or did not have a quorum the first or second time, both times, or not at all.

However, they say that there were certain members of that Board who were present on both occasions and who properly first voted for, that is against, Antic that is Minovic. If at least one person acted in such a manner, I hereby wish to commend him. I know that this is not the first time, as it is said, in our recent experience, yet I believe that in just such a case as is this one it serves as an example of commendable, or at least adequate behavior. We should examine this more carefully, since we might, in the future, find ourselves more frequently in situations of such dilemmas and choices.

In politics and in life, as we well know, we usually choose between bad and less bad, sometimes between good and less good, and never between excellent and poor. When things look bad, that means that the alternatives are lousy, when things become worse that means that the differences between the options are becoming hardly discernible, and when you find yourself not being able to see any difference, it is no use pretending that you have really made a choice.

Understandably, people discern and notice all situations with a choice differently, and act in accordance with their own character, values and attitude towards life. Some people always gravitate towards situations of the "all or nothing" type and do not accept "something". Some people are happy whenever they find something in nothing. Some people refuse trivial choices awaiting bigger ones, while some others are constantly making tiny choices.

Yet, while all this remains a personal issue, in political choices when public interest is at stake, there definitely should exist some sort of civilization maximum for swindling the people and putting across personal interest as general. Same as with money. Just like the country which is capable of printing the largest amount of money is not also the richest country, so the best politician isn't the one who pulls off the biggest swindle on the largest number of people. In this case, if we are to choose between Zivorad Minovic and Hadzi Dragan Antic, then we have deceit which far extends that civilization maximum. Minovic was a member of the tight propaganda-conspiracy headquarters which created Slobodan Milosevic, and he personally conducted Politika's morbid orchestra of fury, hate and lies. Ever since then and until today, Politika changed along with Milosevic's policies, but remained as its most important looking glass and one of the pillars of that government.

Whenever his balloon was losing altitude, Milosevic got rid of the extra load and so far has chucked out an imposing number of generals, ministers, general managers, writers, journalists, intellectuals, yet Minovic somehow kept surviving. He was capable of adapting to the new lines and of threatening Milosevic of releasing baggage of mutual sins from the past. Many people surmise on the seriousness of those sins by seeing how long and with what persistence Minovic held on.

Antic's merits are of a younger date, connected to the turning point of the consistent peace policies. However, Politika did not become a normal newspaper, which would, in this context, be the only real difference. Antic himself did not come out as an outstanding peace fighter during the previous period, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten where he now is, just as Minovic is not a man who would have opposed the new policies. If there is a difference between Milosevic's old and new policies, these two are neither to blame nor responsible for it. In their department everything has essentially remained the same. The person who had, caught in a dilemma between the two of them, voted both ways, had probably just expressed his character which doesn't overly burden him. But, I believe that such behavior is a completely legitimate way of answering a wrongly put question. If you don't see a difference, if you feel that the real choice hasn't been offered, you can, without hesitation, accept all that is offered. In the lack of anything better, in the impossibility of resistance, that is also a way to send your message across. They will tell you, of course, that your vote or your ballot is invalid. Of course. For an invalid question - an invalid answer. So let the people like Minovic and Antic, as well as political parties, the regime and opposition, learn to pose better questions.

Actually, there is a great possibility that in Serbia already now, the strongest party, maybe even holding the majority is actually the party of the invalid. Those who have concluded that here there are no possibilities of getting away from Minovic and Antic, so that, in the long run, it is all the same. Those that are competing for power are looking at each other, talking to each other, tripping each other up and an amazingly small number of things has remained on that scene that would have anything to do with public interest. In conflicts such as these a person has the right to even enjoy himself a bit, knowing that the better opponent cannot lose and that it's no pity if of the two bad, only one remains. As for the story that this thing in Politika is only a symbolic expression of a deeper, important, ideological dispute between the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) "hard wing" and the Yugoslav United Left (JUL) peace-oriented members, even if we were to be presented with serious evidence, I personally would not be able to make a choice. Not because I care to look at the world from a greater distance and refuse to see the differences a priori, but simply because of a lack of faith in anything. On both those sides, if they really do exist, apart from personal prosperity, everything else is also irrelevant.

The alleged nationally concerned and militant movements in SPS have shown themselves to be totally disinterested in those Serbs which that policy has forced to exchange their houses for hovels. That scene has affected the anti-Serbian West more than these patriots. While JUL has embraced those who claim that they are dreaming the old international-brotherhood dream and are worrying the poor people's worries, while counting money acquired from the sponsors under the table. What they wish to say is that their intentions are better, even though they are the same ones that the whole world has seen through a long time ago. This doesn't bother them. Nobody has to believe their alleged visions. The only thing they wish for is that people do not regard them as average, but ideologically backward profiteers. They feel better that way.

All this with Politika and these right and left wings should be looked upon as political exercises and means of keeping in shape to prevent them from sinking into total idleness while awaiting the President's return from America. But, if he is in a bad mood, he could then say something like: "while I was there doing... you here have invented your own provocation". And in order to make the people enjoy the sight of their ruler as he rebukes and replaces various corrupt people, he previously has to surround himself with just such people.