The Fall of the Legends

Some day when someone compares the FRY's first President Dobrica Cosic, first Prime Minister Milan Panic and Yugoslav National Bank (NBJ) Governor Dragoslav Avramovic, the governor will be able to say that he wasn't a man for just one season. He lasted a full two years before the wave of merciless SPS democracy hit him. The man who was once feted for ending hyperinflation and bravely stopping the mint from printing endless cash has come under pressure from advocates of policies that leave people only two choices: be obedient or become a heretic. Everything else, except for the length of his term in office, recalls the road traveled by Panic and Cosic and many others before them whose thinking did not coincide with the direction Slobodan Milosevic has been pointing out all these years. All three were greeted as Messiahs, as the best, smartest and deftest sons of the Serb nation, intellectual and financial giants and left under the blows of many "patriotic journalists".

Avramovic was pushed down that road recently.

Judging by Panic and Cosic, the press attacks are usually the second stage of political liquidation and he seems to have entered stage two after he introduced economic program 2. The first stage is the silence of the state media. Anyone who is about to be deposed meets with the silence of the state media. Their statements, activities are first pushed onto the back pages before disappearing. Before being ousted as FRY President, Cosic was pushed to the 42nd minute of the main RTS news. Later they stopped mentioning him. When he protested, the semi-literate TV editors chastised him for behavior "not in accord with professional, democratic norms and rule of behavior". Even the information minister got angry at the president for endangering the achieved level of democracy and media independence. Cosic came back to the news a few months later in a departure commentary. His successor Zoran Lilic was given a place of honor by the RTS from the start, especially when he sends telegrams to Burkina Faso.

Avramovic has been writing letters to editors in chief for a while now asking them to publish at least some of the things he tells press conferences. He wants to inform the public of the dramatic economic situation, of his differences with the federal government. He hasn't gotten a single reply since the editors have been told to publish only Tanjug reports or whatever has been agreed at higher levels.

When Cosic accepted the presidency in June 1992 reporters rushed to his home town Drenova. He was reported to have arrived at the presidency building in a taxi, refused a salary, and his moral and intellectuals virtues were extolled. The public was also told that the only one to oppose his choice was his wife Bozica Cosic who was worried about his health.

A year later, the same reporters and media asked the newly appointed Governor Avramovic what his wife Marija thinks about his job. "Don't ask me," he said. "She thinks I work too hard and worries about my health."

When Cosic was elected some of the press explained who he was. "He is a man known to all," one reporter said and added that Cosic embodies "that dialectic syntagm - the unity of contradictions". Cosic was described as a fighter for the national cause who never, despite the wrong ideology that guided us, never entered into nationalism. He was also hailed as the great hope with a warning that he has no magic wand.

Like everyone else who couldn't dance to the Socialist (and Radical) band for too long following the logic of autocratic and personal power, Cosic left in the saddest possible way: amid attacks. He left as "a political malcontent", "imagining himself as a great national figure" and "a man who wanted parallel authorities not by the will of the people but foreign mercenaries". One of his biggest sins was supporting Panic instead of Milosevic.

Before falling from grace, Panic was also hailed as a savior. He was described as a man with a rich biography, "living proof that the Serbs can earn huge amounts of money when they want to". Vecernje Novosti daily hailed him as a hard working man of the world in a feature written by the wife of the editor in chief in July 1992.

In December that year, immediately after the presidential elections where Panic ran against Milosevic, the Novosti editor in chief wrote a stinging editorial titled "Return to Disneyland". "He promised his bosses he would topple Milosevic at any cost," it said. "Imagine a situation when the guest wants to eliminate the host. The people who said he's an American spy are wrong. They overestimated his abilities. His bosses know that best because he failed the test - toppling Milosevic."

Although he lived in the US for a long time (which is a cause of suspicion as with Panic), Avramovic probably won't be offered a return to Disneyland. Perhaps out of respect for his age. For now he's gone from financial genius to "simple bank clerk". In the end, everyone recalled that Panic earned his millions through smuggling and financial manipulation not hard work.

Unlike Panic and Cosic, Avramovic still has an opportunity to get out with less fierce attacks. Under the populist concept of removing the unwanted there is always a stage when the chief allows the incriminated person to withdraw "for reasons of health" or at least reach a seemingly honorable deal. If he won't, he becomes the enemy and a traitor and the target of comments that explain he was brought in under false pretenses.

Avramovic is now being given a chance to remember his words of two years ago: "I am a man of compromise". And to forget that he added: "but I believe that there are things you can't compromise on".

If he doesn't back down he'll get the same as Milosevic's other political rivals: a public campaign, accusations of treason.

The Socialists would say: who isn't against us is with us. The only thing is no one should be against them.