The Power of the Master of Ceremonies

"Shame on you!". It is high time someone in Serbia, especially in its parliament, said this. There is a serious lack of people here who can say this, and if things weren't as they are, it would be normal that the person able to do so be the President of the Parliament. But, when Aleksandar Bakocevic thus rebuked an MP of the Democratic Party, the part of the public still capable of feelings of aversion, were given good reason. Because it was a case of the youngest member of parliament, who has the least reason to be ashamed of anything, and on the other hand, an official who amongst those in any of the previous communist countries surely has the least right to pass such moral judgement.

According to a metaphorical statistic, a person in power spoils at the rate of 6 percent a year. The present MC in the Serbian parliament probably doesn't even remember himself when he began, how many offices he changed and of all what he has been director, president, chief and manager. Digging into such a biography is the work of a bird of prey, dull and unpleasant, even when the subject of the biography owns the face to take up by far the most television time and who, with his unfounded dignity, irritates the public so much. It is enough to remember all the communist reversals and ruptures, when almost entire teams were replaced, which couldn't have been survived by anyone with any kind of point of view, or one who simply did not feel in time the change in the balance of power. Then, it should be understood, there was no mention of what was shameful or not. The person to come through all this and in the end appear as the one to preside over a multi-party parliament, must be immortal.

It is thought that parliament as a form of government was first instituted in Iceland, far from the Balkans. No-one here has much experience with the handling of this sensitive instrument, particularly in a multi-party system, the only one recognized as legitimate by the world. The government in Serbia didn't want parties, elections or such a parliament. It gave in under pressure, but it is as if many still believe that such a thing is not for Serbia, that it is a temporary institution which should not be perfected but compromised so that the people themselves realize that it's of little use.

It has turned out that direct television coverage from the Parliament, which was something the opposition had to work hard for, serves just this purpose,. Contrary to expectations, the presence of the cameras seems to exhilarate instead of inhibit a good portion of the MPs and some, like Vojislav Seselj, primarily look to ridicule the idea of parliamentary debate with each appearance.

Professor Unkovic, the first president of this parliament, succeeded in preserving some dignity and seriousness, which, I believe, was the main reason he was removed. Milosevic had an idea worthy of Caligula, to replace him with Bakocevic. And even if the opposition were much greater in number, it would be neutralized and repressed just by having to show respect for him, listen to his lectures and threats and accepting him as arbiter. In this way they are deprived of any eventual moral precedence. Because if Bakocevic can admonish someone, then anyone can, i.e. no-one can. All differences are eliminated, all become accomplices, all lose dignity and the parties and parliament itself are slowly deprived of any sense.

In this general degradation the people themselves are compromised because the MPs are their chosen representatives. People lose their orientation; they don't know for what and whom they first voted, nor for whom they should vote next time. And to crown it all, they are all aware of the fact that the power is in the hands of the President of the Republic, and not in the parliament where the MPs can squabble and insult as much as they like. Only the President remains clean in all this.

In the British Parliament, the function carried out by Bakocevic carries the name of Speaker. In the long history of this institution there were many speakers who paid with their heads because they annoyed some side and there is a whole wall in the speaker's residence decorated with the portraits of these unfortunates. For this reason the election of a speaker, who has a great deal of power, is given much thought and it has to be a person of indisputable moral integrity. But the custom has remained for a newly elected speaker to be dragged to his dangerous seat by representatives of the parliamentary majority and minority, while he resists.

All those who are worried by Serbian discord should first think of how to find a person for the role of parliamentary arbiter who is acceptable to all and of undisputed public reputation. Bakocevic, however, is a living symbol of the continuity of the regime.

He did not preside over the meeting when Seselj promised the expulsion of all Croats from Serbia, but there is no reason to hope that he would have behaved any differently from Vice-President Jokanovic. Because he earlier allowed to be heard the equally scandalous and unconstitutional proposal to forbid the return of all those who left the country to remove themselves from the war. And Seselj himself has become a special parliamentary institution of false opposition, like a devil's advocate, which makes the whole moral mess even livelier. Apart from the fact that he acts on the part of the government in warring with the democratic opposition, his extremism hides the extremism of the leading party, which can then show itself as moderate. The problem exists in that Seselj is extremely efficient in this, the media give him a hand, the atmosphere of lawlessness is spreading in Serbia, and he is becoming a threat to Milosevic, because he promises even easier, quicker and shorter roads.

The time is coming when we shall see how shortsighted and dangerous the compromising of the parliament in Serbia has been. At the breaking point of a policy, in military defeat, in the dizzying acceleration of economic and social collapse, when help cannot be expected from anywhere, the country is practically without a parliamentary alternative. As much as Bakocevic and Seselj have blocked the opposition, so has it harmed itself by its stubborn presence in such a parliament. The space is now almost totally empty, all are more or less discredited and all is left in the hands of God.