Free Fall

I believe that the experts are right who have proven that the special law for returning the stolen votes is legally problematic. They say that in this way it is only stated that higher state interests have been jeopardized, since too many of those who have been stolen from have for too long and too loudly refused to accept the theft. This is why what is theirs shall now be returned, but without the right to ask who wanted to steal from them and to demand that the thief be punished.

That practical law has been passed -well- in the Assembly of Serbia by all the socialists apart from their former comrade Nebojsa Covic, who was against the theft, and was left without an MP mandate. No one can try to hinder and inhibit Milosevic in his attempt to create stupidities and yet remain unpunished. Covic was definitely acquainted with this internal regulation, yet he was quicker to understand than the others that this time there will be no getting out of it and that it is high time to jump over the fence. Others did not dare follow him, believing there was still time, yet it is impossible that any of them are thinking how it all turned out to be good, useful and correct.

All those delegates and others from the pinnacle of the ruling party could easily have swallowed the theft of the votes and persistently defended their right to do so. No one apart from Covic raised his voice against the police cordons and beatings. Yet, when they see that Milosevic was somehow forced to return what was stolen, it must be clear to them that the operation had turned out to be idiotic. If they are now only keeping their mouths shut and voting, that isn't because they don't know that someone from the top had lost his mind, but only because they are afraid and cannot reach an agreement to harmoniously take up whistle blowing.

It could have been predicted a few years ago that Nebojsa Covic would sooner or later clash with his party. Namely, it was evident that he had more brains and scruples than the departing tyrants can bear. This is why in his case it is not a classic scene of excommunication of the unlike-minded, but rather his decision to remain and survive and to let them meet with disaster.

Apart from Covic, Zoran Lilic has carefully and discreetly distanced himself from Milosevic, together with the highest ranking army officials. Less discreetly, Bogoljub Karic has turned his back upon the royal court, together with his financial empire and his television station. That is what we know and what is visible from outside. The resistance we cannot see must be even greater -which has at the end- more so than the OSCE, opposition, citizens and students, incited Milosevic's inborn sense of justice. His own people, who have upheld his power, have yielded. They have left him more than enough time; they waited for this magician to perform and present an ace from up his sleeve. They then discovered that he had nothing, not even sleeves. He only has Radmila Milentijevic.

Therefore, at the moment when his media factory is producing larger and larger political losses; when a large part of Serbia is rejecting its products with nausea; when competition is hastily multiplying, and the opposition and the OSCE is demanding that he liquidate that firm which has gone under and open up something a bit more modern, Milosevic has dug into the deepest hole and drawn out personnel from the times of Aleksandar Rankovic. Of the qualifications for managing the ministry of information Mrs. Milentijevic only possesses the decades-long old habit to lie in front of the world and praise the local government.

This means that we shall be witnessing an admirable attempt to transform the television of Serbia into something even worse, more stupid and more abortive. And circumstances are as such that I simply do not even dare think what awaits the unfortunate minister. If she wasn't who she was, she could easily read her destiny herself which is clearly laid out on an egg shell.

I shall dedicate more space to the appointment of Mrs. Milentijevic because it seems to me that nothing shows the direction where the local regime is headed better. Namely, certain reasons for fear existed that Milosevic, following the recognition of the election results, might succeed in prolonging his own political life with another concession in name of reason. However, nothing shall come of that. There shall be no consolidation; the free fall has continued since the regime wishes to defend what cannot be defended and since not a single well-informed and reasonable being wishes to come close to this leprous government.

It seems as though it is no longer especially important what the opposition is doing and whether the citizens are still out on the streets or not. It is sufficient that they only continue to exist, the rest is being dealt with by Milosevic himself, probably with the help of Mira Markovic and a few of their left over associates and advisers to whom, unfortunately, we shall never be able to express our deepest gratitude. Namely, the idea that Mrs. Milentijevic is capable of preserving the media and returning the citizens trust to it is as crazy as if by way of a special law the result of not only the previous, but all future elections could be ascertained.

The royal court obviously now believes that since it had presented the people with a special law and since the opposition will be able to enter its municipal offices, no one can demand anything else. The mercenaries and the fifth column got a lot more than belongs to them, i.e. since their place is in prison, yet have instead acquired a crumb of authority, all should clearly see that Serbia is the most democratic country in the world. Mrs. Milentijevic shall continue exposing those traitors, and as far as the citizens are concerned, it is high time they all got back to their business.

However, the citizens have nothing to go back to. Even those who might have, are leaving their jobs, not due to the votes and the opposition, but rather because they would like to be paid, so that now professors, pupils, kindergarten teachers, children and their parents are walking all over Serbia. The whole country has taken to wandering and all have already comprehended everything. Some peoples' resignations are demanded all over the place and that movement for discrediting all and everyone is acquiring the proportions of an epidemic. No police exists which is capable of stopping that.

Despite everything, the regime is showing signs that it has no intentions of making compromises with the opposition but would rather continue the war, relying on the fact that real power isn't in the municipalities but rather in the republic. But, time will show that even that war is lost as well, since in a situation such as this one authorization isn't important yet legitimacy is. And legitimacy has been denied to the regime, and therefore to the republican authorities as well, which means that it shall turn out to be powerless, just as the television in Belgrade has turned out powerless and defeated in its duel with Radio B 92.

If looked at from a static point of view, the regime is still far more powerful and seems to have many ways to make the opposition's life miserable. Yet, that impression can only be held by someone who does not feel the awakened energy and great change of the citizens' mood. The dynamics of that process are bringing things to a point so that in Nis, for example, the new municipality president definitely has more authority and power than Slobodan Milosevic. The opposition is simply ascending, while the regime is falling unstopabbly. Things shall become especially interesting and amusing in Belgrade, where all those republican bodies are situated, while the whole city has joined the opposition. If that had been recognized immediately and if it hadn't reached a point of a three-month-long confrontation with human victims, a certain type of co-existence could be installed. Yet, now Milosevic can only stop the city authorities from changing the name of Tolstojeva street, in which he resides, into the 17 November street with the help of police. Many others will wish for top security, so that there is probably no repose for the police even when the people disperse from the streets.

Even though I am not overestimating anyone's immunity to greed and love of power, I believe the new local government bodies shall not have sufficient time to entangle themselves in greater scandals and corruption prior to the next republican elections, and shall at least until then have the citizens' support. This means that this year, in any case, a government takeover shall take place in Serbia, and we'll see later what will be left of these awakened hopes. Never again shall anyone be able to maintain a regime such as the one that is now departing, and what is in store shall depend on the standards of today's citizens of Serbia, although maybe not in keeping with their taste.