What now according to Vesna Pesic, Vuk Draskovic, Zoran Djindjic

Zoran Djindjic for Vreme

This is just a face off

The end goal is to set free the positive energy in Serbia. We have to utilize human energy in order to achieve something, because that is all we have.

The country has no material resources, no accumulated capital, it has only the people. Their energy needs to be set free.

How do we set this energy free ? By disposing of a system which rests on monopolistic powers and a complete blockade. A monopolistic system appearing to be political but essentially based on controlling all the country's resources, primarily money, raw materials, jobs, human destiny and the media, emerged in the past seven or eight years in the wake of war in the former Yugoslavia and the economic sanctions imposed against Serbia.

A group of people realized how convenient it was for them to gain control of all those resources without being responsible to anybody. Under the auspices of sanctions, war politics and a war-time economy, they constructed a permanent model of running the country which has resulted in a complete impoverishment of the population, the disintegration of its energy and a blockade of its ability to interact.

The struggle for the recognition of the election results was the first step, for it was a struggle to restore dignity to the elections. The purpose of this struggle was to make the people realize they could change something with the elections. If the people start believing that elections do not make any difference, they will either get radical or yield to indifference and resignation. We have won the first battle, the people now feel their own strength and know that they do make a difference. Our next mission is to globalize this energy. We need the major media for that. The people must realize that they didn't just win 60 parliamentary seats, but that a collective will has prevailed.

The next step is obviously the battle for the media. The goal is not to gain five independent media which will be able to counter the state, but to democratize the state media. This has a symbolic meaning, just like the elections. Someone watching state television in a remote village must rest assured that the anchorman is telling the truth.

We have three options: the first one is the present communist administration, the second one is nationalist leading into isolation and rejecting any foreign influence as evil, and it is based on the autocracy of one man. The third option is the one currently on the streets, bringing modernization, development, progress and civil values.

If the majority opts for the third one, we are looking at a number of institutional and essential reforms which should put some order back into this mess of a society. That means respect for the law, starting with proper penalties for traffic violations. The process could be quite painful for many an individual because it will require responsibility, paying taxes, eliminating the black market and an awareness that obligations between the state and an individual work both ways. In order to have a system that works, we must become disciplined and show self-discipline whenever required. Only when we set this energy free we shall be able to start dealing with our economic problems. All this is just a face off, getting ready for the game.

The game will begin when we have a valid government, valid laws and good relations with the rest of the world. That is when we shall realize that we have to start winning, that having a good government is just a basic prerequisite to get back on track.

 

Vesna Pesic for Vreme

The Two Key Words: Truth and Responsibility

I believe that our future steps are mostly determined and defined by the citizens themselves who these days have bravely defended their electoral will in the streets of the Serbian cities. Our primary task must be to follow their wishes and respect their requests.

The first thing that immediately catches the eye is the request for much greater transparency of society and government itself. This is the basic request for truth which has been hidden in every aspect from us all these years and my impression is that the citizens request imperatively open all secrets of the ruling clique, regardless as to whether they are about the election results of November 17, financial manipulations, exaggerated accumulation of wealth by the ruling class or the war that was led on the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The request for greater transparency of government has unavoidably become also the request for its responsibility to the citizens. I believe that truth and responsibility have become the two key words for the citizens.

As the political parties, our task has to be exactly to see through the two requests to the end: To uncover the truth about what was going on in our country over the last years and to request responsibility for all those who are responsible for the tragic condition of our society and our state. We must put a full stop to the system in which one couple and the narrow circle of their friends hold all authority in their hands, in which all the wealth of our country, including currency reserves, is their private property and where the policemen are their personal bodyguards. In this context, first of all we shall have to request that the whole truth about the circumstances connected to the electoral theft be revealed, about this severe breakage of the basic laws of this country, and that everyone participating in the events be called to responsibility by the judicial authorities. I believe that we shall have great support from the citizens, both from supporters of the opposition and those undecided, even from the supporters of the SPS itself, since it is quite obvious that we are dealing here with the general and mutual public interests. Of course, when speaking about truth and responsibility, the unavoidable question is the media, because it is the key loop in the process. The media is one of the basic means for governmental control in all democratic societies, if not the major one. We must request that the government media, including RTS, start behaving in accord with the public interest. They are obliged to such behavior by the Law on the Public Informative System. The citizens of Serbia can not be insulted and looked down at by the television which they finance through the electricity bill. It is immoral, dishonest and humiliating and the citizens do not have to accept it.

I also believe that the opposition parties which are constituents of the coalition Zajedno are facing important tasks of strengthening and tightening the alliance. After all those events the citizens have the full right to expect from us to raise the quality of the political force they chose to be the means for achieving their aspirations. This is what we owe them for their, I would say heroic, support they offered us, believing in us even when we ourselves were losing belief. We have to do all that is in our power in the next year to identify ourselves as the political force, ready and competent to overtake the governmental jobs and equipped with the necessary cohesion.

I am convinced that the opposition and the opposition movement in Serbia is, maybe for the first time since it exists, becoming the master of its own destiny and has an entirely realistic chance to bring Serbia to the road of freedom and democracy. The year 1997 will doubtlessly be the year of changes in our country and we must make use of that chance.

 

Vuk Draskovic For VREME

Start With Small Steps

The opposition, as long as it is the opposition, is in a state of a dream which it has every right to, but the moment it becomes the authorities it has no right to dream but has to struggle with reality

In Belgrade, in all the university centers in Serbia and in all the larger towns of Serbia, the Zajedno coalition should soon take over the authorities and in some places it has already done so. Most of the people won’t understand that in those places we are taking over just some 10% of the real power and that everything else is concentrated at republican level, that is in the government and the office of the president.

There have already been indications that the authorities will do everything to financially and in every other way maximally block the Zajedno coalition in all those towns and the effect of all that could be disastrous for us so that a large number of people would be disappointed and believe that we did not get things moving for the better but that many things are perhaps even worse than under the SPS. We are finding treasuries empty, traces of crime and excessive spending at every step and, in good measure, documents on the subject destroyed.

A new style of work should be imposed in the municipal and town and city administrations so that people, the moment they walk into their town hall, any town hall, any public company or public institution under the control of the authorities see clearly that the authorities exist for the people, as their service, and not the other way around that the people are there because of the authorities. All those expense accounts, free parties, celebrations, outings, the financing of political parties, financing guests and tribunals for officials will be abolished.

The main quality that should be achieved is for one set of authorities to control another. All power corrupts but uncontrolled power corrupts uncontrollably. We have to know that even the smallest crime in our municipalities will be under the eyes of the Socialists just as their similar crimes will be under our scrutiny. That has to result in a new situation of competition which leads to democracy, replaceable authorities because democracy is replaceable authorities.