Learning Democracy

We spoke with Dusan Kovacevic, a drama writer, the day before the first opposition city council was officially and ceremoniously proclaimed in Belgrade. He was hard to reach before that because he was touring Serbia. "I was on the road every other day for about three months. I felt I had to see towns I toured before with my plays even when no such event was taking place because something far more serious is going on now - genuine democracy is rising in Serbia for the first time since the second world war".

Vreme: What is your impression of the protest?

Kovacevic: This is a protest of a nation which has suffered a lot. Most of the protesters are unemployed. Unemployed people belong nowhere, they are just sad and desperate. These people are Serbia's majority. I have seen that people in small towns have stood up for themselves and will never again allow anybody to grab them by the neck. This is very courageous - nothing will ever be the same now that the people have subdued their century-long fear of tyranny once and for all. It is very important that the Serbs realize there is no future without that mystic word - democracy.

Vreme: You have been mentioned as a presidential candidate, a "Serbian Havel"....

It looks like a comedy to me, being a comedy writer. Never has the Zajedno coalition come up with such a proposal, nor did we ever speak about such a thing. I would never trade a job I've been doing for the past thirty years, in which I am some kind of a president already.

In my opinion, Serbia needs to go back to its cultural and intellectual heritage taken away by the Second World War, meaning that it should become a parliamentary monarchy. We have to return where we were axed off. The president can only be someone chosen by the majority of the population, and we need a strong democratic parliament. Focusing on the president as an institution is a tribal need for Serbia to have a strong arm and continue with the Tito-Milosevic tradition.

You inspired many actions taken by the students and the coalition. Your attitude that laughter and good nature are the most powerful weapons against force made this protest different from all others. It also made you one of its heroes....

I did not participate in planning daily activities regularly, I helped organize the New year festivities. The students showed utmost generosity. Their wit and spirit know no boundaries. Fishing for the rector, for example, really made me laugh. They decided to fight force and darkness with their spirit. Irony, wittiness and charm, the hallmarks of this protest, prove that force should not be fought

The night before theaters went on strike, you told actors that they were performing for the occupation. They held it against you.

I was on the New Belgrade side of the Sava bridge that night. I knew it would be along and terrible night in Belgrade because there were indications what was about to happen after a prime time news broadcast. I felt I had to be with the people where I thought things were going to be most difficult, not because I am a brave person but because a man can do something to help in such moments, preventing even worse things from happening. When we tried to cross the bridge between two and three o'clock in the morning, I witnessed scenes I saw only in movies about World War II terror. I saw people in uniforms acting like wild animals, beating the elderly, women and children. That is called occupation. If a man is beaten and terrorized in his own city, the one doing it is an occupation, there is no other word for that. That's what I told an Index radio reporter after a scene I witnessed in horror. About 20 policemen, armored in uniforms which cost as much as a school teacher earns in a year, came after a single woman, and help was nowhere in sight. I said anyone performing that bight would be performing for the occupator. It was a fact that night.