The 21 Century is Tomorrow

The story is partially American, yet the reality is Serbian. In every way. It is American in that part of the story that speaks of how the Karic brothers had in 1978 installed an improvised workshop in the garage of their house in Pec, and today they are known as the richest family not only in the Serbian framework. That is a legend. A local version of the American dream. The Russian angle goes as follows: when recently, following a meeting of Bogoljub Karic and Victor Chernomyrdin, the CNN corespondent asked Karic what is the special connection between the Serbs and the Russians, he answered: "It is the same nation which is living in two states". If that question had by chance been posed by a certain Russian during one of Mr. Karic's frequent visits to Washington, I almost believe that the answer would be that the same applies to Serbs and Americans. That is part of Karic's "national diplomacy" which this interview shall also deal with.

The Serbian part of the story is the real world, especially the chapter which speaks of local tendencies to judge people and their activities by absolute extremes: therefore, some are prepared to see Bogoljub Karic, the most exposed brother, as a nouveau riche who had acquired his fortune owing to his connections with the Milosevic family, while the other side of the story states that he stands as the person who had turned his back on Milosevic, who had broken off all his connections with the ruling pinnacle of the Serbian government, and they also see him as the person who shall stand as candidate during the upcoming elections for the president of Serbia.

Bogoljub Karic is deeply aware of those two extreme images of himself and has a thoroughly understandable need to separate the private from the public sphere, to avoid personality criticism while openly judging politics, just as he has an excellent instinct for the health of his business dealings as well as for national benefit, when he, in an almost tearful tone, answers the question which the political grapevine deems to be the most important: "The 21st century is tomorrow".

VREME: Rumors and news are spreading from certain parties, not to mention the media, but from diplomatic sources as well, that you are preparing to be a candidate at the upcoming elections for president of Serbia...

B. KARIC: The next president must introduce Serbia into the realm of well-known and respected European countries, to introduce it into the modern era of respecting the integrity of each citizen. Simply, the government must be responsible and replaceable, the citizens protected and responsible towards their obligations, the weak should be protected, the ill treated, the poor helped, young people intelligently channeled, and the powerful should be controlled. So that no one would be larger and more important than Serbia. Who is that man who could, as president, attain it - I don't know. Yet I shall support anyone who can guarantee all that I had listed. I only know that the 21st century starts tomorrow

Yet, what if that person can't be found, will you be a candidate after all?

I still haven't said yes, yet I haven't said - no either!

Your statement to the Washington Post in which you spoke, put it nicely, that the ungainly Serbian government has become famous. Many say that this has caused a chill, even severance of neighborly relations with the Milosevic family...

I did not speak of neighborly relations to the Washington Post, I only audibly repeated what I had said on a number of occasions in conversations with my neighbors. We are talking about a different evaluation of the situation in Serbia, the quality of the government and the technology of rule. I believe things don't stand too well there.

The book He, She and Us has become a bestseller. In that book you are mentioned as a person who is very intimate with the Milosevic - Markovic family and as an actor of many current political events.

I did not read the book but only segments which were published in the newspapers, however if the author, Slava Djukic, had asked me it would have turned out differently. It has obviously been written according to a certain type of political taste and if the author had consulted me at least about the events where we, the Karics, are mentioned it wouldn't have turned out like that. Otherwise my relations with Mira's family from both my side and from the side of my family have not been brought to question in any way. Their son Marko is a student at the Braca Karic University, he is a brave and intelligent young man and as far as I can see has business sense. Both he and Marija, who is managing the popular radio station, are talked about in public to a great degree being the children of famous parents - while they are trying to lead their lives independently.

What, according to your opinion, has caused the three-months-long citizens and students protest?

When a certain government misses a few chances to plunge into radical economic and political reforms in Serbia - and all have been awaiting changes for years - when life is becoming more and more difficult, when the younger generation is devoid of perspectives, when the entire Serbian political scene is severely and ideologically divided into left and right, when certain people who are constantly present on TV, causing citizens to undergo stress upon their appearance, are compromised yet everlasting, when foreign allied states are proclaimed to be aggressors and our young people enemies - no one of intelligence can expect anything other than massive protests on the streets of the Serbian cities. Luckily, all had been concluded in this round with no larger incidents.

Would you call the recognition of the November 17 election results a victory of the coalition Zajedno?

The question of victory has, unfortunately, been resolved with the help of international judges. However, if the coalition Zajedno continues their internal wrangling over seats then I must say, even though I respect the courage of the coalition leaders and all that they had accomplished so far, that things shall not be any better for the people than during the times of those whom I had already spoken of. They need to conquer themselves first of all and then lend their contribution towards developing a different Serbia. I also warn of the fact which both sides readily forget: just as the attempt to rule over Serbia with just one party - the left one - had come upon a blind alley, it is just as impossible to develop a different Serbia without the participation of the socialists.

How do you comment Milo Djukanovic's statement from his interview published in VREME which, when stripped of all fringes, can be reduced to a statement that Slobodan Milosevic is an obsolete politician and that neither Serbia nor Yugoslavia stand a chance with him?

I believe Milo Djukanovic has prematurely underestimated Slobodan Milosevic's role. Regardless of all, Milosevic is still an insurmountable factor on the Yugoslav political scene. However, Milo Djukanovic has the right to think with his own head.

It might seem absurd to ask what you of all people think about privatization, however I believe there is no harm in hearing of it directly from "the source". Therefore, how do you as a successful businessman look upon the Serbian conflict on the scope, manner and effects of privatization?

In the course of my communications with the world the first thing I learned was that the easiest communication and business dealings are accomplished in an owner to owner relationship. The government should make use of the transformation of ownership for shifting the obligations and responsibilities of managing companies from itself, but also for collecting fresh and activating insufficiently employed capital. That would contribute towards strengthening the enterpreneurship class, while it would bring the employees - and tomorrow's shareholders - dividends beside their salaries, which would increase their job incentive and responsibility for rationally employing capacities, cutting down business costs and providing a better quality of management. I must stress that the general legal frame is only an initial supposition for the commencement of the process of privatization and attracting investors, and we are late for that as well.

Can the overall poverty of this country and, judging by all facts, ruined economy enable any kind of successful economic and political reforms?

Serbia's main problem is lack of vision, strategy, courage, sense of timing and acceptance of the fact that we must tackle radical reforms. We are acting as though we have two lives at our disposal and can aimlessly waste one. What should we be afraid of? Serbia has the brains, food and water, schools and what is of equal importance, people who know how to look towards those who are far advanced. We need to look at them and copy them without any hesitation.

It might sound illogical to you, yet I have to say that in a way it is easier to carry out reforms from this level when only 20 percent of the Serbian economy is operating and when the money supply in circulation is small. Naturally, I don't like the fact that we are at the bottom, but I accept that fact and look it straight in the eye. The Serbian economy has endured an enormous crisis with the sanctions and now needs to undergo a complete transformation in order to comply with the demands of the global race. Which is why I fail to see a single reason for hesitation and postponement of an intelligent and capital change of the economy, ownership relations, manner of management and rule.

Your meetings and talks with the ambassador of Russia, followed by the American and Albanian charge d'affaires, Seselj, Covic, Vuk Draskovic, Vesna Pesic etc. have been highly prominent and very differently interpreted in the local public.

To tell you the truth, I am the kind of person who will not hesitate to hear what others think of us, our country and our policies. I also believe it is useful for them to hear the opinion of a man who does not believe that the world is our enemy and that all are working against us.

I call such contacts "national diplomacy" and have been maintaining them for years - in the country and abroad. Sometimes those talks are friendly, sometimes they represent fierce arguments, sometimes they nurture the soul, as was the case a few days ago when I had lunch at the Patriarchate of Pec with his Holiness Patriarch Pavle and the Prizren-Raski bishop Artemije. I also got the chance there to talk to the Albanians from my home town, Pec, and am satisfied with the way in which a part of their eminent members are expressing a readiness to talk. I go wherever I am invited: from Moscow to Washington. And where I haven't been invited I hope I will be. Admittedly, for the benefit of Serbia I would also go where I haven't been invited since we need to make friends with each step and that is the entire wisdom of politics.

I also believe that it is normal for me to exchange my opinions in Belgrade and meet with all the leaders of the political parties and people of fame and power. No one is dispensable for a different Serbia.

A lot of significance is given to those meetings, while on the other hand the fact that you had recently given Pristina's weekly Koha an interview passed almost unnoticed, at least in Serbian media. You had then supported the Milosevic - Rugova agreement on education. How do you see the development of the political situation in Kosovo?

I can only compliment that initiative once again, the dialogue which has commenced and the education agreement which was signed, just as I can lament that it is still not being implemented. I believe that a dialogue should always have precedence over isolation and silence. Isolation in the conditions when the world is deleting its borders is a sure road to catastrophe. There are no debatable and conflicting issues which cannot be solved in a peaceful manner and by dialogue. That especially goes for multi-national environments in which the members of one or the other nation have been living together for centuries.

You left Kosovo only some ten years ago. Will you be able to visit your native house in Pec in ten years time?

Neither Kosmet, nor my native house, nor the Patriarchate of Pec are going anywhere. Just as I hope and believe that neither the Serbs nor the Albanians shall leave Kosovo and Metohija. That is why all have to curb their extremists, because in the contrary both we and the Albanians shall be terrorism and repression hostages. If reason does not exist, that shall not be good for either side. In future I plan to, whenever I have the time, visit our family house in Pec - my parents are there, my friends and neighbors both Serbs and Albanians are there.

Two more questions before we finish, and both are tickling inquisitiveness... Is it true, as the grapevine has it, that Aleksandar Tijanic is launching a daily with your money...

No, that isn't true. However, I believe that the daily shall be of high quality. Tijanic knows his trade and if he knew how to make a good television station, he shall make a good daily as well. If he offers me a part of the shares of Gradjanin, I'll buy them.

The second question pertains to the very television station. And to the Braca Karic University as well. Many have seen the first signs of the separation of your policies from the official ones in the freedom of these institutions, to, when word is of the University, join the protest, and if we are talking about the television station, to openly and freely report on everything...

In Serbia all those who dare and wish to be free are free. When word is of the television station, we must be prepared to defend that freedom: the viewers, the journalists and I as the owner.

There have been talks of abolishing your television station, canceling the contract on mobile telephone company and that attempts shall be made to jeopardize the activities of the BK Company in Serbia...

Nothing is excluded. Unofficial announcements that I am to be a presidential candidate have provoked actions and threats against me and my company along the well-known and already seen technology. However, if someone believes that he shall influence my decision on whether I will or will not stand as a candidate in such a manner, he is greatly mistaken. We founded the mobile telephony and television station with the participation of foreign capital and they stand in line along with the larger companies of their types in Serbia and any disturbance of their operations would cause international reactions. Who will invest a single dollar in Serbia if, contrary to all domestic and foreign regulations, the existence of the already operating mixed companies is brought to question. I believe that after these protests Serbia is no longer the same, the judiciary included. There are less and less people who shall demean themselves and their families and infringe the laws by following government orders.

Your name is mentioned as one of the authors of the revitalized social-democratic idea and party of such a profile...

I believe there is room in the center for a political group which would gather people who are disturbed by the radicalism of the left and right ideas, followed by people who are disappointed in the so far practice of the existing political parties, that is all the people who opt for a different Serbia - acknowledged and respected in the world, democratic and tolerant, attractive to all its citizens. The idea of such a party is close to me, and I shall support its realization together will my friends.