Saving One's Own Skin

Experience tells us that when a closed session of a certain archi-socialist party lasts for more than ten hours, the outcome is obligatorily morbid. The longer they sit and argue, the deeper they fall. The newer and more modern layers fall off them, better intentions and ideas are peeled off, and the socialists become more and more what they had been and revert to where they had started from. It's the same phenomenon which we notice here if we are traveling by train for longer periods of time: at the beginning many passengers seem restrained and civilized in a European manner, only to end up sleeping on the floor towards the end, throwing around heaps of trash or singing Russian romances.

Therefore, when it became clear that the Montenegrin socialists had, with no recess, passed from Monday to Tuesday, it must have been evident that nothing good was in store for Prime Minister Djukanovic. Not even having a chance to sleep it off, they must have even blamed him for those ships towards the end, screaming that they didn't need them anyway, that no honest Montenegrin would have asked for them nor redeemed them and that America is more than welcome to them. What business did they have sailing there anyway and how did they allow the enemies to capture them?

That is the stale, sly, stultified, dependent and inert spirit which I remember from my childhood days and which is now - just like Njegos's "locked skies" - closing over Montenegro once again just as it had just started showing some signs of life and will to survive. What the opposition in Serbia intends and promises has already been launched by Prime Minister Djukanovic in Montenegro in an insolent, self-willed and risky way. Prior to that he had survived a public conflict with JUL and Mira Markovic, having simply refused to allow them to expand their tentacles there, in the same manner in which he had pulled out Seselj's radical weeds.

It seemed as though that was sufficient for the small mountainous-coastal republic to free itself of the greatest extremes which are poisoning and burdening political life and public speech in Serbia to such an extent. The Montenegrins, otherwise set in their ways and quarrelsome as well, have in the last few years seemed calmer and healthier than ever. The policemen got American uniforms which I am inclined to announce as the greatest symbolic shift in the entire Montenegrin history. Russia, over which futile, idiotic discussions were held there once, has been somehow forgotten and all turned their eyes toward Italy, Europe and America.

Prime Minister Djukanovic cannot credit himself personally for this entire unusual transformation, which isn't so much political as it is psychological, yet he has definitely personified this new vitality, readiness and somewhat wild business efficiency. He doesn't have much in common with the gusla (national instrument) and epic stereotypes of Montenegrins, and does not use historical and mythological arguments. For a small country hopelessly weighed down by the burden of their own history it was of the utmost importance when the prime minister - who obviously holds a deep regard for Montenegrin identity - spoke solely of money, business and trade in a sober and cool way and wished for more than he had.

Therefore, it is no wonder that a person such as Djukanovic had to clash with Milosevic's Serbia. He was neither the first nor the last to do so. All those who do not know how to peacefully sit in the dirt and look in front of them are running from such a Serbia. However, it is unusual that even such a lost, ridiculed, half-dead Milosevic has once again managed to turn the rusty mechanism of party-police pressure and discipline and to overthrow Djukanovic before he himself was overthrown by the pressure of the same yet modernized powers which the Montenegrin prime minister represents.

Maybe Djukanovic overestimated his strength, maybe he became impatient and missed the opportunity to prepare the ground and secure his back prior to aiming a direct blow at Milosevic. However, it seems to me as though Milosevic has let himself in for even greater risks when he had launched his vindictive operation. Exactly at the moment when Serbia had massively and decisively disputed him, when the world had discarded him yet again, he asks Bulatovic to stop and break the prime minister who is jotting down certain successful moves, who is supported by Serbia and is doing exactly what the prime minister of Serbia should be doing as well if only he could and knew how to.

The half-way defeated regime in one republic wishes to topple a far more worthy regime in another. I don't know what sort of threats, blackmail and promises he had pulled, however it all bears the mark of a typical Milosevic bluff. He pulled off many similar ones easily to begin with until he had amassed too many enemies, until all had seen through him and stopped buying them. That was how he had initiated the craziest wars and signed the most difficult defeats in Serbian history and last on the list was the electoral theft bluff which finally couldn't be taken even in Serbia itself.

The Montenegrins might not take up whistles but they have to find a way because if they now allow Milosevic to overthrow and appoint whomever he wishes by a mere telephone call, to whom and how can they prove that their country and its people still exist? Milosevic knows that he is bound to encounter certain resistance and that sooner or later matters shall become complicated in Podgorica, however he no longer has any choice. His own safety is at stake here, i.e. his last exit which consists of his taking over the role of president of the FR of Yugoslavia. Deprived of the Montenegrin votes in the Parliament he would not be able to pull it off and if Djukanovic was to decide, Milosevic would retire.

When he had stated that Milosevic was obsolete and that there was no future with him, not many people's eyes were opened by the Montenegrin prime minister. The above-mentioned started off as being obsolete some ten years ago and the future started dwindling away. However, that obsolete gentleman has lived to see the backs of many more promising and less obsolete opponents and has been astounding everyone with his capability of transformations and extrications. Now that he has finally and eternally been defeated in Belgrade and the larger cities throughout Serbia, he is designing new plots and is causing senseless conflicts in far away regions, the Serbian Republic and Montenegro.

He knows that even Momir Bulatovic is no true sheet anchor, just like Momcilo Krajisnik isn't, however they have their own disputes with Djukanovic, i.e. Biljana Plavsic, which leaves room for planting a handy intrigue and initiating something which could, from a greater distance, resemble politics and stately activities. Montenegro is desperately important to him now which is why he is calmly opening up a rift there which could cause serious destruction, however we need to observe those unmistakable corrosive effects which are the only consistencies of his actions.

An expansion of power could possibly have been his initial motive, however it seems to me as though passion for uncovering and multiplying other people's weaknesses is consuming him now, no matter what the cost. The opposition in Serbia knows him too well however he shall definitely not give up his wonderful plan to turn the ones against the others. For now he is merely pacifying them by calling for a dialogue on the media as though an agreement needs to be made with someone to stop his television from lying.

To him, a dialogue merely stands as proof that the opposition is relinquishing a battle outside the institutions which has proven to be the only efficient thing so far, and which shall be presented to the world as normalization. In Montenegro as well, if it still exists, that shall be the only protection from the institutions designed and operated to remove every ounce of will for life and to defeat all that could resemble hope.