I'll Be Back!

Goran Rakocevic’s resignation as Montenegrin Culture Minister was the cause of this interview with VREME about the situation in Montenegrin culture and politics. Rakocevic left his post because of political reasons after a series of failed efforts such as completing the construction of the Montenegrin national theater, organizing the biennial in Venice and introducing a new spirit to the Ministry of Culture.

VREME: You’re the outgoing Culture Minister.

RAKOCEVIC: "I’m leaving to return soon and Momir Bulatovic, my political accuser, is temporarily staying before definitely leaving the political scene. My current departure is not capitulation but a protest over the undemocratic and Bolshevik attacks on people who think freely. I don’t want to stay part of the authorities which Bulatovic is trying to subject to himself in his dogmatic concept whose main inspiration comes from the autocracy of a couple who don’t need a single system institution to rule."

Despite completing the construction of the national theater, organizing the biennial in Venice and many other steps which set you apart from the ministers before you, your opponents insisted that you leave?

"Bulatovic was against me from the start because of his irrational animosity towards people he can’t fully control. I knew he was waiting to ambush me but I didn’t believe that he would be so unimaginative as to demand my execution over what I said against Milosevic in an interview."

Who lent you support?

"The cultural project for a dignified, modern and integrated Montenegro with its awakening creative energy is still getting mass support from creators and I recognize only their judgment. Young people are the mainstay of Montenegro’s new cultural identity and I have excellent communication with them to my joy."

Can you explain the motives of criticism over words spoken about Milosevic?

"That outdated punitive decree was motivated by the wish to oust the Montenegrin prime minister and force him to resign over the unconstitutional changes in his cabinet and efforts to discipline him because Djukanovic’s stands and mine on Milosevic and his concept of power are identical. Since the irrational provocation of this political crisis reason goes beyond one or more careers, we agreed that we shouldn’t be impulsive and that we should not allow the abandoning of reforms and the democratic course of conducting our policies in Montenegro. My resignation was handed to the prime minister so that he could be free of obligations towards me and could focus on the main strategic goal; a conceptual victory which leads to a more vital DPS and Montenegro’s improving economic and democratic prospects in Yugoslavia. We want a Yugoslavia which does not compensate for democracy with centralism, nor avoids inevitable reforms with new despotism, in which a quarantine is not a defense against an imagined fifth column or a quasi-patriotic response to an "international conspiracy" against the Serbs."

What do you think of Djukanovic?

"I could quote Bulatovic who said a few months ago that "his best friend, with his astounding energy and fantastic abilities", should be the prime minister again. In Montenegro, we don’t forgive people who fiercely attack their best friends."

You mean Bulatovic?

"I think the time has come, just as he once told the Montenegrin leadership that they had to go, for him to leave because it’s a fact that we’re parting company."

With Slobodan Milosevic?

"I said what I think of him several times, not as a man obsessed with him but as a concerned citizen and official who sees that whatever we do well is sad and discouragingly insufficient as long as Milosevic is master of our fates and he, in a political alliance with his wife, is obstructing democratic and economic reforms only to succumb to "harsh, imperialist pressure" to introduce norms of civilization for a better standard of living and abandon this poverty ridden isolation. Milosevic is no one’s nightmare, he’s simply a man who failed to do what any country’s leader is expected to do; take the country into developed Europe and the world and achieve better living standards and a more civilized and democratic political environment. Despite all that I think he is one of the best technicians of power in Europe and unfortunately the Serbian political scene is handicapped by its lack of unity in providing a good alternative to the outdated political leader."