Colossal Ruins

May those people who feel no guilt on account of this be spared. They could stomach more easily the thought of something bad they themselves did; whereas, as it stands, they must suffer for another’s evil deeds and must put up with the degradation for doing so. It is small consolation that we will offer each other condolences. The only way anyone can go through this feeling at ease and generally happy, assuming they are not Ljubisa Ristic or Milorad Vucelic, is if they are a complete fool.

Milosevic had already destroyed greater Yugoslavia when he tried to take control over it, and in the same way, had brought into question the existence of the present, minimal Yugoslavia, which is founded on the Montenegrin hope that this menace of a man can be contained within Serbia. This means that Podgorica is realistically calculating that the present federation can survive in spite of the fact that Slobodan Milosevic is at its helm, and only if he accepts to stand on the sidelines and not to help, to rescue, to support or to stabilize anything or anyone. Djukanovic, Marovic and others had evidently considered the chances and possibilities of minimizing the damage at least for their Republic, and also for Serbia. The opportunity for the punishment to come to an end and for Milosevic to be relegated to history fell through thanks to the disintegration of the Serbian opposition which itself came to an end and helped Milosevic get back on his feet. Thus, with the least possible damage, Milosevic will be accepted in the honorary position of a President without power.

That, of course, is no small damage in itself. In countries where the institution of President is strictly honorary, such as Italy, Germany, and since recently, Czechoslovakia, efforts are made for the chosen individual to be widely accepted, to not be partisan, to be engaged more with humanitarian questions than actual political ones; to command unquestionable moral authority and to represent the country as well as possible in front of the rest of the world. According to such criteria, no worse choice could be imagined than the one that was just made in the Parliament of SR Yugoslavia. It is as if we chose a squint-eyed old hag to represent us in the Miss Universe Pageant. What is worse, this old hag is so convinced that she is beautiful that if she is not given the highest accolades, she is willing to quarrel, to fight and to hate everyone. The country which she is supposed to represent is not just any country, but a country punished, isolated, and nearly wiped off the map of Europe. This means that the president of such a country is in a position requiring extreme diplomacy and understanding, and a total absence of quarrels and insults. Besides that, were he to behave in the best possible fashion from now on, something which he was never capable of, Milosevic is surrounded by the sinister shadow of war. No one will believe him, no one will want to befriend him, and his highest achievement would consist in not creating obstructions and allowing the country to at least reach ground zero.

That means that in the best case scenario and with a lot of good will, Serbia and Montenegro could be accepted into the United Nations and OECD, which is not much more than mere recognition of the physical existence of this state. Obtaining credits and aid would be considerably more difficult, and if any of that were achieved, it would certainly not be owing to the efforts of the new President. On the contrary, acceptance into international organizations will depend above all on the view of whether it is easier to control and influence this wild, deranged regime when it is cast out, or when it is accepted into society — in other words, whether it is capable of responding to encouragements in the way it responds to threats and punishments.

However, there is no reason that we should hope for such developments. The fact that Milosevic was elected in a hurry, without any warning and with possible procedural irregularities, proves that Montenegrin support was hanging by a thread. Momir Bulatovic had managed to produce enough chaos to the point of threatening the dissolution of the leading coalition, and even of the republic itself, so that the victorious Djukanovic faction could not stabilize itself quickly enough to oppose the election of Milosevic. But the situation could have been a lot better in one week’s time, or a lot worse for Milosevic’s future. Thus, he barely snuck through, which does not mean that he is not going to behave as if the entire nation gave him a mandate for life.

However, a price was paid. Montenegro has for all practical purposes passed the critical point which Milosevic will not be able to avoid, nor will he be able to attack Djukanovic who is holding all the reigns of power. I believe that the federal government will prove even weaker with the election of Milosevic than it was under Lilic, unfortunately with only Montenegro there to enjoy that weakness. In other words, the new President has the best intention of not letting Serbia go, and that will only lead to a deepening of divisions and mutual distancing, because nothing is the same there where he is in power, as it is there where he is not. He is capable of denying single handedly all good reasons for the two republics to remain together.

In the past ten years this man has traveled a singularly long and dangerous road, adhering to the principle that everything can go to ruin, but that he must stay in power at all costs. And everything he touched did go to ruin — everything he stood for, represented and led. He was rescuing Kosovo, Communism and Socialism, Yugoslavia, Serbs outside Serbia, he was concerned about Russia, he waged war with the New World Order, with foreign and domestic forces of darkness and evil, all the while saying that all he really wants is economic reform, peace and prosperity. He made unparalleled shifts, used and replaced allies, destroyed institutions and broke rules and procedures.

But what appeared as revolution was merely brutal destruction. Nothing was raised on those colossal ruins, nor did Milosevic show any desire for building anything. His only victory was the one he achieved over Serbia, which he managed to transform into a chaotic blend of poverty, deceit, denseness and defalcation. He ultimately obtained a state that fit his ambitions and his definition of power. His only true sympathizers and adherents are those who are most at ease on the other side of the law. They easily recognized in him a man of their ilk, a man who does not accept or respect any norms, and only holds to the pledges of allegiance made to the devoted and the deceived.

The model of the political system was quickly adopted in the economy and in daily life, and Serbia became a nation of smugglers and criminals, of corruption and black marketeering. From the perspective of those in power, it is a great advantage that such a situation cannot be systematically remedied. Chaos increases many times the power of those who are in power, because no one’s rights are guaranteed or protected by anything other then the mere whim of authority. That is why the secret to Milosevic’s strength really does lie in the official line that he is a stability factor. In other words, people see the entire nation as a kind of puppet theater in which he is holding all the strings, and everyone fears that should he let go, a collapse of the sort seen in Albania will occur.

Seselj’s popularity and political proximity to Milosevic has much the same roots. He is the only one who understands and calmly accepts the existing, anti-civilized reality, and claims that he would not change a thing. He would calmly take over all those puppet strings from Milosevic. However, the opposition parties do not have a convincing answer to the real, profound fear of the people from total collapse and unbridled chaos, while opposition leaders do not even give impressions of emotional stability.

Under such circumstances Serbia is awaiting the coming elections with a fatal sense of an inevitable defeat of everything which could even begin to approach some kind of rational state reform. In the general confusion it is no longer a simple matter to recognize with confidence, the forces of political reform and the parties that stand behind them. However, what the Socialists are fabricating with the Radicals with regard to the changes of election laws and the worsening of conditions could become a good reason for a new, unified, clamorous popular campaign to boycott the elections. It must be made clear that Milosevic and Seselj alone cannot even hold elections, let alone share power between themselves after the fact.