First Crack

Some were so convinced of this "historic" dimension that they predicted a long awaited dawn in Montenegro. And that as soon as those who also claim to be at the source of DPS, and are called in Kolasin "Milo Djukanovic’s dissenters", are summarily dealt with.

Even though many hurried to explain this call upon history partly as Montenigrin love of grandiloquence, and partly as the habit of the one-party age when every party meeting was hallowed and recorded in secondary school history books, it seems that this time it is not entirely a matter of empty words. The Kolasin (or Momir’s) Congress could really one day enter into history books, and under a very important heading — "The Congress of the First Crack".

After this meeting, the party which was until recently referred to as "Momir’s and Milo’s Party", is definitely splitting into Momir’s and Milo’s factions, an the crack that divides the two is so deep that it could truly be said that after Kolasin, Montenegro is finally entering an era of pluralism. A similar thing could be said about SR Yugoslavia in which pluralism is also finally taking root. In the guise of the Montenegrin Premier and his new (old) party, Milosevic is finally getting a real, serious opposition. Serious because Slobodan Milosevic is facing for the first time someone who has deep roots in the system, and to whom the new President of SRY and his agencies can still do no harm.

Up to "Momir’s Congress", Serbian and Montenegrin Socialists defied most laws of logic, and they defied everything that was seen in this part of the world since the fall of the Berlin Wall. SPS and DPS have been the only two ruling parties which not only stayed on their feet and in power at a time when the cement which Stalin poured throughout Eastern Europe cracked, but they have also been the only two parties from the same family which up to now have not had any serious problems, conflicts or divisions. Only a dissident here and there. Significant changes in the policies of these parties were many in that period, but few people were left behind through all those changes. At the Bosnian turning point, for instance, those who twisted their tongue in their inability to quickly substitute the slogan "peace has no alternative" for the slogan "all Serbs in one state" were left behind. Some of them were later forgiven for this, and after a period of "recycling" they again assumed important positions in the party hierarchy.

Thus, SPS and DPS became the only parties in this part of the world who in political and sociological theory were not split apart according to the reform and reactionary wings. Some analysts interpreted that through the fact that liberal ideas were fairly successfully buried in the early 70's, and through the fact that that label was the worst possible one which could be earned in the old regime. SPS and DPS, who have been winning consistently in the federal and republican elections, will also be remembered for one fact which had always confused researchers: people had literally left the long ques for bread and milk, and their icy apartments only to directly go to voting booths and to vote for them. In democratic societies there is a virtual axiom according to which power can only be kept if it is accompanied by positive economic indicators. The present exceptions to this axiom are interpreted above all by the success with which these two parties brandished national legitimacy, which was here the only thing that was in demand for years.

All that which confused and at the same time amused researchers all these years, to a large degree no longer holds true after Momir’s Historical Congress. Some other "axioms" are coming into force, according to which in systems like this one, changes can only occur if things crack from within. The irresponsible and vainglorious opposition has tried for full seven years to shake the Socialists in Belgrade and Podgorica, and, with only a few exceptions, it has not gotten any farther than making a nuisance of itself — a mere bother that can be tolerated.

In Montenegro, a crack has appeared from within. Milo has taken his own path which he claims is reformist for both Montenegro and SRY, and Momir will continue, pinned to Milosevic’s vest, to cling onto a little of the fast crumbling remnants of power. For the first time in the recent history of this country the coming apart of a ruling party has occurred. After the presidential elections in Montenegro at the beginning of October, one of these two will for the first time be out of power, and will join the opposition, bringing with him a significant part of the Montenegrin establishment. Momir Bulatovic, who claims that he is a pioneering member of DPS and a Socialist, will have to contend in the coming elections with perhaps a majority of his former (socialist) electorate who will be against him. Creating a new federal socialist party, which is being mentioned all the more frequently these days, will gather up a bit of the power which is presently crumbling, but will obviously not bring together that which has irretrievably split apart in Montenegro.

Thus, after many years of attempts at non-party pluralism, then one-party pluralism with considerable nuisances, then in the end at familial pluralism at the address 33 Tolstojeva Street, there will finally take root in Yugoslavia, via Kolasin, what could be called real pluralism.

In that city, for the first time in Yugoslavia, one ruling party has been split asunder. That is why all those Bulatovics and other delegates in "Momir’s Congress" are correct when they claim that in the North of Montenegro some kind of new history is in the making.