The Electronic Church

The process of democratic metamorphosis in Serbia is reaching an end. It lasted about a year and a half and now it is clear that Serbia has not succumbed. Democracy just hasn't taken. It is obvious that free elections are risky, the opposition simply won't agree with the government, and parties want to come to power by peaceful means, which in Serbia has never been the case and this kind of handover is not considered natural to Serbs. In the period between the first elections and those coming up, Serbia has waged war three times, mainly thanks to the Yugoslav Peoples' Army (JNA). Success has been absent from everywhere except internal affairs, where Milosevic has paralyzed the opposition and made clear at the same time that he is prepared to do anything to retain power. He has consciously obstructed every retreat, making it clear that no-one will catch him alive, let alone vote him out. The opposition had a theoretical chance in the first elections, though it is pretty obvious that the Army would not have allowed it to realize victory. From then on, Milosevic has tried to shape the opposition according to his own taste, and it has been once and for all defeated and no longer even has a theoretical chance. The elections were announced before the law on elections was passed, there is still no law on political parties, the run-up time is far too short, and the director of television is Milorad Vucelic.

Three weeks before the elections there is no trace of excitement, and it looks like they will pass unnoticed. The opposition has announced its boycott, and the television expects an easy and pleasant job in organizing friendly chats between the like-minded Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and Serbian Radical Party (SRS). It is very unlikely that the only election theme be anything but "Serbianhood", where the Socialists will show themselves to be moderate, tolerant, open-minded and promising peace. But those who plan to vote will have to take care that they don't mix up Mr. Milosevic's and Mr. Seselj's candidates.

Mr. Vucelic was recently made director of television, inheriting the TV empire, more powerful than ever despite internal upheaval, because if Serbia hasn't grown in territory, it has in spirit. Wherever war has been waged, television repeaters have been taken over, so that Vucelic's church is able to carry out its proselytizing mission and broadcast its sermons, mostly undisturbed by others, way outside the borders of Serbia. In addition to this, with the help of a satellite, "the truth about the Serbs" is transmitted to all those on other continents who want to hear and see this truth.

Before he became arch-priest to this church, Mr. Vucelic traveled the road usual for many of the newcomers who burn with the desire to climb to the roof of Belgrade. He diligently filled newspaper pages with a form of brave text, without particular talent and with an affected charge of critical rage, taking care to stay in trend. He was one of those who didn't immediately recognize the new leader, but he quickly put this right and stepped into line. Crucial to his recent career has been that he knew how to unashamedly prostrate himself before the chief Serbian referent, Dobrica Cosic. At the right moment Cosic nodded his head in Vucelic's direction and the matter was settled. Mr. Vucelic had already proved himself on TV Novi Sad, where he regularly collected together experts on the heavenly Serbian mission, assuming as truth the unproved supposition that what is done on earth is not seen in heaven.

The new director has taken over a smooth operation and it looks as if he has overcome the problem of the announced general strike. The rebellion in the TV can only succeed if Milosevic's candle burns out, and then it will be superfluous, because Mr. Vucelic himself could lead it.

Mr. Vucelic didn't have to work hard to justify the war in Bosnia. It was clear enough that Serbs must wage war with everyone in turn, just as it is natural that Europe, America and the whole world be against Serbia. If any of the fifty or so country members of the CSCE opposes its exclusion and abstains from the strictest sanctions against Belgrade, this will be taken as success and proof that the truth about Serbia is slowly reaching the rest of the world.

Even before these wars Serbia had begun to get used to the enormous dose of public lying, so that ordinary consciousness has become addicted to it. Vucelic can now safely call the opposition to talk about whatever it wants on TV, because he knows that in the course of the election campaigns, anyone prepared to explain the truth would do so to his own detriment. The actual state of affairs sounds like the blackest kind of anti-Serb propaganda. Apart from this, he who would talk of this would terrify people and they would turn against him. Milosevic's popularity today is certainly far less than at the time of the first elections, but fear has entered the people and this works for the government. Those who are afraid don't vote for change.

The regime we have now makes accomplices of the people and forces them to share its destiny. Internal mechanisms of self-defense, if there are any left after decades of communism, break down. The trade unions are compromised and weak, the judicial system under control, intellectual critics marginalized or corrupt, and the director of television is Milorad Vucelic. All that's left is to break a few of the opposition parties and put Vojislav Seselj in their place.

In this kind of regime, the economy, trade, life itself, will never have their turn. For any sort of consolidation in Serbia or the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, help is needed from the world it has turn its back on and which threatens it with all kinds of sanctions. Since the television will prove just how unjust this is, all that remains is a patient endurance of life in a country left all alone. One has to imagine all that would be missing if it had always been this way. Or have a look at Albania.

I don't believe, however, that this regime will seriously try to organize some kind of civilian life even in these conditions. It certainly won't have the will to devote itself to "renewal and reconstruction", in the way the second Yugoslavia did. But, now there's TV.

Inveterate pessimists long ago predicted that when they have finished fighting with everyone else, Serbs will turn on themselves, so long as there's any powder and lead left over. The logic of Milosevic's revolution would lead in this direction and maybe in such a way that in that last war it would be difficult to choose the better side, or even establish what is being fought for or who represents what. At the end of the war, the victor would be greeted by the doorman of the building of TV Belgrade.