Serbs Without a State

I am nearly certain that yesterday, for just a brief moment, I saw on TV the new President of Serbia, Milutinovic.  Even though the footage was taken from afar, there was a definite likeness, besides which, the report explicitly stated that he was the man being filmed, and that he was meeting with some delegation from Brazil.  Therefore, it could be said that he actually exists and that he has still not been swallowed up by the black hole of the presidential chair.  His predecessor introduced a custom according to which people in the highest positions disappear from public life, so that in the future we must remain mindful of the fact that our candidate, if he wins in the elections, stands a good chance of disappearing into never-never land.  We are not your everyday voters, but a kind of enormous jury made up of millions of individuals who decide upon who to commit to permanent house arrest.

Two months ago Milutinovic entered Milosevic’s former office, and three weeks ago he held talks with the leaders of other parties, after which time all traces of him were lost.  Just like Milosevic, he can only be drawn into the public eye by some foreigners who perhaps are coming here, from time to time, expressly for that purpose.  Thus these supposed Brazilians could be an international team of experts specially trained for locating president-illegals, and for bringing them before cameras with the objective of undermining a regime founded on invisibility.

However, the problem is a growing one, and it’s as if the entire state is disappearing into illegality.  There has been no federal parliament for some time now, while the federal constitution and judiciary only exist because of Montenegro and Milo Djukanovic.  There’s also been no Serbian parliament for five months already, as there were no elections in September. No one is bringing any laws, and there's no one to replace the old government,  no one knows how to constitute a new one, and it’s all taken as a completely regular and normal state of affairs.  Moreover, the old government, which no longer has any legitimacy, is bringing a revolutionary Decree relating to citizens’ property.

If we exclude stupidity as an explanation, such behavior is very mysterious.  Namely, the Decree, without too much beating around the bush, is demanding that citizens give part of their property to the state, otherwise none of their financial dealings and transactions will be legalized.  This sort of thing can only be demanded either by a government which has just been unanimously elected and enjoys complete voter confidence, or by a powerful government which rules through fear.  Serbia has neither the one, nor the other.  It has a government whose time has expired, which does not reflect the voters’ will, while it demands money from citizens who have previously been defrauded of their money on more than one occasion.

This insolence without backing can only lead to a greater crumbling of legality.  No guarantees by this state any longer mean anything.  The fundamental purpose of legality has been lost.  For years now people have been getting by and living without banks whose operations have been transferred into the street and into dim byways.  Why, then, does this government expect that citizens will accept this Decree to “financially discipline” themselves, and to sell their foreign currency to the government at the official exchange rate, which they originally bought from street dealers at the black market exchange rate, only to get a government stamp of legality on some piece of paper?

Since citizens lack both fear and confidence, at least to the degree that they are unwilling to buy at a high price and sell at a low one, it will be necessary to develop a parallel system of ensuring transactions, i.e. a kind of alternate legality.  Albanians in Kosovo have been doing that for years now, and by now it should be clear that the regime in Serbia makes no ethnic distinctions, that it equally treats all citizens as enemies, and that Serbs are left with nothing else but to turn their backs on the state.

This Decree represented an attempt at imposing impossible regulations, which is typical for a regime which has lost touch with reality.  But why would the regime have that sense for reality at all when, even after a lost election, it is not obligated to change the government?  The opposition, in this case Seselj and Draskovic, appear to exist only so that citizens will realize that authority is unchangeable, regardless of which party gets votes.  Why then would the government not believe that everything here is possible and permissible?

Here the borders between the real and the unreal have been truly erased with time, just like many other borders which exist in the world of logic.  All sorts of frauds and illusions are in circulation, along with the oddest turnarounds, so that few people any longer dare say what is and what isn’t possible, especially where politics, the regime, the opposition and party dealings are concerned.  Many meanings have been shifted, while the majority of principles and values have been lost.

Why would anyone in such a chaotic situation worry about some Decree?  Because it concerns the only thing which is real and stable in this country, and that is the German mark.  Everything else is subject to discussion and disagreement, to differences in assessment and taste, but there’s no way in which the government can force dinars instead of marks upon anyone.  When it tries to do that, the government is first of all admitting that it has no money, which we already knew.  Second of all, it is admitting that it wanted to defraud us, which does not surprise us.  What is more important is that in this case citizens observe how the state is being compromised, as if those in power are all avowed anarchists, determined to bring it down.

There must be some paradoxical truth in all this, given that it is precisely the state which has been one of the greatest Serbian obsessions.  Here the nationalist elite had been so proud of Serbian statesmanship, when low and behold all those inferior peoples from the former common country made their own states, while Serbia is still in chaos.  Even Montenegro is better acquainted with state formalities and institutions.  There they naturally elected a new government quickly, while the only attack on legality is coming from the faction which is supported by Milosevic.  Of course, the new Montenegrin government has no inclination for passing any decrees, because there they have an actual parliament which can make actual laws.

But let us look at all this from the bright side.  The fact that the two presidents are nowhere to be seen, that the two parliaments are not operational, that there is no new government, while the old one is passing impossible Decrees, all that is at least slightly lessening, or putting into the background both the conflict with Montenegro and the problem with Kosovo.  The questions and conflicts around what belongs to Serbia, what is the status of the region and whose state is this, are becoming less important because one must first see where exactly there is a state here.

Let us see who will be able to build a state now, now that no one is responsible for it?  Of what use is it to call on Milosevic when he is nowhere to be found, and he can always claim to be in Yugoslavia and to not know anything about Serbia.  Milutinovic, who has also disappeared, would divide his responsibilities with Milosevic and Premier Marjanovic.  The latter is still in evidence, but is unable to say much, beside which he is for all practical purposes a former premier.

It seems strange, but still somehow logical, that a state which does not exist wishes to meddle and interfere with the private dealings of its citizens, much more so than those states for which it is well known where they are and who is at their helm.  It could be that this is the reason why the state here is hiding so much, disappearing and masking, because it has criminal dealings and is fighting against its own laws.  But this is still considerate of our state when it is such as it is, that it has the decency to be ashamed and to try to expose itself as little as possible.

I do not believe anyone who says that they can see an end, and I can swear that there will be no agreement on a new government because no one is negotiating with anyone on this issue, but rather strictly on the question of money.  The left and the right would change so quickly their hard and fast principles if only their accounts and price tags were to become synchronized.  But this state will never have enough to satiate their hunger.