Harvard in Serbia

Standing before an interim parliament of a provisional state, Dobrica Cosic presented to the world his choice - Milan Panic - saying (if I heard him correctly) that we are not at all guilty, but that we will improve. Serbia was accused and punished though innocent, the Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia were only defending themselves, and nobody was interfering from Belgrade, but in future everything will be different. Serbia always was for peace, but it will be for peace only from now on. The opposition was warned, but new elections at all levels have been promised, even though everything was fine with the previous ones. Cosic even intimated a kind of round table between the authorities and the opposition.

Panic presented, in a self-confident and joyful manner, his new orientation which is close to a large part of the opposition which is not represented in that parliament, and closest to small liberal groups and parties. The truest member of the program and cabinet which was formed in various ways - because the prime minister who just arrived after some thirty years had to rely on all kinds of advice - is Minister of Justice Tibor Varadi.

In this government of experts, Varadi (Harvard PhD) is one of the rare experts of international renown; a person who speaks foreign languages, albeit softly but with authority. Rational, exact, systematic, with a sense of reality and ready to look for solutions and ways out, this expert in international private law is precisely the kind of person which nobody here has been in need of for quite a while back. His kind has mostly disappeared, gone, closeted themselves in their rooms, or given up and become confirmed soakers. It must have been his Central European self-discipline that sustained Professor Varadi.

I do not know whose idea it was to propose him to Panic, but I would not be surprised if it were because he is a Hungarian, and a bad Hungarian to boot, in the sense that everybody reasonable here has turned into a bad member of his respective national horde. Varadi is not a man with political ambitions. He entered politics at the first multi-party elections and the Serbian Parliament as a candidate of the Union for the Yugoslav Democratic Initiative (UYDI) party. He tried several times to explain in a temperate manner something to the deaf Socialist majority and there his political adventure would probably have ended were it not for the American.

Since Varadi is not somebody who would join just any government with nothing to lose, the question why Varadi accepted is infinitely more interesting than why he was proposed. Such a decision is always difficult for intellectuals who like to keep their hands clean and answer only to themselves, especially in such a slovenly country where a man in power will sooner compromise himself than remain honorable. Varadi had a hard time deciding and immediately repented. He handed in his resignation the very next day. He did not expect a cabinet where some reliable cadres would discredit him in advance, or that his colleague Momcilo Grubac, proposed as the minister for minorities and human rights, would be left out. He left his resignation aside in the hope that something can still be fixed.

Panic got off to a bad start, but the fact that at least one reasonable and unspent person from the opposition believes that he should be helped is, to many, a great encouragement. Varadi is well aware of the snares awaiting the person who tries to save this country. He knows that Panic is the captain of a ship of rambunctious madmen who would like best to throw him to the sharks and swing the rudder this way and that. His and Panic's hope rests on the fact that some of them have realized that the ship has become stranded and has almost sunk.

If everything does not go to the devil, Varadi's Ministry of Justice should be one of the most important and busiest, which he would certainly contribute to. A legal wilderness is awaiting him in the forsaken Kosovo, where it would do good to grant mass amnesty, give back the workers their jobs and the children their school. What also awaits him are amnesty grants for various military and war offenses, and resolving the status of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Serbia and in Serbia. Varadi's Ministry will have to untangle old and intricate ownership relations in order to pursue Panic's privatization policy, without any hope that everybody will be satisfied with their portion of justice.

At a time when the entire opposition is, in effect, boycotting the Constitution, the state and the Government, and demanding elections for a constituent assembly, Varadi will have to take over the task of drawing up an election law acceptable to all. He knows how to seek compromises, but how does one set the rules which will promise the opposition a victory and the Socialists their power?

Finally, the most urgent of all tasks would have to be stopping the growing political violence and terror, which is endeavoring to settle all disputes and lighten problems with the help of weapons and civil war. This means that Varadi would have to set in motion the obviously paralyzed District Attorneys' Offices which are now tolerating the threats to and expulsion of the non-Serbian population, not batting an eye on the armed gangs, on the preaching of lawlessness and reprisals, on public insults and slander, on the systemic destruction of every kind of order which could compromise the idea of democracy. It would be logical to start from the biggest legal and public disgrace that goes by the name of Vojislav Seselj. If the quiet Hungarian could stop the vociferous bully, people would perhaps believe in law and the rule of law.

I do not doubt that Tibor Varadi accepted his post completely aware that whatever he attempts to do of the mentioned will be followed by a cry from the Yugoslav Parliament: "Don't touch!" They will say this to Panic, too, just as they said it on the day they elected him. It was plain that nobody in there agreed with him in anything and that the Parliament would have liked best to have him try and explain "the truth about Serbia" to the world again. They count on being able to block and intercept him, and that this will not be visible from the outside world which will believe that Panic is changing something. They believe that have a prime minister for the store window, but that the store will not hold such goods.

Whatever the reason that prompted Milan Panic to exchange a successful company for one that's gone to the dogs, he cannot agree to this domestic game, simply because everything would become clear within two weeks. And, of course, there would be nothing doing regarding the sanctions. He has experience in starting with nothing, but he still has to arrive at that nothing, which means that he must first remove the thick layers of destructive drivel. Even those who wish him success are shaking their heads. They think the American does not have the faintest idea what he's got himself into - which is true - but maybe Panic's optimistic smile is not an expression of pure naivety and ignorance.

It will be a continual tug of war over everything with the Parliament and Milosevic's sharks, but Panic is not so helpless at that. The fate of this country is no longer decided in Belgrade but in New York, and Panic's Government is confirming its mandate before the United Nations and not before Milosevic's Parliament. By all accounts, Panic is resolute in his intention to implement everything he has thought of, like he is used to doing in his company, and the Serbian regime can either oust him immediately or reconcile themselves to him. Both options are highly unpleasant, and there isn't a third. Panic is counting on a break already being made, the moment they called him in, and perhaps he is right.

Somewhere here lies the hope that induced Tibor Varadi to accept the portfolio of justice in a land of lawlessness. He will bear the responsibility for everything he is not able to fix, just like Panic courageously intends to stop the war in Bosnia as though it were a candle that simply needs to be blown out. No matter, if he really does blow, maybe something will get moving somewhere.