The Creator of the Sixth Power

Why did Milan Panic, a successful American businessman who could live very comfortably in California with an annual pension of 600,000 dollars, need to come back here after almost four decades? We tried to get the answer to this question, which should also explain many of the current Yugoslav prime minister's seemingly unexpected and inexplicable moves and statements, from the people who are closest to him - the prime minister's advisors. And since two out of four of them are also his old friends, his school and sports mates, they could be trusted. The story about how Teodor Olic, Mihajlo Saranovic, Hranislav Marinkovic and John Scanlon became Panic's advisors is very interesting. Olic, who is the chief advisor, also has the longest experience in cooperating with the prime minister - since January 1985 when he became the director of ICN Pharmaceuticals for Eastern Europe. How did Olic, who, until then, dealt only with journalism (the Belgrade paper "Glas" and the Tanjug news agency) and who remained in this field even when he worked at the Yugoslav Assembly, suddenly found himself in the world of international business? Within the frameworks of an American program, Olic travelled all over the United States in 1982. In Pasadena, California, he met his school friend - Panic. Later on they phoned each other occasionally and in 1984 Panic said that he had been asked to received a Yugoslav delegation. Panic, who had nothing to do with Yugoslav politics ("Politics can only be bad for business") and who also had no contacts with Yugoslav emigrants, knew no one. Olic advised him to receive the delegation and, later on, some of its members realized that Yugoslavia could also do business with him so they invited him to come to Belgrade. Panic arrived with the idea to create a pharmaceutical consortium which would include all Yugoslav pharmaceutical firms. Panic got very interested and was bent on doing something in Belgrade. He immediately started looking for someone who would represent him here. He offered the post to his old high-school friend. On January 1st 1985 Olic became the director of ICN for Eastern Europe headquartered in Belgrade. Olic's further career at ICN doesn't have to interest our readers (and it was, obviously, successful since very soon he moved to a higher position at the firm's headquarters) until one July night this year when Panic called him saying that he had received an offer from Belgrade to become the Yugoslav prime minister. Then came days and nights in which Panic asked his Yugoslav and American friends for the impossible - to tell him whether to accept the post or not. "I told him", recalled John Scanlon in a talk to "Vreme", "that this would be the most difficult job possible, that I had never seen anywhere a more difficult political situation and that only he himself could make the decision". Olic admits that he was afraid for Panic because "he had absolutely no experience in politics and diplomacy". If he accepts that challenge, Olic and Scanlon would tell him, he should go to Belgrade only if, apart from the Socialist Party of Serbia and Seselj's radicals, who have a convincing majority in parliament, he is also accepted by opposition parties, the Orthodox church, the Academy of Sciences and the University, in short a broad circle of people consisting of more than just the ruling parties. The epilogue is well known: the National Assembly elected him the first prime minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Teodor Olic came to Belgrade with him, again after long persuasion, as the chief advisor. Somewhat later, the one time American ambassador in Belgrade, John Scanlon, also accepted the post of diplomatic advisor. Panic's school friend, Hranislav Marinkovic, became the advisor for the foreign policy. ("It is difficult to say 'no' to an old school and sports mate") as did another longtime journalist - Mihajlo Saranovic. Saranovic, just like Olic never dreamed that after 33 years of being a journalist he would do anything else. However, last October, at a reception in Moscow - where Saranovic was Tanjug's correspondent - he met Panic who proposed that he come to work for him in public relations. And it was the same as in Olic's case. "I had no intention of leaving journalism. But Panic was persistent, we had a few more meetings and at the end of the year, when I came to Belgrade to visit my family, I accepted the offer." Three months later Saranovic moved to ICN Galenika and was in charge of public relations. After another three months, Panic became the Yugoslav prime minister and Saranovic his advisor for the same field - propaganda and contacts with the public. Hranislav Marinkovic accepted the post of advisor the most "painlessly". He had just completed his last diplomatic job as head of the military mission in Berlin (in the rank of ambassador), he retired upon his return to Belgrade and his old school friend's invitation came at a time when he was peacefully going through his "diplomatic memories" from Athens, Vienna, Hamburg and Munich. John Scanlon also started working for Panic as a pensioner. He withdrew from active diplomatic service in May 1991 after being the ambassador in Belgrade for 43 months. Even earlier on Panic discussed with Mr.Scanlon the possibility of him, as someone who knows not just Yugoslavia, but also Eastern Europe at large, becoming the vice-president of ICN Pharmaceuticals headquartered in Belgrade after retirement. Mr.Scanlon accepted the offer and found himself in Belgrade once again. When Panic was offered the post of prime minister this June, Scanlon was one of his friends and associates whose opinion had an impact on Panic's final decision. And when Panic came to Belgrade he offered the post of advisor to Scanlon. However, he had the same problem as Panic - he had to get special permission from the American authorities. The permit was valid thirty days then it was extended until the end of November and Scanlon believes that there will be no problems later on either. In a conversation, the former US ambassador in Belgrade stressed several times that he, as Panic's advisor, is a private citizen, a retired American diplomat without any formal ties with the government in Washington. He recalls that, for instance, Harvard professor Jeffrey Sax had a similar status when he was an advisor in the former Yugoslav government of Ante Markovic, and that this is also the case with the Polish, Russian and even the present Slovenian government. Even as a "private citizen" Scanlon, of course, didn't break the ties and friendships he had acquired as a longtime diplomat. That was also precisely the reason why Panic had brought him to the firm and later on appointed him advisor. However, Scanlon points out that some of his friends who are still in active service, like the present acting US Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleberger, for instance, must be very cautious in contacting with him so that no one could say that they are neglecting or abusing their duties because of an old friendship. Scanlon's diplomatic career is linked precisely to Eagleberger. When "Lawrence of Macedonia" (called like this because he was in the Macedonian capital of Skoplje at the time of the big earthquake) became ambassador in Belgrade it was Scanlon whom he appointed his deputy. And when he was leaving Belgrade to become head of the State Department's section for Europe, Scanlon was once again his deputy. Two years later, since he served in Poland several times earlier on, he was appointed ambassador in Warsaw. However, Washington hesitated to send a new ambassador to Warsaw - that was the time of general Yaruzelsky's military rule. Meanwhile, the term of office of Eagleberger's successor Anderson had expired and in 1986, instead of Warsaw, Scanlon came to Belgrade. He stayed here three years and seven months. "I was the last American ambassador who could still enjoy himself in Yugoslavia", concluded, with nostalgia, Mr.Scanlon who visited this country for the first time in 1955 as the leader of a students' study group. Scanlon who, in his new capacity, has accompanied the Yugoslav prime minister on most of his travels and attended many of Panic's talks and negotiations, is the right man to give competent a opinion of the prime minister's diplomatic skills. "I am impressed by the way in which he learned so quickly the things he had to learn in order to be able to move around successfully in the world of big diplomacy and to talk to the highest government officials. For instance, when, on November 29th at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, he talked and brilliantly answered the questions of around two hundred very well known and important Americans, I almost couldn't believe that this was a man who only a few months ago had absolutely no diplomatic experience", said Scanlon. Hranislav Marinkovic, as an experienced diplomat, also notices a big difference in the conduct and attitude of foreign politicians towards the Yugoslav prime minister. "Panic's policy of peace could simply leave no one indifferent" he said adding an interesting detail he had heard from one of Panic's compatriot's in California: "We are proud that our fellow citizen has become the prime minister of a foreign country, but we expect him to come back. We need him, he is one of those who has made California the world's sixth industrial power." On the domestic scene, said Olic, Panic can't seem to get used to that fact that there is no real democracy, no democratic decision-making. His undoubtedly growing popularity pleases Panic but, according to Olic, he also sees this as proof that the people have had enough of war and suffering, that they want peace and a normal, decent life. The Yugoslav prime minister's closest associates point out that he was often surprised, astonished and embittered by the unfounded criticism and "low blows" which he often encountered after some of his, essentially successful, international tours. All Panic's associates speak of him as of an incredibly hardworking man ("15 hours a day every day of the week"), a persistent and resolute boss, a man who simply doesn't accept defeat ("in business even a temporary defeat is part of an ultimate success) who is perhaps still sometimes naive and insufficiently informed. But, they also see him as a man who never gives up once he accepts a challenge.

Biographies

Teodor Olic, born in Bosanska Dubica in 1929. He graduated from high-school and the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. He was a journalist in the paper "Glas" and the Tanjug news agency (the editor in chief for five years), the assistant secretary for information and the Federal Assembly's information secretary. He was also an official of the youth organization's Central Committee, he was in the Yugoslav Students' Alliance and the vice-president of the International Students' Sports Association. He speaks ten languages.

Mihajlo Saranovic, born in Kosovi Lug in Montenegro in 1935. He graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade where he also completed his post-graduate studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences. His entire career as a journalist was linked to Tanjug where he was also the director general. He was a correspondent in Peking and Moscow.

Hranislav Marinkovic, born in Travnik in 1930. He graduated from high-school and the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. He worked for the Federal Foreign Affairs Secretariat from 1958 to 1990. He did service in Vienna, Munich and Hamburg and he ended his career as head of the Yugoslav military mission in Berlin.

John Scanlon born in 1927 in the state of Minnesota in the United States where he graduated in history and political sciences. He worked for the State Department from 1956 to 1990 when he retired. He performed various diplomatic duties in the Soviet Union, Uruguay, Poland and Yugoslavia.