Clinging to Fatuity

No one has been so defeated by the elections as Dobrica Cosic. Those he did not support fared well, while those he favored did badly. This time it was necessary to make a simple choice between the government and the opposition as a whole, without insisting on one's own platform, moderately Serbian, moderately democratic and moderately Socialist, since no one has been interested in this combination for a long time.

Cosic did not understand this. He tried to divide the opposition and, absurdly, believed until the last moment that the people were watching his every move. He has been behind the scenes for too long to be able to slough-off old habits and simply say: Say no, for the following seventy reasons, of which the first two are sufficient. Cosic does not understand television and believes in the myth of the wisdom of the people. All this is said in the good faith that Cosic really did want Milosevic's defeat.

However, I am far from believing that Cosic greatly influenced the outcome of the elections. I am also not convinced by those who argue that foreign threats only helped Milosevic, because the Serbs, allegedly, are fearless and like to go their own way, damning the consequences and coming to grief if necessary. If this were true, it would mean that the younger and educated part of the population, who live in cities and generally support the opposition, were intimidated. At any rate, I don't see how the world should communicate with this regime, because, before any threats were made, it approached it with pleas, appeals, and promises.

Regarding election irregularities, it would be a good thing if the opposition could prove them, especially the fact that they surpass 20%. If the opposition had no way of controlling the counting, it should not have participated. If the opposition has evidence, it is still not too late to set up a commission and compare their results with the official ones. Without this, statements saying that they have won, smack of frivolity and a refusal to recognize reality, something we already have with those in power.

I do not doubt that the competent persons will, can and know how to steal, but it remains an open question if they could steal so much. This is what confuses international observers. On the whole, they do not recognize these elections, not so much because they do not like the results, but because they are in conflict with basic assumptions on, and positive knowledge about human nature. When faced with a choice, man, only in individual cases, chooses the worse option. It seems that two-thirds of the people here want poverty, humiliation, war and death. They have locked the prison gates, chosen the warden and given him the keys. Only he has the right to free them.

Without doubt, all those who point to television as being responsible for intimidating and misleading the people, are right. It is also true that the opposition should not have entered the race under such conditions, but to ask Milosevic to free television is equal to asking him to resign. Dictatorship via television as a new model of authority has been set up here for the first time ever. The police are still necessary and important, but only for maintaining the disorder produced by television and to protect it, while the laws and the judiciary are absolutely unnecessary.

No one really knows the true power of this regime and how to oppose it, so that it is really not to be wondered at that the opposition once again turned out to be naive. In any case, such as it is, television is the main creator of Seselj's great success. He himself, fitted in perfectly with its program concept. He was the only one to discover the secret of Milosevic's system, take it over and exploit it even more ruthlessly that the author himself, still burdened by Communist fetters.

Seselj's basic message was not ideological and political inasmuch as it was amoral in its revolutionary revelations: feel free to be worse than you are, worse that you thought right. Constraint, good manners, tolerance of others and of differences, are all Communist inventions. Take revenge for anything and with anyone. Fulfil all your wishes, especially those forbidden ones, as they are the most important ones. Free yourselves of fear of punishment and take all you need; because the stronger are allowed all. If you are weak, then join us.

One fourth of Serbia voted for this program. This is not nationalism any more but political banditry which the world has recognized in Serbia and is trying to isolate and punish. At these elections it was possible to choose between various forms of nationalism, but that which held no bars was most successful, and these election results need not be doubted. The phenomena must be recognized and its true dimensions understood, no matter how frightening they may seem.

At this moment it is still not too late to stop Seselj's rise to power, but it is no longer an easy task. Seselj knew how to disguise his parasitical growth within Milosevic's movement, he will know when to withdraw and when to lay low in the face of danger. Seselj will continue to wait and cautiously step up pressure, seemingly loyal, always offering an easier, faster and certainly more aggressive solution to all of Milosevic's problems. When Milosevic realizes that he must stop, Seselj will be there.

It is easier to see through this strategy than oppose it. Seselj has realized that in this form of democracy your only chance to rise to power is from authority, and not via the opposition. Only if you get close enough to the top to topple your predecessor's chair, as Milosevic did. Both men know this, but Seselj has become indispensable, and Milosevic will not be able to keep him out of the government. Once he is in, Seselj will not leave of his own volition. The Socialists are falling and the Radicals rising; they have the initiative and ambition. Practically speaking, they are stronger already, and for the first time Seselj is modest, leaving victory celebrations to the Socialists.

At these elections the opposition probably passed up its last chance. The next one will only come after the regime's downfall. The opposition can now stand back and watch the struggle between evil and evil, a struggle we would enjoy observing were our lives not at stake, and if someone did not have to win. Milosevic and Seselj will now try to outdo each other in their readiness to sacrifice a greater number of lives for their insane goals. Seselj seems the favorite, but Milosevic still has the initiative.

If miracles were possible, the Socialist Party of Serbia would suddenly discover that it had ideological differences with Seselj, that the left and the right cannot go ahead together, and offer the opposition a coalition against him. But the logic of the mechanism put into motion by Milosevic is working in Seselj's favor and a foreign intervention seems unavoidable. At this moment, Milosevic might think that Seselj would make an ideal Interior Minister, since he can't wait to ban something, arrest or expel someone. Seselj would work day and night on purging Belgrade of traitors, Kosovo of ethnic Albanians, Sandzak of Moslems, and Vojvodina of Hungarians. Hope for Milosevic might lie in the fact that Seselj would burn out on the job, and for Seselj in the fact that he would come for Milosevic in the end. Those in Serbia who manage to save themselves will do so thanks to bad Serbian characteristics, such as laziness, sloppiness, quarrelsomeness and lack of discipline. All else is working against them and nothing can be done. There was no rationality which could have stopped all that has happened to us. We can only wait and count on their fatuity.