Order Preserved

It seems that in Serbia, everything is finally in its place. Vuk Draskovic is in prison, Cosic has gone back to literature and Milosevic sits alone on his bloody throne, while Bozovic and Seselj are teaching the federal parliament obedience. Whoever makes a move will disrupt the harmony of power in this country in which all exists because of the authorities and ruling with facility. Everything else is impossible or unnecessary, including the people, at least that part which does not understand the beauty, simplicity and convenience of such an order.

Serbia is turning into a slave society, like a country conquered through force and cunning by an armed horde which has nothing in common with the local population. Only such conquerors are capable of looting everything, not caring if the slaves are dying a slow death in the streets, while all rebellion is put down in blood. The difference lies in the fact that efforts are being made here to prove that all this is being done for the good of the slaves and because of external enemies, who multiply in proportion to the degree of enslavement.

Only recently it seemed that some existing area of freedom would spread slowly, and that Serbia, made backward by war and all that accompanies it, must start following the road taken by the rest of the world. Now it seems that it doesn't have to, nor that it wishes to. The opposition leader has been arrested, beaten up and waits to be judged. The biggest opposition party faces a ban, and the public protests made so far are no more than a slight irritation to the regime. The frightened people are close to reconciling themselves to the status and fate of slaves to such an extent, that it should not come as a surprise if Milosevic wins a landslide victory at some new elections. His message is: you've seen what happened to Vuk Draskovic, so you know what to expect.

The same brutality, was applied, albeit through lies, not force, in getting rid of Dobrica Cosic. Milosevic wishes to make it clear that the opposition has no business in front of the Assembly building or inside it. Truncheons and tear gas can be found outside, and Radoman Bozovic and Vojislav Seselj inside. Those who see any difference are free to choose.

In order to understand the absurdity of conflicts in the Serbian opposition with regard to methods of struggle, all that was needed was to follow the day-long seance in the Federal Assembly on Tuesday. Apart from this, it was worth noting that Bozovic, as Speaker, had progressed and was even more efficient in humiliating the opposition than while ousting Cosic. I can't remember a single Western movie with such a successful baddy. He interrupted, admonished and lectured, while at the same time barely managing to peer over the edge of the table. He could have trampled under foot any of those present.

The debate was devoted to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's foreign policy and the fight in the Assembly, which meant that the opposition held all the arguments. However, Bozovic allowed Seselj to speak some thirty odd times, screaming "treachery" each time. If some doubted that an isolated country cannot brag about its foreign policy achievements, they were cussed at and fed with muck from Seselj's septic tank. Seselj got so carried away with hatred of the West, that he managed to proclaim Adolf Hitler an innocent victim of Western machinations. On the whole, it has turned out that isolation is the only natural policy to be followed by this country, making sanctions a necessity, and it is a miracle that the Serbs have managed without them so far, in this corrupt and treacherous world.

In this indescribable scene aimed at driving the opposition and those watching television crazy, perhaps what was most intolerable, was Bozovic's and Seselj's persistence in pretending that they were not in cahoots and that their respective parties differed. To force people into helplessly accepting an obvious lie is the worst kind of terror. This provokes horror at the thought to the lengths some people are prepared to go publicly in order to convince you that what you have seen, heard and understood is not true.

Bozovic and Seselj have shown themselves to be an unbeatable team, especially merciless towards those who try to be serious, reasonable and dignified. They drag such people through the mud until they give up their dignity or shut up. Those who retaliate in equal measure like deputy Mihajlo Markovic, end up in hospital. This is a hatred of the institution of parliament and a clear intention of destroying it.

Whoever believed that something could be achieved through a gradual and persistent parliamentary battle, is now disappointed by the abrupt deterioration of the situation. This can no longer be explained by the absence of understanding and lack of democratic experience, because that would be like saying that the Montenegrins have a centuries-long parliamentary tradition. Is refraining from cussing and insulting a collocutor some new experience to be learned through special exercises?

It would seem that the matter here concerns a significant turnabout which is the result of certain experience, but of another kind. During the war in Bosnia, but especially during the past few weeks, Milosevic has finally realized that he doesn't have to fear a serious threat from the West, at least not anything worse than sanctions, which he has experienced and learned to like a little. He has understood that the West is not prepared to defend its principles in the Balkans, and that it does not have any particular interests there. If, after all those pressures and noise, the plan adopted for Bosnia is the one won by arms, then there is no need to be concerned over the West, is the conclusion reached by Milosevic.

He has never been particularly impressed by Western values and institutions, nor has he wished to belong to that part of the world. It is unfortunate that the choice has been narrowed down so much, that there is practically no alternative, which means that Serbia is starting off alone in the opposite direction, in the hope that someone will join it some time. Since Milosevic earmarks three-fourths of the budget for the army, it means that after Bosnia he still has some unfinished business, probably in Kosovo. In Belgrade he has to tell the public and the opposition that unfortunately, an end has come to so-called democratization, a tolerance of the opposition, human rights and all that looks like an imitation of the Western model. Why should he emulate those, who in a direct conflict have proved inferior and whose greatest powers he has beaten?

This experience encouraged him to get rid of Cosic in a summary fashion, to arrest and beat up Vuk Draskovic, to ban the Serbian Renewal Movement tomorrow, and to give Bozovic and Seselj a free hand in breaking up parliament. All this is just ballast which he has borne out of consideration for the world. He knows now that sanctions will remain, and that no matter what Serbia does, the West will not be more alarmed than over Sarajevo. He will receive demarches, appeals, demands and pleas from high places. But he has already seen all the impotence and indifference of such high places.

Because of this many will easily ascribe to the Serbs full responsibility for rejecting civilization and voluntarily accepting tyranny. It is true that the Serbs have not fought against such a fate much, but similar stumblings have happened to bigger, more experienced and more civilized nations. Many had their Bozovics and Seseljs and recognized them easily, since they are the prototypes of all totalitarian authorities, well known and described a hundred times so far in literature dealing with periods of darkness.

In Serbia, nothing is in its place. Who knows if the Serbs will rise soon - to vote at least - if they are allowed to have any say in the matter.