To Have, to Have Not

On Wednesday July 7, the Federal Ministry of Information announced that the Federal Government had discussed the affects of the measures introduced in June and "concluded that, despite the determined concrete economic measures, the price and exchange rate trends are contrary to the determined economic policy". Only six days before that, according to the Ministry of Information, the Federal Government had also discussed the realization of its policy: "It was concluded that there are positive trends in certain economic and financial fields, which points to the conclusion that the global orientation of the economic policy was correct, but that the depth of the disorders we are confronted with, and the inconsistent implementation of the economic policy, unavoidably lead to its slower realization". Then comes the unbelievable part: "The government's additional measures regarding the dinar's exchange rate are showing good initial results. Within 15 days' time, since the last devaluation of the dinar on June 16th, the domestic currency's exchange rate was changed another 7 times through individual daily corrections, with which the originally determined exchange rate has increased by around 80 percent so far". Have you ever heard of or read in a book of economic history about any authorities publicly boasting about having destroyed their own national currency and the value of the population's work and knowledge?

Already the next day, Jovan Zebic, the federal vice-premier and the then acting finance minister, tried to save what could still be saved by explaining to journalists that nothing good awaits the dinar and that the policy of changing the hard currency exchange rates every day must be followed by appropriate policies in other fields. It is now already clear that there will be no coordination of policies in such a way, so that one should expect a new wave of transformations into state ownership. Yet another part of the announcement issued after the mentioned session of the Serbian government deserves the attention of both practitioners and theoreticians of crime and of overall social pathology. This is the government's proposal to halt the ownership transformation of socially owned firms until an appropriate federal law is passed. The draft law has been forwarded to the Serbian assembly, and here is the explanation set out in an announcement: "It was concluded that the general economic circumstances, high inflation and the affects of the international sanctions have a direct impact on the launched processes of ownership transformation, contributing to the economically and socially impermissible invalidation of socially-owned property and its unjustified outpour into the hands of share-holders". From the government's announcement one cannot clearly see whether it proposes the halting of every kind of ownership transformation of socially-owned firms, or only of that which would be aimed at partial or total privatization. Those who are fed up with a "blind economy" and who want to find out which side the wind blows from, should take a look at the daily newspapers of some fifteen days ago. Or more precisely, on June 22nd, an announcement was issued after the talks between Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic and representatives of trade unions and large firms, which were also attended by prime minister Sainovic. Many things were pointed to, assessed, set out, concluded and supported, and the following was examined: "The expressed tendencies of invalidating the property of firms and the abuses present in the process of ownership transformation were also examined. The government is obliged energetically to prevent such occurrences and effectively to stop the robbery. In this regard, it was said that it is necessary to revise the ownership transformations carried out so far, so that they would be put to use for the purpose of economic development, instead of having individuals get richer and richer". What was said - was done: the government proposed the halting of the transformation of socially-owned firms. But worry not, when this is over, there will be a revision of everything that "got through" while the authorities were busy "out of the house". They will "revise" as much as is necessary to get ideas about privatization out of the heads of new intenders. Instead of additional forecasts and conclusions, it is better to recommend the new book of Veselin Vukotic, the one time federal minister of privatization /"Privatization", published by the Belgrade-based Institute of social studies/. In its last part, that is, in the resume of the Yugoslav experiences, Vukotic sets out the thesis that the main problem of an average citizen in a socialist system is: "How to be rich, free and happy and - to live in socialism. It is not necessary to scratch a lot the surface of the statements by many politicians and intellectuals who present themselves as ardent advocates of a market economy and to find their socialist substance. In any case, why is practical conduct so far from such statements and orientations! The hitherto ideological society has, among other things, developed a distinction between words and deeds. It is important to speak in favour of something publicly, while the fact that, in practice, everyone retains the right to adjust and deviate from those statements, is less important. Really, many speak in favour of freedom, democracy, a market economy, while, on the scene, we have unanimity in thought and the centralization of power and decision-making. The anti-market mood is also strongly expressed - both by those who are for democratic changes, and those against them, and the solutions to key problems are still sought either in the all mighty state or in the nation". In such circumstances, the key to the solution of the dilemma about the existence or non-existence of state crime lies in the hand of the one who counts: there is, there isn't, there is, there isn't...