Serbia: Pointless Elections and Possible Solutions
Posted on Friday, June 25 @ 11:35:00 EDT by CDeliso
Other Balkans Articles
<http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=9> Nebojsa
Malic <http://www.antiwar.com/malic/> takes a hard look at the options on
the eve of Serbia's presidential election.
After the first round of the pointless poll
<http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=2785> that was the Serbian
presidential election, two candidates emerged to contest the dubious honor
or presiding over Empire's favorite European pariah. On one side is Boris
Tadic, heir to Zoran Djindjic's party and policies, and former defense
minister under the incompetent and venal Dossie regime. On the other,
Tomislav Nikolic, heir to Vojislav Seselj's party and policies linked to the
much-maligned regime of Slobodan Milosevic.
Both won roughly a third of the votes of almost half the Serbian electorate
in the first round, on June 13.
Empire's Preference
The contest between two opposition candidates has been presented as a
crucial decision for the future of Serbia, primarily regarding its ambitions
to enter the EU and "integrate" in the Global Order. The candidates must
campaign not just to the Serbian voters, but also to the Empire, since it
has arrogated itself the right to decide which candidate is "acceptable" to
be elected (see Nicholas Wood in the New York Times, June 13). While the
effectiveness of the campaign on the Serbians is to be seen on Sunday, the
Empire has already made its preference public, and not at all discreetly.
According to IWPR's Zeljko Cvijanovic
<http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200406_503_1_eng.txt> (a
Tadic supporter, natch) the "EU High Representative spokeswoman Christina
Galyak said Brussels had urged 'all the democratic leaders to join forces,
rally around Tadic and thus cast their vote for the European future of their
country'." Also, "Highly placed US officials were . reported to have
telephoned [Prime Minister] Kostunica to say he would be held responsible
for a Radical victory if he failed to endorse Tadic openly."
Demonizing Nikolic
It would be an understatement to say that media treatment of Nikolic has
been unfavorable. Indeed, the man has been thoroughly demonized, using the
entire 1990s arsenal of Serbophobic propaganda once applied to Milosevic. He
is described as an "ultra-nationalists" (are there ordinary nationalists
anymore?), and a champion of "ethnically pure Greater Serbia" (yes the
latter, not the former - he's told the press that Serbia is more ethnically
mixed than the supposedly "democratic" Croatia, and he sees no problem with
that). Any attempt to see Nikolic fairly is condemned as endorsement,
effectively stifling debate. That most Western media smear Nikolic is not
unusual; treating him fairly would go against everything they've said and
done over the past 15 years concerning the Balkans. But the Serbian press is
demonstrating a degree of "political correctness" unseen since Communism,
marching in lockstep to the ideology of omnipotent government in the name of
"human rights" and "democracy."
Nikolic has campaigned on the platform that his rival leads a gang of
quislings and criminals. Tadic responds that Nikolic's party is led by a
crazy war criminal, and relies heavily on intimidating voters, claiming that
the Radicals' coming to power would mean isolation, sanctions and a repeat
of the 1990s.
Lack of Leadership?
Marcus Tanner, a kitchen-historian
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0300076681/104-9219244-327916
6?v=glance> who romanticized Croatian nationalism and now a high-ranking
employee of the propaganda-spewing IWPR, commented on June 18
<http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200406_503_3_eng.txt> on
the paucity of true leadership in Serbia. Tadic, according to him, is too
bland.
Tanner's observation that Serbia "lacks direction or any discernible
strategy" is entirely accurate, though to him a "charismatic leader with
real vision" would probably mean someone willing to grovel before the EU,
NATO and Washington rather than someone interested in independence and
liberty.
Tanner wishes for someone like Croatia's Ivo Sanader
<http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=1386> , a supposedly reformed
nationalist who is determined to lead Croatia into the EU. Nikolic, on the
other hand, is an unreformed nationalist, who refuses to grovel and is
indifferent towards the Empire (though he's warmed up to the EU - but more
on that later). Ironically, Nikolic may well be a Sanader-like politician,
but because of the degree to which he's been labeled, smeared and denounced,
it's hard to imagine Serbians or the Empire would now accept him as such.
Bring Back the King!
An implicit and unintended answer to Tanner's question came from
neoconservative commentator John O'Sullivan. Writing in the Chicago
Sun-Times <http://www.suntimes.com/output/osullivan/cst-edt-osul22.html>
this Tuesday (June 22), O'Sullivan endorsed Tadic's election, but actually
gave a coherent explanation for it:
- it would move Serbia closer to the West, something that is in Western
interests;
- it would be good for the economy, as Tadic favors "sensible free-market
policies"; and
- Nikolic would have to prove his credibility by sacrificing Serbian
interests to appease Brussels and Washington.
The first point cannot be contested, but the real issue is whether this is
in Serbia's interests. Given its treatment by the West over the past 15
years, and even now, one could understandably say, "No." The second point is
flat-out wrong. Tadic claims he is for the free market, but he actually has
no idea what that means. DOS policies during its four-year rule vacillated
between state socialism and crony capitalism, resulting in the worst of both
worlds. The third point is logical as well, though one has to note that
Nikolic at least claims to care about things that are actual Serbian
interests, while Tadic's party has shown readiness to sell them down the
river in a heartbeat if that would get it points with the Empire.
O'Sullivan says another reasonable thing, which is that Nikolic should not
be demonized: "it is also in everyone's interests that Serbia over time
should develop a respectable moderate nationalist conservative bloc that can
be safely trusted with power."
But while O'Sullivan endorses Tadic, he also believes that the ultimate
answer to Serbia's political ills might be the restoration of constitutional
monarchy!
Obstacles to Monarchy
The idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds, and there is actually a good
case <http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m062101.html> for it, much more
extensive than O'Sullivan's brief argument. Of course, there are obstacles
to this approach. One is Tadic's core constituency, the globalist
left-liberals who consider monarchy "outmoded" and "regressive." Indeed,
many of them are former Communists who still consider the monarchy a symbol
of "Greater Serbian nationalism and bourgeois imperialism" (a favorite
Communist canard) and hate it wholeheartedly.
The second problem is the current prince-pretender. Ironically, Prince
Aleksandar is ideologically closer to the left-liberal elite running Serbia
now: he would gladly submit to the Anglospheric Empire in which he was
raised, lacking the conviction and character to resist the ongoing mugging
of Serbia. He is also devoid of charisma, feuds with most of his relatives,
and speaks feeble Serbian on a good day.
His great-grandfather, Petar I
<http://solair.eunet.yu/~nmarkoni/eng_kraljpetar.html> , came to the throne
after the scandal-ridden Obrenovic dynasty ended in a bloody military coup.
Serbia was weak, poor, and condemned for the Obrenovic regicide. Within a
decade, it was strong, prosperous and praised for defeating the Ottoman
Empire and resisting Austrian aggression. But Petar's son, Aleksandar I
<http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/alexander_serbia.htm> , was arrogant,
terse and vain. He tried to unify Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in a common
nation, failed, and ended up assassinated; though in all honesty, the task
of forging a Yugoslav nation was probably hopeless and mistaken, regardless
of the man in charge.
For a Restoration to work Serbia needs someone in the mold of Petar I.
Unfortunately, the foremost candidate is a pale copy of Aleksandar I.
Perhaps some sort of compromise could be reached, though. It would befit the
self-styled Crown Prince to actually put together a proposal for
Restoration, outlining the role of the Crown that could be proposed to the
Constitutional Congress (Ustavotvorna Skupstina). Such leadership by example
is the mark of a worthy monarch.
The Unbearable Worship of Europe
IWPR's Cvijanovic suggests that the Sunday election ".holds the key to
future relations between Serbia and Europe." But things are far less
dramatic, actually. Both Tadic and Nikolic now profess loyalty to the idea
of Serbia joining the EU, perhaps aware that polls indicate most Serbians
share that desire. Nikolic is probably more keenly aware of the problems
with this approach, while Tadic either doesn't know, or doesn't care.
In Thursday's edition of the weekly NIN, commentator Srboljub Bogdanovic
writes:
"We are the country bombed by that very same Europe five years ago, a
country of which is never-endingly demanded to extradite its leaders to The
Hague, a country that has to deal with the problem of Kosovo, and a country
that is expected to prove itself in some sort of European test though it
isn't quite clear what that test entails. This is a situation ripe for a
backlash in Serbian public opinion which could propel to glory a party that
argues, 'If they don't want us, we don't want them either.' But the chances
of the Radicals being that party are now much smaller. They have already
declared for Europe, and the question now is whether that decision is
reversible."
Serbians' ideas of Europe <http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=2733>
are very abstract and generally divorced from truth and logic; in their
minds, it looms like the Wizard of Oz that can solve all their problems. In
reality, the "Euro-Atlantic structures" are responsible for a good deal of
troubles that beset Serbia, and they are likely to make the homemade sort of
trouble even worse.
Fortunately <http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=2433> , Serbia will not
join the EU any time soon, regardless of who is elected on Sunday. The
Empire isn't done pushing it around just yet. So, the presidential poll, far
from being fateful, is actually rather pointless.
One Decent Choice
Whoever wins, Serbia's best hope would be to move towards abolishing its
current form and scope of government, and setting up something more in line
with is history and tradition. Save for the personality problem, the idea of
a restored constitutional monarchy isn't bad at all.
As for the election on Sunday, it would be wise to heed the words of
longtime columnist Fred Reed <http://www.fredoneverything.net/Voting.shtml>
:
"The proper response toward what we occasionally imagine to be democracy,
methinks, is to retain one's self-respect by not participating in it. [.]
.do what you believe to be right, decline to be herded like cattle, and live
decently in the interstices of things. These at least are choices not as
humiliating as voting. Those who wash regularly should not stoop to
democracy."
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
