http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=13051
ANTIWAR (USA)
Moments of Transition
by Nebojsa Malic
June 26, 2008
Return of the Reds
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Very Old Boss
There is a proverb in the Balkans, probably as old as civilization: where
drills fail, money will do. It seems a fitting byline for the unraveling of
some six weeks of political drama, following the May 11 general elections.
At first, it seemed that President Tadic and the Democratic Party were
celebrating prematurely; their coalition, while scoring better than polls
had predicted, lacked enough votes to form a government. An alliance between
the National bloc of ex-PM Vojislav Kostunica, the Radical Party and the
resurgent Socialists (once led by Slobodan Milosevic) seemed a foregone
conclusion, and was even reported as a done deal.
What happened next seemed like a plot hatched by Chancellor Palpatine
himself. On June 24, the Socialists' steering committee voted overwhelmingly
for a deal with the Democrats - the very same party that has persecuted them
since the October 2000 coup, and blamed them for all the ills that have
befallen Serbia since 1989 (or even earlier), including the NATO bombing and
the occupation of Kosovo. Now the "Yellow and Red" coalition is being
reported as a done deal.
This is precisely the "Pro-European" government that Washington and Brussels
have lobbied for, and Tadic desired since winning a second term in February.
In return for supporting the people that overthrew them on behalf of NATO in
2000, the Socialists would become "respectable." Without the stubborn
insistence on international law by the now former PM Kostunica, the new
regime in Belgrade would not be free to "do everything it can" (to borrow
President Tadic's favorite phrase) to please its "friends" in Washington,
London and Brussels.
In Bad Faith
How did this happen? One theory is that the Socialists' leader Ivica Dacic
wanted to free himself of Milosevic's shadow, and the promises of Imperial
favor were too much to resist. It is well-known that Dacic and his junior
partners, Dragan "Palm Tree" Markovic and Jovan Krkobabic, were feted by
Serbian tycoons close to the Democratic Party and "advised" by U.S. and UK
ambassadors, Cameron Munter and Steven Wordsworth. Of course, Wordsworth and
Munter reject any insinuation that they were meddling in Serbia's internal
affairs by brokering coalition deals; it's perfectly normal for foreign
ambassadors to "advise" politicians of the host countries what to do, is it
not? And the tycoons surely had nothing to do with any of this, they were
just legitimate businessfolk relaxing over some cocktails and barbecue, and
figured they would invite their good friends over to share.
The Serbian media space is notoriously rotten; most media are owned by
foreign conglomerates or political interests. So, when the German-owned,
unabashedly pro-Democrat daily Blic spoke of an imminent coalition of
Democrats and Socialists three weeks or so ago, even as the Socialists were
closing a deal about running Belgrade with the Radicals and the National
bloc, that report sounded like deliberate misinformation and wishful
thinking. But could Blic have been right? Was it Dacic's plan to "go Yellow"
all along?
It certainly appears so. Another paper, Kurir, published a transcript of a
taped phone conversation between two Socialist officials, in which they
revealed that the Belgrade deal was a red herring, made to be broken within
months, leaving the Democrats in charge of the city.
The official excuse given by the Socialists is that they could not agree
with the legal analysis of Serbia's stillborn treaty with the EU offered by
Kostunica's legal team. However, given the Socialists' statements on record
concerning the SAA, this is obviously a smokescreen.
Absolute Power
For their part, Kostunica's National bloc and the Radicals seem to have
taken the Socialists' defection in stride. The Radicals are used to being in
opposition; they were only in power as Milosevic's very junior partners at
one point in the 1990s. Kostunica has survived a Democrat-orchestrated
ouster once before, only to return in triumph. That said, how come he
allowed himself to be blindsided again? "Fool me twice, shame on me" sounds
very appropriate here.
And what of Serbia? Buried in private and government debt - the poisonous
fruit of economic mismanagement by Democrats' allies G17 since 2000 - with
its military, diplomacy and security services gutted at the hands of
ministers always more at home in Brussels than in Belgrade, it is now in the
hands of people who haven't the slightest intent to oppose the illegal
separation of Kosovo. Nor is the new regime likely to oppose any further
dismantling of Serbia, should the Empire wish it.
Governments are essentially protection rackets. If a government is failing
to protect its subjects' lives and property from depredations of another
government, it is not doing its job.
Worse yet, the Democrats in Serbia now control the presidency, the cabinet,
the parliament, the media, and the economy. And as Lord Acton wrote,
"absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Back to the Future
Commentator Branko Radun made an interesting observation in the wake of the
"Yellow and Red" deal: "A growing number of people has the impression that
this was a reconciliation of the two factions from the Eighth Session."
What he is talking about is the 1987 meeting of the Serbian Communist Party
at which Slobodan Milosevic rose to power, ousting the old, hapless
apparatchiks who were passive in face of Albanian separatism. Milosevic's
most intractable enemies actually came from the ranks of the old Communist
Party, because they saw in him the bete noire of Yugoslav Communism, a "Serb
nationalist."
The irony here is that Milosevic could hardly be a "Serb nationalist" and a
Communist at the same time, since those are mutually exclusive concepts.
Communism in the Balkans has always had a Serbophobic flavor. Yugoslavia was
declared a "prison of nations" run by the "Greater Serbian bourgeois
imperialists," with only the Communists willing and able to "liberate" the
various groups. The dismemberment of Yugoslavia became an official goal of
the Communists in 1928; once they held power in the country in 1945, they
abandoned the concept - why destroy something you can rule? - but it still
lingered in the country's subdivision into "republics," which would cause
such bloodshed in the 1990s.
From that standpoint, what happened this week in Belgrade is far less
surprising than what it seemed at first glance. Today's Democrats are
dominated by the heirs of those Communists who lost out in 1987. By making a
deal with them, Dacic recanted for his predecessor's "heresy" and came back
into the fold.
Reunited after 20 years, the "transnational progressivists" are again in
absolute control of Serbia. And lo, how fortuitous, the EU and the American
Empire also see Serbian culture, faith and tradition as threats to their new
post-historical order.
It is looking like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. For all but the
Serbs, of course.
__,_._,___
ANTIWAR (USA)
Moments of Transition
by Nebojsa Malic
June 26, 2008
Return of the Reds
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Very Old Boss
There is a proverb in the Balkans, probably as old as civilization: where
drills fail, money will do. It seems a fitting byline for the unraveling of
some six weeks of political drama, following the May 11 general elections.
At first, it seemed that President Tadic and the Democratic Party were
celebrating prematurely; their coalition, while scoring better than polls
had predicted, lacked enough votes to form a government. An alliance between
the National bloc of ex-PM Vojislav Kostunica, the Radical Party and the
resurgent Socialists (once led by Slobodan Milosevic) seemed a foregone
conclusion, and was even reported as a done deal.
What happened next seemed like a plot hatched by Chancellor Palpatine
himself. On June 24, the Socialists' steering committee voted overwhelmingly
for a deal with the Democrats - the very same party that has persecuted them
since the October 2000 coup, and blamed them for all the ills that have
befallen Serbia since 1989 (or even earlier), including the NATO bombing and
the occupation of Kosovo. Now the "Yellow and Red" coalition is being
reported as a done deal.
This is precisely the "Pro-European" government that Washington and Brussels
have lobbied for, and Tadic desired since winning a second term in February.
In return for supporting the people that overthrew them on behalf of NATO in
2000, the Socialists would become "respectable." Without the stubborn
insistence on international law by the now former PM Kostunica, the new
regime in Belgrade would not be free to "do everything it can" (to borrow
President Tadic's favorite phrase) to please its "friends" in Washington,
London and Brussels.
In Bad Faith
How did this happen? One theory is that the Socialists' leader Ivica Dacic
wanted to free himself of Milosevic's shadow, and the promises of Imperial
favor were too much to resist. It is well-known that Dacic and his junior
partners, Dragan "Palm Tree" Markovic and Jovan Krkobabic, were feted by
Serbian tycoons close to the Democratic Party and "advised" by U.S. and UK
ambassadors, Cameron Munter and Steven Wordsworth. Of course, Wordsworth and
Munter reject any insinuation that they were meddling in Serbia's internal
affairs by brokering coalition deals; it's perfectly normal for foreign
ambassadors to "advise" politicians of the host countries what to do, is it
not? And the tycoons surely had nothing to do with any of this, they were
just legitimate businessfolk relaxing over some cocktails and barbecue, and
figured they would invite their good friends over to share.
The Serbian media space is notoriously rotten; most media are owned by
foreign conglomerates or political interests. So, when the German-owned,
unabashedly pro-Democrat daily Blic spoke of an imminent coalition of
Democrats and Socialists three weeks or so ago, even as the Socialists were
closing a deal about running Belgrade with the Radicals and the National
bloc, that report sounded like deliberate misinformation and wishful
thinking. But could Blic have been right? Was it Dacic's plan to "go Yellow"
all along?
It certainly appears so. Another paper, Kurir, published a transcript of a
taped phone conversation between two Socialist officials, in which they
revealed that the Belgrade deal was a red herring, made to be broken within
months, leaving the Democrats in charge of the city.
The official excuse given by the Socialists is that they could not agree
with the legal analysis of Serbia's stillborn treaty with the EU offered by
Kostunica's legal team. However, given the Socialists' statements on record
concerning the SAA, this is obviously a smokescreen.
Absolute Power
For their part, Kostunica's National bloc and the Radicals seem to have
taken the Socialists' defection in stride. The Radicals are used to being in
opposition; they were only in power as Milosevic's very junior partners at
one point in the 1990s. Kostunica has survived a Democrat-orchestrated
ouster once before, only to return in triumph. That said, how come he
allowed himself to be blindsided again? "Fool me twice, shame on me" sounds
very appropriate here.
And what of Serbia? Buried in private and government debt - the poisonous
fruit of economic mismanagement by Democrats' allies G17 since 2000 - with
its military, diplomacy and security services gutted at the hands of
ministers always more at home in Brussels than in Belgrade, it is now in the
hands of people who haven't the slightest intent to oppose the illegal
separation of Kosovo. Nor is the new regime likely to oppose any further
dismantling of Serbia, should the Empire wish it.
Governments are essentially protection rackets. If a government is failing
to protect its subjects' lives and property from depredations of another
government, it is not doing its job.
Worse yet, the Democrats in Serbia now control the presidency, the cabinet,
the parliament, the media, and the economy. And as Lord Acton wrote,
"absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Back to the Future
Commentator Branko Radun made an interesting observation in the wake of the
"Yellow and Red" deal: "A growing number of people has the impression that
this was a reconciliation of the two factions from the Eighth Session."
What he is talking about is the 1987 meeting of the Serbian Communist Party
at which Slobodan Milosevic rose to power, ousting the old, hapless
apparatchiks who were passive in face of Albanian separatism. Milosevic's
most intractable enemies actually came from the ranks of the old Communist
Party, because they saw in him the bete noire of Yugoslav Communism, a "Serb
nationalist."
The irony here is that Milosevic could hardly be a "Serb nationalist" and a
Communist at the same time, since those are mutually exclusive concepts.
Communism in the Balkans has always had a Serbophobic flavor. Yugoslavia was
declared a "prison of nations" run by the "Greater Serbian bourgeois
imperialists," with only the Communists willing and able to "liberate" the
various groups. The dismemberment of Yugoslavia became an official goal of
the Communists in 1928; once they held power in the country in 1945, they
abandoned the concept - why destroy something you can rule? - but it still
lingered in the country's subdivision into "republics," which would cause
such bloodshed in the 1990s.
From that standpoint, what happened this week in Belgrade is far less
surprising than what it seemed at first glance. Today's Democrats are
dominated by the heirs of those Communists who lost out in 1987. By making a
deal with them, Dacic recanted for his predecessor's "heresy" and came back
into the fold.
Reunited after 20 years, the "transnational progressivists" are again in
absolute control of Serbia. And lo, how fortuitous, the EU and the American
Empire also see Serbian culture, faith and tradition as threats to their new
post-historical order.
It is looking like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. For all but the
Serbs, of course.
__,_._,___
