Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

eforms. Otherwise, the reforms
will go on forever, while their
effect will be weak.
There are good conditions for
managing interethnic relations in
Macedonia. During the ten-year
period of pluralism, the conditions
for the co-existence of various
ethnic communities have
improved, but there are still problems.
Due to the difficult economic
situation, interest for fostering
the civic status of the individual
is lagging behind and
belonging to an ethnic community
is over emphasized. In the further
political and economic
reforms, solutions for those problems
will also need to be sought.
In foreign policy, since the
beginning, Macedonia has the
right orientation for approaching
the Euro-Atlantic integration.
The success of that orientation
will further depend on successful
reforms in the country. Also, the
orientation towards strengthening
and developing co-operation and
trust with neighbouring countries
and countries in the region is on
the right track.
The experience of pluralism
to date offers enough elements
for us to believe that the electorate
in Macedonia is maturing
in an accelerated manner and that
it awaits the future elections in a
completely different, new climate.
The electorate expects all
conditions for fair and democratic
elections to be met, they expect
parties to carry on the business of
their own parties, and to leave the
decisions of the elections to the
voters. We can also expect a serious
voter realignment towards
more energetic support for parties
in the centre that favour the civic
status of the individual, emphasizing
participation in political
and the overall life of society.
(The author is a Member
of Parliament)
From an idea to a result
The drive towards the
independence began at
the congress of SKJ
Petar Goshev
Prior to the
extraordinary 14th
Congress of the
Communist League
Macedonian communists'
decision
that Macedonia
would not remain
in the SFRY
should any republic
secede, marked
the beginning of
our independence.
of Yugoslavia
(SKJ), which was
scheduled for January
20-23, 1990 I
used to regularly go
to the meetings in Belgrade as a
member by function. (The presidents
of the Communist League
of each Republic were members
of the Presidency of the Central
Committee of Communist League
of Yugoslavia, the CK SKJ.)
We used to spend days and days
on one single subject: Which
issues of the SKJ bodies (and
respectively of the congress
itself) would not be subject to
over voting, according to the
one-delegate-one-vote principle.
In other words, on
which issues related
to the adoption of an
position or a decision,
must the principle
of consensus
be implemented.
(Consensus meant a
general accordance
of the delegations
from the Republics).
The answer to this question was
especially sought by the representatives
of Slovenian communists
(M. Kuchan, C.
Ribichich...), but also by
Croatians (I. Rachan), and others.
Serbian representatives
(B.Trufunovich), supported by
the representatives of
Montenegro (M. Bulatovich),
Vojvodina (Sipovac), and
Kosovo (R. Morina), energetically
refused to discuss this
issue. They stated that should
15
Ten years of pluralism, December 2000