Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

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from the other side of the Vardar
lacks buildings like the supermarkets
Vero and Tinex, McDonalds
restaurant, etc. "We need some
balance in the city's investments.
There are 70,000 inhabitants living
in Chair, who should feel that
they live in Skopje, that they are
part of the city. The last big
investment in this part of the city
was back in 1974 with the construction
of the apartment buildings
in Skopje Sever. For thirty
years now nothing else has been
built," reckons the mayor of this
municipality. "The area is emptying
out and we can't accuse anyone
but ourselves, because we
have neglected this part of the
city. 12,000 Albanians live on
Dizhonska Street and that's a
ghetto created decades ago.
FOR HOW LONG
AND HOW FAR?
The state's attitude towards
this part of the city has to change,
development has to begin. Chair
has no police station, no fire
brigade; people live according to
a certain sub-standard. If the state
begins to invest equally across the
city, maybe something will
change. That's the attitude of the
mayor of Chair, around which the
settlements Topansko Pole,
Skopje Sever, Butel 1 and 2, and
Radishani revolve.
He proposes that the State
should press big investors to build
restaurants and buildings on that
side of the city as well, because
"we can't concentrate on the
length and alongside the river
Vardar only." "We belong here
and we can't move out from
Chair. We should sit down and
discuss and solve the problems,
and not sell our property following
the principle of least resistance,"
say the people of Chair.
(The author is a journalist
at the daily newspaper
Utrinski vesnik)
Our parents
knew how
to handle
these things
Gordana Duvnjak
I recently heard a famous
Macedonian intellectual stating that
the appetites of the Albanians do not
end with the Ohrid Framework
Agreement. The thesis that he goes
on to develop is an old and famous
one: their goal is to unite into a
greater Albanian state through federalization
and separation. Whether
they are going to achieve that is
another question, concludes this philosophy
professor.
A day before that, another professor
who is known to be
an expert in democracy
and civil society,
straightforwardly
refused my plea to write
an article for the last
issue of Multiethnic
Forum about the twoyear
anniversary of the
Ohrid Agreement and
the future horizons for
Macedonia. "I don't
want to write about it
because I don't believe
in the Ohrid
Agreement!" stated
firmly my interlocutor.
"All right," I assured him calmly,
"you are entitled to an opinion. Write
that!" But he seemed as if he didn't
hear what I was saying, and my
words echoed. "I don't want to be a
black sheep. Full stop!" he replied
shortly, while he coldly put the phone
down. Almost at the same time, a
newly elected party leader mentioned
another punctuation mark, this time
the comma. "The Ohrid Agreement
must be implemented to the last
comma," yelled furiously this new
member of the opposition, who was
believed to be a moderate Albanian
until recently. Self-determination is
Why have we
forgotten to listen
to each other, let
alone understand
each other? Did
we contribute to
what has happened
to us or
was it someone
else's fault? It's
not that important
any more
very popular these days amongst different
political phenomena, as if
there was a scratched vinyl record
that goes on, and on, and on…
Maybe we should worry. Do
these people see what we cannot, do
not want to see, or are we all in a collective
delusion? We believe in some
kind of a Utopia called the Ohrid
Agreement, which is being served up
to us by the international community,
offered as the only alternative to save
the state. Let us hope that we are not
a part of some kind of a massive hypnosis
that lives in virtual reality with
blindered perceptions
…And this is so only
because we want to
believe that the Ohrid
Agreement, though not
flawless, no matter how
much we think it
imposed on us and not a
result of sincere wishes,
is nevertheless some
kind of a solution to our
long-standing encumbering
problems. A
replacement for what
we have missed, for the
lack of political conscience
that things cannot
remain as they were ten years
ago. Regardless of whether it will be
a short-term solution and a transitional
period or a long-term solution that
will depend on the ability and the
capacity of the state to maintain its
existence.
We, the ordinary people, have
somehow got used to exploiting the
jargon of the politicians and using it
everywhere, promoting moderate
optimism. Not because it's our real
mood, but more as a defense mechanism
against the fear that something
unpredicted might happen. Ever since
then, we still look at each other with
Two years of the ohrid agreement, August 2003