Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

implemented, the disarmament as well,
so the second part of the operation was
undertaken. The 2002 elections-were
ahead of us! But mind you: although
the enumeration seems simple, and at
first sight there aren't any crucial
events, far be it from us to consider
fatigue a consequence of a disease. A
lot of water passed under the Stone
Bridge. Many things happened to us.
Piles of (seemingly) less important
events, perhaps account for why the
timeframe from August 2001 to August
2003 seems so long. High frequency,
high but exhausting, wastes our lives,
in vain!
Furthermore. Not only for the sake
of truth, but for the sake of using a realistic
approach, we should be aware of
the following: they who brought
Macedonia to this situation did not
want ,and still don't want, to give in
easily. All of them, the locals and the
internationals. However, the locals are
in the limelight now. They soon forgot
the signature on the documents, as they
surely believed they were expected to
do so! In their delinquent world, the
word and the signature mean nothing,
especially to the Balkan delinquents,
ready to play all the foreign double,
triple, multiple games.
This, of course is not a plea that
will produce an alibi for anybody, especially
not for the ones in government,
however, it should be clear to us that
the human material with which we
compose the government is that onethe
same-and in that sense we are not
talking about an alibi, but instead about
a doubt, a sound one too! So in the end,
this is a small country, we all know
each other!
SO, BACK TO THE
AGREEMENT!
The Parliament, that ratified the
Agreement after the adoption of the
Constitution, the amnesty law and a
sequence of essential laws, mostly by
means of a recognized imported technique
"STAP", left the political scene
after the 2002 autumn elections. After
the elections the political scene was
also missing the political clique that
ruled Macedonia with the manners of a
brutal primitive accumulation (more
precisely stealing!). If you would ask
those million desperate people today,
they will respond that they would put
up with Branko-Ali for many (incapable,
taunting) years to come, only to
prevent "the other guys" from coming
back. For the sake of clarity, this refers
to everyone from before, Albanians and
Macedonians. Some (partly due to the
authorities' inability, partly to the corruption
of the court system, the prosecutor's
office, and partly owing to the
proverb dog does not eat dog..) slightly
fidgeted in the investigation prison
of the "new government," however, to
sum up, they will remain unrepeatable.
Or so at least the citizens of this and
that side of the agreement hope.!
If this can be attributed as a merit to
the Agreement, and perhaps due to the
entire, new circumstances, I think that
the Agreement fulfilled one of the
(un)expected objectives. A paradox, isn't
it? The Constitution (the single relevant
document according to which all political
elites ought to adhere) does not state
anywhere who or what should not be
considered as serious political alternatives.
However, all analyses, surveys
demonstrate that brutal kleptocrates,
provincial warlords, intellectual bluffers,
such as the duo Ljubcho-Arben are
already behind. Even if they relied on a
"short memory," in Washington they
have a longer memory!
And furthermore, the "agreement"
brought some things to Macedonia,
that, surprisingly, we are proud of.
Recently, I was talking with a foreigner,
whose country is considering
whether to join the EU, so I described
our situation. I neither praised nor criticized,
I was rather neutral. And he,
with an air of disbelief in his voice,
asks me: So, an Albanian now rises and
speaks Albanian in your Parliament?
He couldn't but feel stunned, not
because of my affirmative answer, but
because of my calm tone of voice and
the additional statement that the
Parliament is "ours," and not only mine
or his! Then he continues to be surprised
because there is an ethnic channel
on the state media and to a heap of
other things which two years ago were
"a living tragedy and a reason to slice
open veins" and are regarded as commonplace
now in Macedonia.
However, we are about to reach the
point. Since the "civilized" encounter
"certain difficulties" with some of their
citizens, I suggested to them, in all
honesty, and not with cynicism as
Macedonian chauvinists do, the model
of the Agreement! Why not?
MANY THINGS
ARE CHANGED
Although we are (in this text) in the
phase of exploring some positive benefits
from the Agreement, we mustn't
allow ourselves to swim in the waters
of optimistic propaganda. Yes, it is correct
that many things are not the same
anymore, some are even better, some
have remained the same and other have
deteriorated. However, it is also true
that many of the "good" things "hardly"
work and still contain a fair amount of
explosive charge. If you put those
"hardly" things in the hands of the
many evil people, or allow for routine
and inertia to take over, then very easily
parallel agendas are created from all
those who see and used to see the
Balkans only as a place for rolling up
our sleeves and charging bills made
elsewhere and for other goals.
Therefore, always and at every occasion,
I repeat, YOU can be sure: we are
the most responsible for the implementation
of the Agreement, however I add
that for the destiny of the Agreement,
you the guarantors are even more
responsible!
Macedonia is not the same anymore
and regarding this issue, at least as far as
the normal citizens of this country are
concerned, no one shows any dissatisfaction.
However, unfortunately, the
expected, true Macedonia, is not able to
reach any sort of agreement, since the
subject matter is different. Macedonia
that would not wake up in despair,
calamity, poverty and without any
future prospects not contained in the
agreement! It does not begin nor does it
end with the amicable talks between Ali
and Branko, nor with the secret whispers
of their associates with God knows
whom. One thing is certain. Macedonia
will not have situations where the ones
that destroy (our) chances will sit down
together at a table again.
(The author is a publicist)
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Two years of the ohrid agreement, August 2003