Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

are waiting for someone else to
prevent it. Macedonia can be
saved only if those who brought
us to this position are replaced.
Those who were supposed to save
it pushed Macedonia into this war.
They will have to pay for it sooner
or later. They are aware of it
and that is why they are now trying
to sell the country.
When Kemal Ataturk put on a
European suit and took of Turkish
woman' veil eighty years ago,
when he abolished Arabic and
introduced the Latin alphabet,
when he saved Turkey from a civil
war and brought it into Europe, he
needed enormous strength to resist
forces that were drawing him
backwards. He often had to use
force. Today in the 21st century,
Macedonian political leaders have
no strength to talk to their citizens,
to tell them to take their veils and
long coats off, to tell them that we
want to go to Europe, to compete
with our neighbours to find out
who can make it better and faster.
Macedonians, Albanians, Turks,
Roma, Serbs and Vlachs should
start to compete with each other
and see who can give more to and
not who can take more from
Macedonia.
Such messages unfortunately
sound like unreal Utopian theories
or images from socialist realism
about false brotherhood and unity,
about something impossible,
something that is an illusion.
I am writing this because I
believe that we still have some
genes inherited from our fathers
and grandfathers, something that
will switch on in the last moment
and activate the brains of those
who make big decisions.
I believe that those who agree
with me are still far more numerous.
If it is not so, only God can
help us. "Whoever survives, can
tell the tale."
(The author is the director
of Utrinski Vesnik)
Ilir Ajdini
What should and could
the new government do?
The Macedonian
academics changed
our agendas
If I had written this text about my expectations of the new
Macedonian government a day earlier, I would have certainly repeated
the few phrases which we hear from all four directions, and even
from the very centre, namely the Government of the Republic of
Macedonia. And that would be, more or less, the
need to show fast, even instantaneous, intentions
to solve the problems in the country through political
dialogue and with political decision making.
Next, I would have written about the serious need
for the Government to prove that its signatures on
the European Convention on Human Rights and
the other conventions and international bills are
not just a formality that allows us to say that "even
we" are "for democracy." But that it is realized
that those signatures carry certain obligations. In
that context I would have certainly proposed an
elaborate suggestion for the priority admittance of
ethnic Albanians into the Macedonian police,
which should help with shock-absorption and
eliminating the mutual distrust between a great
number of Albanians and a great number of
policemen in Macedonia. This distrust is based on
the fact that Albanians are convinced that the chief
task of the policemen is to arrest and beat as many
of them as possible. In the meantime, the police
have difficulty distinguishing between an
Albanian and a "terrorist."
But alas, I was a day late with my text, and the agenda of "my
expectations," logically, has changed. Just to make it clear, I, of
course, do not think that the new Government should postponed
what I have mentioned. But a couple of "new developments" have
brought about a new priority. Every subject in the Government
should unambiguously determine whether it is for the existence of
Macedonia within its boundaries, or if it has certain other plans, sim-
The latest happenings
in the Tetovo
and Lipkovo-
Kumanovo regions
have shown that
members of the
Macedonian police
need some constitutional
education, or
at least a reminder
of that which they
probably knew and
have obviously forgotten.
Therefore I
suggest that the
Government order
the police chiefs to
ensure their subordinates
read at
least Article 11 of
the actual
Macedonian
Constitution.
45
What now, June 2001