Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

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just as some from the Macedonian
political body have had the courage to
talk about Macedonian nationalism
and radicalism. Such an approach will
reinforce mutual confidence and convince
the other side that there really
are forces which are ready to build a
common life."
Crvenkovski believes that a political
solution must be reached in order
to preserve the bridges of mutual confidence
and provide any kind of international
reputation for Macedonia.
"Everything is in vain if we do not
build a bridge of mutual confidence
based on the interethnic plan,"
Crvenkovski said. "You can make
whatever constitution you like, or keep
the old one and make it even more
Macedonian than the previous one. If
it does not hold water, there will be no
coexistence."
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT
TO GAIN SUPPORT OF
THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY
"SDSM will remain in coalition
with one of the Albanian parties in
Macedonia. The situation in
Macedonia will become much more
stable if everyone takes equal responsibility
for it," says Crvenkovski. In
announcing that his party will play a
leading role in responsible politics,
Crvenkovski continued, "Party rating
and reputation are absolutely worthless
if you lose the country." That is
why SDSM entered the Government
of political unity.
"We could not stand aside and
watch Macedonia collapse in order to
prove the triumph of SDSM. If we had
not entered the Government,
Macedonia would have become a new
Bosnia. Far too many adventurous,
insensible, and hasty movements had
been made before we entered the executive
power. The more rational attitude
that we promoted contributed to
providing and preserving peace,"
claims Crvenkovski.
In that context, he also thinks that
it is important to have the support of
the international community.
"The international community is
not against Macedonia. The idea that
the whole world is against us is tied up
with the mantra that the war is a consequence
of some evil which was
brought from outside and not something
we did on our own. The international
community firmly claims that
Macedonian territorial integrity and its
borders should not come into question.
That attitude is more Macedonian than
the one promoted by some
Macedonian circles about the
exchange of territories and people.
That could have definitely destroyed
Macedonian territorial integrity and
we could have lost our country," thinks
Crvenkovski.
We should take that aspect in consideration.
However, there are a lot of
other things, which should be changed
in Macedonia.
"We must introduce different
moral attitudes and systems of values
in this country. The crucial question is,
what are we all going to do to deal
with criminals and other outlaws?
Evil is greater than we can see, and we
are at a crossroads at the moment: to
accept either a South American or a
European state model," thinks
Crvenkovski.
ROOTS OF THIS CRISIS
LIE DEEPER
Chedo Kralevski, the coordinator
of the largest representative group in
the Parliament, VMRO-DPMNE,
thinks that his party shares responsibility
for the implementation of the Ohrid
Agreement, but also that the international
community has broken its own
proclaimed principles in Macedonia.
He is afraid that the Albanian political
factor has taken sides, moderate and
radical, which is not a good sign for
the relaxation of interethnic tensions.
"The Macedonian example has
showed that it is the international community
which breaks its own principles
regarding international relations,"
says Kralevski.
He explains this thesis by the fact
that Macedonia, as a sovereign state,
has experienced aggression from a
protectorate like Kosovo, which is
under control of the international community.
"The international community
called this aggression by its proper
name-terrorism, and Albanian extremism-at
the beginning. Later the international
community changed their
name to "fighters for human rights and
freedom'" and "rebels." That means
that the principle of the protection of
one independent country's sovereignty
has been violated and terrorism has
actually been legalized," the coordinator
of the VMRO-DPMNE representative
group commented.
The roots of this crisis, according
to Kralevski, lie deeper than what is
now happening in Macedonia.
"First, the international community
took sides when Slobodan
Miloshevich's regime was in power in
Yugoslavia by approving the NATO
intervention. I think that, in order to
oppose Milosevic, the international
community sided with the Albanian
factor. The creation of the Kosovo
Protection Corps, which was supposed
to represent an institutional form for
the fighters for freedom and rights,
was in fact the creation of a military
organization, which actually continued
to work according to the principles of
the Prizren League," says Kralevski.
"It was allowed to develop ideas
about a greater Albanian country, even
though Miloshevich's ideology about a
great Serbian country had previously
been condemned and punished.
Terrorists were allowed to present
themselves as "fighters for human
rights," although it was clear that the
Albanian minority in Macedonia
enjoyed all rights and freedom,"
Kralevski said.
OHRID AGREEMENT WAS
A FORCED SOLUTION
That is how the Ohrid Framework
Agreement came to be, as a forced
solution, which was supposed to prevent
interethnic war on a wider scale.
"That agreement can represent a
good foundation for calming down the
situation in the country especially if
we take into consideration statements
made by the Albanian representatives
in the Parliament, such as the one
Abdurahman Aliti made: 'this is more
or less the end of Albanian demands in
Macedonia.' However, activities show
Return of peace, December 2001