Polyparty-ism - Search for Common Ground

"This war has taken away everything
I had. I was working and earning
all my life in order to build a house for
my family. Now my home is gone. All
that's left of it is ruins. I live with my
family in the basement of my brother's
house. It is very hard. I don't have any
money or a job to earn it. I used to be
the most famous producer of tobacco in
Kumanovo. Before the war, I even won
a gold medal for the quality of my
tobacco. I lived a very normal life.
There were times when I was happy and
laughing, but now I feel like crying. I
am completely broke, and I still have to
take care of the 14 members of my family.
We live only on social help, the
2800 denars that we receive from the
state," said Ljutvi Ismaili from the village
of Matejche in the area of
Kumanovo.
His neighbor Elmi Azizi lives with
the same problems:
"Matejche is the only village in the
region of Lipkovo and Kumanovo with
a mixed ethnic population. For more
than 50 years, we lived together with
the Macedonians, as brothers, friends
and good neighbors. I cannot understand
where this hate came from. God
damn this war and the ones that caused
it! I think that the politicians have the
largest share of guilt. They have
"cooked" this mess, so that now they
can fill their pockets with some more
money. The war is over, but it didn't
bring anything good to us - only ruined
homes, misery and even worse poverty.
Everybody talk about the return of the
dislocated people, but no one has come
to see the conditions in our village of
Matejche. Where can the orthodox people
from the village return to when their
homes are completely destroyed?" he
said.
Ethnic crossroads
Mirjana Najchevska
In 2001 on the territory of the Republic of
Macedonia an interethnic conflict broke out.
Irrespective of how we define and name the
sides in the conflict, its ethnic dimension is
uncontested (considering both the immediate
participants, the content of the conflict and the
mediated participation of many groups of people
clustered on the basis of ethnic background.
The conflict was deemed to be due to
interethnic relations. While it lasted, it was
regarded as a clash between members of different
ethnicities and finally resulted in
changes in the interrelationship of various ethnicities
(in terms of both structure and social
interaction). The interethnic component outlines
the starting and finishing line of the conflict.
The question arising today is: have we
succeeded in stepping out of the closed circle
of conflict and have we set the grounds for
reviving democracy, or have we prepared the
ground for further conflicts?
BRUTALIZATION OF SOCIETY
We have had the opportunity to see and
feel that proclaiming good interethnic relations
is not sufficient, neither is coalition between
parties sufficient, nor the allocation of the
highest political and state positions. The many
years of inappropriate politics and the actual
treatment of interethnic relations, have created
conditions for manipulation of unprecedented
scale which, in its turn has led to brutalization
of society, an attempt to militarize it, and finally
to open violence. At the moment, we are
given the opportunity to see a the complex of
determinants underlying the current situation
in the Republic of Macedonia. For example:
the economic collapse, corruption, lowered
standard of living, lack of control over the government,
the dissolution of legal structures,
and the inability of democratic institutions to
function. Of these, interethnic relations still
holds first place and is regarded as a basis for
mobilizing citizens. Should we accept interethnic
relations as being primary in building democratic
structures, institutions and relations,
then, one should take into account the following:
what are they, which direction are they
going, what do citizens have at their at disposal
to improve them?
Interethnic conflicts usually have deep
roots in the sense of identity and the actual distribution
(or perception of distribution) of economic,
social and political resources of the
state. In the post-conflict period in the
Republic of Macedonia, the issue of identity
and fears related to its possible violation are
still considered taboo. Members of various
ethnic communities are not willing to listen to
the fears, desires and opinions of the "others."
Everyone remains enclosed within their own
group, which is also closed and thus it augments
fears and can not offer a solution to the
mutual problem. Both sides have a feeling that
We have had
the opportunity
to see and
feel that proclaiming
good
interethnic
relations is
not sufficient,
neither is
coalition
between parties
sufficient,
nor the allocation
of the
highest political
and state
positions
95
A new beginning, November 2002