Party Affiliation – Best Qualification

AIM Zagreb, 2 may, 2000

The cute sentence uttered by Vladimir Seks in the beginning of the nineties, in the era of revolutionary elimination of “communist cadre” which was mercilessly carried out by the Croat Democratic Community (HDZ) after it had come to power “by will of the Croat people” – that in Great Britain it was impossible to even be a postman in the remotest village if you did not belong to the party that had won the elections – seems to have appealed to the parties of the victorious coalition. The paper written and signed on 27 March by secretaries general of the six parties that had won the elections – SDP, HSLS, HSS, LS, HNS and IDS – having innocently called it the Compulsory Instructions, in its implementation turned out to be just a continuation of the policy of HDZ to appoint only the “apt” (that is, its party cadre), regardless of their true capabilities.

The same practice continues nowadays, only with different means, following the thesis that all the brains are gathered in parties, indeed just those which win the elections. Party committees in the field were ordered by their seats to send the proposals for new nominations for posts in 23 institutions by 10 April. These are the Croatian privatisation fund, defence offices, Croatian Railways, pension insurance, Croatian forests, regional offices of Croatian state attorneys, Croatian post office and other institutions, so the election winners could assign important posts to party members. Sweet pre-election promises that time of the “apt ones” has passed in Croatia for ever and that political parties would no more interfere with question of cadre are covered by wormwood. Criticism which is opposed to having new echelons of the apt were silenced by the explanation that the six parties were given the mandate in the elections on 3 January for changes, so it was only logical that these changes would be carried out with the help of persons loyal to them. It turned out that the will of the people was used in the same manner as once HDZ interpreted it, and this opened the possibilities for insatiable ambitions of loyal party members.

Party committees in the field, with compulsory instructions in their hands, were thus given the opportunity to satisfy the greed of their activists, members and supporters who – after they had beaten HDZ – had a strong wish to get even for the long years and months of personal marginalisation. In Osijek local organisation of SDP was literally swamped with curricula vitae of its members who wished to put themselves “at the disposal”, readily sacrificing themselves for a term in a well paid state post. If it had not been for the clumsiness of local members of SDP who allowed a heap of beautified biographies disappear from a drawer at the party seat and mysteriously end up in the hands of HDZ which as key evidence of “retaliation” against them they gladly gave to media, the public would have been deprived of the information about the cadre potential this party has and what people think is important for their way to comfortable posts.

One of the writers of curricula vitae who put himself “at the disposal” of his party, SDP, states that he has participated in all party election campaigns since 1995 to this day and in all kinds of party activities, and that, although a specialist physician, organised “putting up posters, distribution of leaflets, education of members and volunteers”.

Another aspirant for one of the posts in 23 institutions which the victorious six wish to cover with their cadre writes: “During parliamentary elections I took active part in the work of the party (night duty, debates, distribution of propaganda materials, putting up posters and similar)” believing this to be a sufficient reference for him to take over one of the posts held so far by members of HDZ.

That there are no limits to ambition is testified also by a part of the curriculum vitae sent by a lawyer to his party, who offered his diploma (expertness) and expressed talent for organisation: “Ever since early childhood, according to my opinion, I manifested talent for organisation, and often, in elementary school and high school, I was the president of the class or discharged some such duty. Having occupied myself with music ever since I started high school to the beginning of the homeland war, in almost all the bands in which I have played I was the business managers, that is, the 'head' of the orchestra.”

That curricula vitae were not sent to party committees just for the fun of it, to be close at hand should there be more vacancies than wise candidates is testified by quite a specific sacrifice one of this party's chief supporters is ready to make: “After more than 15 years of working experience I believe that I am capable of responding to the challenge of highly responsible duties”, a graduated economist writes to the city organisation of SDP in Osijek. “If I were to choose one of the institutions the coordination of six parties demanded proposals for I would say that I have interest and inclination towards the work in one of the following institutions: Croatian privatisation fund, financial police, state auditing office, Republican fund of pension and disability insurance of workers, in the given order”.

The manner in which some of the party leaders on lower instances are trying to explain implementation of compulsory instructions is also interesting. According to them this is a democratic procedure because for the posts which persons are usually nominated to, in other words which are filled without a public competition, a broad debate about the candidates has taken place. Besides, they claim in the parties, a certain number of persons who do not belong to any party are also on the lists, so there is no question of any kind of “new aptness”. But news are arriving from the field that the election victors are aiming even at the jobs which are usually got by public competition. Media are especially attractive in this sense, primarily the most influential ones - radio and television, or their regional reporter bureaus. Although all six parties declare themselves in favour of public television, they wish very much to play the decisive role in nomination of the management of media. Indeed, not because they are fond of public television but in order to have influence on the editorial policy of the most influential media.

However, the new political aptness is not gladly accepted everywhere because it is clear that it is no change for the better in relation to the practice of HDZ which had brought Croatia into its catastrophic situation.

In Zadar, the local organisation of LS opposed the party cadre lists and together with HSS and HNS stepped out of the local coordination which was supposed to become some kind of a “committee” in which, each Monday morning, while coffee is sipped, questions of cadre would be solved in the same manner as during the best communist times.

Although curricula vitae were probably written all over Croatia with high hopes of their proud owners that they would replace cadre of HDZ, their contents have reached the public just in Osijek. They testify that one can hardly expect true democratic changes as long as awareness is not changed that there is wisdom to be found even outside parties and that putting up posters in an election campaign cannot be an advantage over an expert who has no such “talent for organisation” and even less affinity for anything of the kind. That is why it will happen that such cadre who are nowadays in their curricula vitae stressing in bold letters their party merits, in a few years when their parties lose in the elections will claim the same things that HDZ cadre are claiming nowadays – that they were just professionals and that they were not appointed to the posts by politics.

Drago Hedl