How New Authorities in FRY Operate

Old Cadres for New Tasks

AIM Belgrade, November 20, 2000

"The new must not intoxicate us, and fear of return to the old ways must not intimidate and deform us", said Zoran Zizic immediately after election to the post of the federal prime minister and with this statement perhaps made the best hint to the position from which he as the man with broad jurisdiction and his party - the Socialist People's Party (SNP) as one of the coalition partners in power - would act in the future. He has already manifested this in practice by nominating the ministers from the former government for the new one, although he has set as his priority tasks the commitment to "a lasting effort for restructuring Yugoslav economy and necessary reforms in the political and the economic system".

The logical question is whether the same persons who advocated or at least agreed to the policy of isolation, who supported their then prime minister Momir Bulatovic, who is also the president of the SNP, who used to say that "we do not need membership in the IMF, it can only be in our way", can now heartily advocate quick joining of the IMF and opening to the world? Can, for example, Dragisa Pesic sit in the chair of the minister of finance although in his official curriculum vitae it is clearly stated that he "chaired the Budget Committee of the Chamber of Citizens and since 1998 was the minister of finance of the Federal Government", in other words in the period when the obsession with self-satisfaction was stirred up in the sphere of finance, and when there were practically no contacts with the world? The only explanation that arrived from the ranks of the SNP was that "the coalition agreement signed in Podgorica entitles each partner to full freedom in decision-making within the quotas agreed in division of posts in the future administration on the federal level".

This principle was obviously strictly applied in cadre distribution not only of ministerial posts. According to the information arriving from Podgorica in occupation of the remaining posts on the federal level, the “SNP will give priority to the cadres who have already been in certain ministries and institutions in the jurisdiction of the government". That is the explanation given by vice-president of this party Predrag Bulatovic who added that "it is self-understood that these will be the persons who have passed the evaluation of their municipal party organisations they come from". These are, of course, the same party organisations which had decided to run in the elections of September 24 supporting the candidacy of Slobodan Milosevic for the president of FRY, who had participated in the forcible amendment of the Constitution in April 1999, who had represented Montenegro in the federal parliament contrary to the will of its parliament. Why should then anybody be surprised by the fact that former minister of justice in the federal government Zoran Knezevic will be the head of the Secretariat of Science and Development, that Ilija Scepanovic will remain in the Commodity Reserves Directorate, that Masan Ercegovic is expected to be the federal foreign exchange inspector as before. If these persons are not obliged to explain how it could have happened that the federal commodity reserves are completely exhausted, or how come that the foreign currency confiscated at the borders ended up in the cashbox of Mihalj Kertes (former head of the Customs Administration) instead of the Foreign Exchange Inspectorate, it should not surprise anybody that former deputy minister of foreign trade Rade Nisovic will take the post of the director of a federal institution, and that former minister of agriculture Radivoje Rasovic will take one of the important posts at the National Bank of Yugoslavia. Former deputy minister of transportation Miodrag Zivkovic and the deputy of the minister of sports Labud Jankovic will remain in the ministries where they used to be, and Momcilo Bojovic, former director of one of the federal institutions might become the head of a media which according to a plan “belong” to the SNP.

It is obvious that the key of distribution of the Montenegrin quota on the federal level relies on the already mentioned "unnecessary fear of the past", which is by many linked to the fact that "Montenegrin JUL" as the SNP is called by some opposition parties in Serbia has not really broken the coalition with the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) as Zizic had declared immediately after having reached the agreement with the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS). Attentive analysts have not failed to note that the federal prime minister until the very eve of his official election, had called the ruling majority in Montenegro the "Coalition for their better living" although by signing the agreement with the coalition partners he had pledged his word that "the federal government will cooperate with republican governments, the presidents of the republics and the president of FRY in the achievement of goals".

When one adds to this the rumours that the session of the federal parliament at which the government was elected started with a few-hour delay because of "subsequent" rewriting of Zizic's policy statement in order to be accepted by the coalition partners from DOS, nobody was surprised when news was made public that Mladjen Dinkic, candidate of DOS, would not get the support of the SNP in the assembly of FRY in the election for the governor of the National Bank of Yugoslavia (NBJ), with a very queer explanation that the reason should be sought in "some of his statements linked to Montenegro", as interpreted by federal prime minister Zizic or that "it is a constitutional right of the deputies to vote according to their conviction", as interpreted by Predrag Bulatovic, head of the group of SNP deputies in the assembly of FRY.

How come that the candidacy of Mladjen Dinkic is controversial when no other personnel issue has caused a dispute, at least not in public, not even when persons from the former Serbian regime were elected for the posts of assembly committees: Gorica Gajevic to the post of the chairman of the Committee for Credit and Monetary Policy, Jovan Zebic to chair the Budget Committee, Zivorad Igic to be the head of the Commission for the achievement of freedoms, rights and duties of man and citizen, or Vlajko Stojiljkovic to be the head of the Committee for the Market and Development. The only logical conclusion is that the issue here is not Mladjen Dinkic at all, as the man who "with his declarations sometimes make even us despair" as Zoran Djindjic said when he announced that DOS would firmly support Dinkic's candidacy even at the cost of the split of the coalition. Representatives of Montenegrin ruling party on the level of Yugoslavia immediately transferred the issue to the level of the state hinting in this way answers to the question who does not approve of Dinkic. "We have established a joint government with DOS because of the interest of the people to preserve Yugoslavia. If DOS steps out of the government, it will not mean just the end of this government, but much more will be questioned", said Predrag Bulatovic among other, and Srdja Bozovic, vice-president of SNP and chairman of the Chamber of the Republics of the federal assembly in this but also in the previous term in office, warned that "after all, the governor is nominated by president Kostunica and it is his duty to ensure that his proposal wins the majority in the assembly". This statement arrived at the time of a curious polemic going on within DOS about running in the forthcoming republican elections together, so another dilemma inevitably arises. Are Montenegrin Socialists, relying on the possible split between Kostunica and DOS, taking the advantage of the possibility to show their "power" on the only remaining personnel issue that the parliament decides on and not just ratifies, or by intentionally using the situation in Serbia where deliberately created chaos prevails in all spheres, trying to help "the defeated forces whose ambition is to return to the political scene in full glory by presenting themselves to the people as saviors".

If Mladjen Dinkic's candidacy is a matter of controversy because, as some claim, of his “illegal usurpation of the post of the governor” it is logical to previously give answers to two questions: how did this man nominate himself for the post and what did this “self-proclaimed governor” who, by the way, already appears in the capacity of the envoy of the president of FRY at negotiations of the governors of former Yugoslav republics on succession, what harm did he do to the Montenegrins when the National Bank of Yugoslavia, since the time of Zizic's ministers had no influence on what was happening in that Republic?

If in fact against Dinkic's candidacy stand the parties from Serbia which are just using the SNP as spokesmen, it is quite clear what they reproach him for. He has prevented destruction of documentation which could discredit them, he has prevented headlong depreciation of the dinar, he has shut some of the illegal flows of money issue, he has prevented the attempt of the banks from issuing money a month and a half after the defeat of the former regime. That he has done this with the approval of the ones who had on the tide of the people's democratic revolution forced the Socialists and JUL to schedule early elections in Serbia it is not hard to confirm. Besides, if a single party from DOS, hiding behind its demand for legitimacy and legality and feeding on the sudden increase of its popularity after September elections does not think that its ambitions have reached its limit by inauguration of the president of Yugoslavia and the taken ministerial posts or the posts of ambassadors in the new Yugoslav diplomacy, it is forgetting the previous agreement. Everybody, including those from DOS who are nowadays claiming that on October 5 it was unnecessary to “break into” certain institutions of the system in order to prevent what the defeated forces of the regime had intended to do and what they are revealing every day on the level of the interim Republican government, should be asked to give an answer to the question: what would have happened in Serbia if what was done had not been done?

Like many people nowadays in Serbia, especially on the eve of the Republican elections, should be reminded that the change of public opinion did not occur by pure chance, but that it is the result of a very carefully chosen personality of the future president from the ranks of DOS, neither according to the strength of the party nor according to the momentary popularity of the leaders. Everybody should also be reminded, and not just in Serbia, that the people of this Republic have linked their votes to the economic platform of G-17 Plus which was backed by DOS. Entering the coalition with SNP, the Democratic Opposition of Serbia has partly already betrayed the confidence of the electorate because by doing it they have failed to keep the pre-election promise that the future federal government would be a government of experts which would implement the proposed platform. If the reality imposed that it was necessary to form the coalition with the SNP and agree to a compromise, it is the least permissible to agree to a compromise in the sphere of the economy which means failing the expectations of the citizens of Serbia that thanks to radical economic changes they would live better every day. At the moment, thanks to implementation of a part of the platform of G-17 Plus which was adopted as the platform of the government, Yugoslavia is quickly opening to the world. But at this moment it is joining the world and the world institutions without doing practically anything except accepting the principles that exist in that world. However, the moves are awaiting to be made which demand very serious work on changing the system inside the country, in its legislature and in practice, the changes which require an absolutely independent central bank which will act without fear or favour, which is exactly what Dinkic has been publicly insisting on for a long time already. Is the current government ready to accept this reality? How will the ministers from the ranks of Montenegrin Socialists comply with deputy prime minister Miroljub Labus and his ministers, and how will act the chairmen of assembly committees from the ranks of Serbian Socialists and Leftists, which should promptly, professionally and efficiently carry out what the government initiates?

There are too many questions without real answers. Too much of the “old” behavior wherever one turns. In too many minds nothing has changed either on September 24 or on October 5. Are there forces that are aware of that? Despite everything, one should believe that there are. At least there are those whose slogan “We are just watching you” still stands just as a warning.

Tatjana Stankovic

(AIM)