After Republican Elections

Authorities With No Opposition

The convincing victory of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) in the Republican elections has created all pre-conditions for long desired thorough changes in Serbia, but this outcome of the elections has as a result the authorities with no opposition. Will the role of the opposition be taken over by somebody else? The media, non-governmental organisation or direct democracy through gatherings of the citizens?

AIM Belgrade, December 27, 2000

Serbia has got democratically elected authorities, but it has lost the opposition which should prevent it by constant inspection from becoming a regime. Even if the other parties had won a larger number of seats in Serbian parliament the new authorities would not have had an opposition whose criticism should have been taken into account. The reason for that is not in the small number of deputies but in the fact that the parties – Socialist Party of Serbia, Yugoslav United Left, Serb Radical Party - which had been in power before December elections are completely discredited. Against every piece of criticism coming from the ranks of the Socialists and the Radicals the current authorities have a strong excuse in the fact that their opponents had made much more drastic mistakes which have an unfavourable impact on everyday life of ordinary people, from the catastrophic energy situation due to which Serbia has sunk into a deep winter darkness although at the same time the roads towards international institutions and European integration are brightly lit for it, to the lowest possible standard of living which has thrown one third of the population into great poverty.

Quite a long time will be necessary for economic revival, maybe even a whole decade, but new winds have started to blow with the new authorities coming to power. Opening to the world is experienced like penetration of fresh air into a dungeon which had been firmly shut for years. The confidence placed in them in the Republican elections shows that the new authorities were welcomed with great hope and a great deal of understanding for the hard heritage the previous regime has left it.

With confidence and hope on the one, the new authorities are simultaneously exposed to an everyday test on the other hand. Their moves will be watched closely, because the population has no reserves any more with which it could alleviate the mistakes of the new ruling team, regardless of the fact that it has taken over the ship full of holes. Its handicap is in insufficient experience in discharging state duties as well as in the obligation to carry out fundamental changes in the state apparatus with the help of which the former regime has managed to survive for so long.

With two-thirds majority in the parliament, the DOS was given a free hand to create fundamental changes, but it has at the same time assumed great responsibility. It might sound as a paradox, but it would have been much easier for the new authorities if they had had a strong parliamentary opposition. If there is none in the Republican assembly, it should exist somewhere else. As things stand now, the new authorities will be faced with the obligation to account for their moves outside the existing institutions, because they have no relevant partners in the parliament, and there is justified doubt about their readiness to check themselves. Watching oneself in the mirror every day and pointing out to one's mistakes of one's own initiative will weaken in time partly under the influence of false flatterers, and partly because of adverbial blindness of all authorities when their weaknesses are concerned.

At this moment there are a few possibilities which indicate who could take over the role of the opposition, that is, of supervision of the authorities. One is the media, but many are suspicious about the possibility of their taking over this role. According to these views there are two reasons which deny the media the capability for this job. One is in the inclination of primarily the state media to curry favour with the authorities, so instead of editorial boards having journalists installed in institutions of the system and political parties, the situation is usually exactly the opposite.

The second handicap of the media lies in the fact that many of them fought for a long time, together with political parties, for overthrowing the former regime. This symbiosis has created many friendships between journalists and politicians, so one can hardly expect them to be broken up. The practice that many journalists linked success in their profession to the destiny of politicians also implies this.

According to other assessments, the role of the opposition could be taken over by non-governmental organisations, more than two thousand of them, especially because some of them have played prominent roles in overthrowing the former regime, such as Otpor, Group G-17, International Relations Forum and others. Suspicions are arising here too, mostly because in the meantime some leaders of non-governmental organisations changed their roles by moving into ministerial and other offices of state institutions. It remains to be seen whether they will “forget” their previous engagement at their new posts.

And as the third possibility of inspecting the work of the authorities is the public, or the spontaneous reactions of the citizens. It has already had its confirmation in practice especially lately. It is sufficient to remind of the protests of students who do not allow their professors to test them on subject matter they had not lectured on, blockades of traffic on main roads, independent organisation of investigations and raising criminal charges. This type of protests has already acquired a specific form of direct democracy which will, all things considered, be applied during the rule of DOS. The opinion according to which this is the most efficient form of inspecting the work of the authorities is quite widespread.

The advocates of this give the example of the developments linked to the raid of armed Albanians on the territory of the security zone in the south of Serbia, in Bujanovac. In the first attempt the federal parliament did not succeed in completing its part of the job because it was left without a quorum, which was received by the public with unconcealed disappointment especially because the deputies were not called to account for such a negligent attitude. On the other hand, the protests of the citizens in Bujanovac succeeded in gathering the federal and the Republican government in just two days, inducing them to establish a permanent committee, to open an information centre and get more involved in the problem.

Ratomir Petkovic

(AIM)