OPEN ATTACKS ON OPEN SOCIETY

Georg Soros's recent talk with President Tudjman was the most embarrassing one in his life. Soros had no luck in Croatia from the start. From the very beginning he was seen as a disruptive factor. Tudjman and his followers find it hard to understand why anyone would invest in Croatia if he didn't share the enthusiasm for his regime. The new Chairman of the Managing Board of the Open Society Foundation, Mika Tripalo confirmed that Soros's aim was to create an intellectual infrastructure by educating young people. Those young people would be a precondition and prerequisite for strengthening democracy and democratism in the countries of Eastern Europe. Without democratically educated men, old generals and young commissioners will remain in power. Failing to win over the Foundation, Tudjman's rude behaviour perhaps aimed at provoking anger and withdrawal on the part of his interlocutor.

AIM,ZAGREB, December 16, 1993

After his recent meeting with Franjo Tudjman, shocked George Soros reportedly said that it was the most embarrassing conversation in his life. The official release of the President's Office was also bristling - it was obvious that the President had given the benefactor a piece of his mind.

The range of complaints was rather broad: Tudjman objected that the Open Society Foundation rendered humanitarian assistance only to the Moslems, and not to the Croats as well, which is either an outrageous lie or misinformation, his crown argument for proving its political unacceptability being the claim that Soros Foundation rallies people belonging to the old regime and those who had been in emigration for years. Although Tudjman's suite operates on the same combination, the President sees no similarity whatsoever. By advising Soros to rely in the future on those "already elected several times by the Croatian people", Tudjman once again demonstrated not only his enormous political greed but also the principle on which his rule operates: believing that their victory at the elections gave them the legitimate right to dispose with overall Croatia, the ruling party took over everything - from the Army to the kindergartens, from the media to the hospitals, from the factories to the private shops, so why not take over a foundation too, especially if it is rich.

Soros had no luck in Croatia from the very start. From the very beginning he was seen as a disruptive factor. For two reasons. The dollars he was leaving in Croatia faded into the background and were even regarded as an aggravating circumstance on account of his political views. He spoke of nationalism as a negative phenomenon, juxtaposing it to democracy. But, the Croatian authorities also expect lip service from those who give it material assistance. Money without love - makes the President peevish. And also suspicious : Tudjman and his followers find it hard to understand why anyone would invest in Croatia if he didn't share the enthusiasm for his regime.

Even more suspicious is when someone wants to invest in Croatia and does not seek to skim the cream at once. In a state functioning on the basis of the primitive accumulation of capital, in which unscrupulous political power and equally unscrupulous material greed go hand in hand - it is extremely difficult to understand altruism. Political and business upstarts cannot understand this. They looked for ulterior motives: what does he want if he doesn't want to turn a dollar, for hidden designs, secret organizations, the media mounted an overt witch hunt from the very beginning. Mention was made of the Masons, Jews, the funny profits made at the stock exchange, homesickness...

All this doesn't mean that the hunters had anything against Soros's money: no, they were OK in principle, but needed to be properly channelled. Therefore, they attempted to take over the Foundation's Managing Board. Three presidents were changed in a relatively short period of time. Zarko Puhovski reacted to power as a bull to a red cloth: since the public was led to believe that the "left wingers" should be "crushed down" as the worst "vermin" (a term favoured by Zarko Domljan), the possibility of Puhovski's control over whom the Foundation would support was simply insupportable. When Jaksa Kusan whose Croatian-ness could not be questioned and even had an aura of emigration took the helm the witch hunt slightly subsided as it was thought that "Soros had been conquered". However, Kusan proved not so easily conquerable.

Now, the appointment of Miko Tripalo as President of the Managing Board of the Open Society Foundation for Croatia meant adding insult to injury for the Presidnecy. Tripalo says that Soros himself proposed him for this position, explaining that his intention was "bring closer the activities of the Foundation to its basic purpose - namely the struggle for an open society - through personnel changes". Taking over the offered position, which he is discharging on a volunteer basis, Tripalo said that he has set three basic objectives. "First of all - he said - I will see to it that the activities of the Foundation should never and in no case be directed against the interests of Croatia. It is almost unbelievable - he added - that Georg Soros is being attacked in almost all countries in which the Foundation is operating, on the basis of arguments that the Foundation is working against the interest of such countries. Precisely for these reasons I shall exert personal efforts so as not to allow the Foundation to become an instrument of state or policy of any party or group. And finally, I shall seek to keep the Foundation a fully non-profit organization so that people who could materially benefit from its operation would not be able to penetrate.

Although in this year alone the Soros Foundation donated to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina five million dollars in humanitarian assistance and the Foundation for Croatia financed this year approximately million and 250 thousand dollars worth scientific and cultural projects, Tudjman's anger is easy to understand. Soros is best known as a supporter of independent media. And the regimes here are founded and survive on unfree media controlled by politics. Just when he succeeded in turning the "cathedral of Croatian spirit" into the Croatian TV - Bastille, when he brought the papers into line, when he "cleansed" the media space, Soros appeared with the intention of pulling out the first brick in that Potemkin's village. To help the independent media and bring in a virus of a free press into the Croatian media dangerous for the authoritarian power. The Soros Foundation helped the "Feral Tribune", the "Novi List" from Rijeka, it is said that it will also help "Vijenac" a quarterly of the Croatian Publishing Society, and has recently showed interest for radio stations and TV-rpogrammes. Where one independent paper appears, another will follow, while those which are not such will by the force of circumstances sound differently. Tudjman understands that this could be dangerous for the system he has built.

Secondly, the Foundation awrds scholarships to young and promising men from all over Eastern Europe, and consequently also from Croatia, endeavouring to create an intellectual infrastructure fro the future, which could in time become extremely influential. In Croatia they are wondering what Soros intends to do with hundreds of young scientists and intellectuals he is presently having educated at best world universities. Doesn't this sepak of his political objectives? When they have recently asked Tripalo the same question, he confirmed that Soros's aim is to create intellectual infrastructure by educating young people, but not for his own political aspirations; scholarship holders do not owe the Foundation anything, but with their knowledge and activities they will impregnate the society whose members they are and thus contribute to its opening. "Consequenntly, these new men would actually be a precondition and prerequisite for strengthening democracy and democratism in the countries of Eastern Europe." And according to the logic of the ruling regimes, which cultivate the confinement of their society this is naturally, extremely subversive.

Soros understood that without a new way of thinking there can be no serious changes, that without open people there is no open society, without democratically educated people, old generals and young commissioners will remain in power. Therefore, Tudjman's excessive behaviour during meeting with Georg Soros is not only arrogant disregard of the civilized maxim never to look a gift horse in the mouth; President's anger actually predominantly speaks of the character of his regime, which with good reason feels directly threatened by the values the Soros Foundation is upholding. In case the consequence of the embarrassment he has experienced in the President's palace would be Soros's decision to withdraw from Croatia, and such deliberations - than it could be said that the Croatian President has achieved his reserve solution. As he has failed to win over the Foundation, Tudjman's rude behaviour was perhaps aimed at provoking anger and withdrawal on the part of his interlocutor.

JELENA LOVRIC