THE BOSNIAN CLICHE

AIM, Skopje December 23, 1994

The election of a new Government in Macedonia's Parliament has shown that the disagreements of the coalition parties, members of the Alliance for Macedonia, had not been overcome. On this occasion, when voting for the Government the Liberals abstained, although they participate in it. "The bargaining for ministerial armchairms" which lasted all the twenty days available to Prime Minister designate, Branko Crvenkovski, to pick his government is now continuing in Parliament.

The cause for the discord of the Liberals is the election of the "eternal" minister Ilijaz Sabriu, to the new Government. The Liberals were not bothered by the fact that this was the fifth successive government in which he was minister, but by the fact that he attended the proclamation of the University in the Albanian language in Tetovo, considered illegal by the official Macedonian authorities. But, the principled stance of the Liberals who object to the attendance of the old-new minister at the opening of the University is unfounded, because the President of the PDP, Abdurahman Aliti, the Vice-President of Parliament as well as most Albanians deputies to Parliament, also attended the ceremony.

The Liberals did not say a single word about this in the discussion on the composition of the Government. It is, therefore, not strange that the first comments on the election of the new government assess the behaviour of the Liberals as an expression of dissatisfaction with the awarded ministerial posts and that the compromise which they evidently have to make, leads to further disagreements with their main coalition partner - the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia. This, in turn, shows that the Alliance for Macedonia, the joint denominator and defender of which is the President of the Republic, Kiro Gligorov, is showing the first signs of "fatigue".

It is now obvious that the coalition of the three political parties all jointly focusing on the "life and opus" of the President of the Republic, is functioning with difficulty. It remains to be seen how long President Kiro Gligorov will be able to invest his authority and his popularity to remain the politically unbiased President of all the citizens of Macedonia. The opposition of the Liberals can be associated with the views of the Liberal Party vis-a-vis other ethnic groups, primarily Albanians, in Macedonia.

Namely, the Liberals can be dissatisfied with the insistence of Gligorov and Crvenkovski that the Albanians and the PDP should have the same number of ministers in the government. On the other hand, their disagreement with the election of Sabriu and the protest against the opening of an Albanian University in Tetovo, is only a continuation of the positions of the Liberals towards the Macedonian Albanians. Let us remind that the Liberal Party (then within Markovic's Reform Party), after the first round of the first parliamentary elections, when it was clear that the PDP would win votes in Western Macedonia, was the one to propose that all Macedonian parties nominate common counter candidates of Albanian nationality.

The Liberals also proposed the constitutional definition of Macedonia as the parent state of the Macedonian people, which practically blocked the adoption of the Constitution and caused numerous problems, namely repeated voting and the rejection of an already adopted amendment. It can even be said that in respect of this issue, the Liberals are closer to the positions of the Macedonian national block than to the parties in their coalition.

If the latest events on the Macedonian political scene, primarily those concerning the opening of the University in Tetovo, are taken as an indicator of the situation in the relations between the two largest populations in Macedonia, both parties and politicians should be seriously concerned. Signs of national homogenization and confinement into hermetic ethnic circles, are clearly visible. Differences in respect of Macedonia's national position between left, right and parties of the center, boil down to only several percent, depending on nationalistic passions. On the Albanian side, parties have consolidated themselves because of the Macedonian attitude towards the University and everything preceding that.

All of them, both the ruling and the opposition ones, as well as the independent Albanian parliamentarians not only supported the establishment of the University, but also signed a document on its founding. Even "deadly enemies" such as the PDP and its first men Aliti, Djaferi and Tachi, who caused the dissolution of the PDP, did that. Nevzat Halili, who was relieved of office just before the dissolution of the PDP, walked through the streets of Tetovo with those who had removed him.

The media in the Macedonian language described all that as an attempt to "Kosovize" Macedonia. The phrase the "Kosovization of Macedonia" was frequently used in the second half of the eighties, when the League of Communists of Macedonia carried out party and labour differentiation on the issue of Albanian nationalism and irredentism. The matrix of Kosovo is hardly applicable to Macedonia, since different situations are in question. What is more appropriate is the "Bosnian cliche" which seems to be emerging. For, in pure and closed ethnic circles, there appear parties and politicians who, within the circle, compete for the status of the only political representative. The parties and politicians who manage to acquire that status negotiate with the other side, the representatives of the other closed ethnic circle.

In the beginning everything is easy and agreement can be reached on everything, both on participating in the government and on specific laws. That logic always demands for oneself more than what is one willing to give to others. By the nature of things, problems arise when "our" rights collide with "their" rights. Then both sides have no other alternative but to insist on their demands. With the selfless aid of the media divided along the same lines.

And finally, some people gather and leave Parliament and the government, go to their Pale, proclaim autonomy and establish their authorities. Deja vu. What is tragic is that, despite everything, parties and politicians have learned nothing and those who have voted for them, and who will remain their electorate, have learned even less. Domanovic's the "Leader" assumes prophetic dimensions. Everything else is unimportant. In an interview to the Makedonsko Sunce, PDP leader, Aliti, answering the provocative question of a journalist, speaks about the roots of the disagreements between ethnic Macedonians and other ethnic groups in Macedonia.

Both interlocutors proceed from the fact that Macedonia is a unitarian, and also a national state of the Macedonian people, which it is not, at least according to the constitutional definition of the state. The journalist, so as to derive from that that the Macedonian language is the only official language of the state, that other ethnic groups have greater rights than those prescribed under international conventions and, accordingly, that they have no right to a university in their language. Aliti - to argue on the basis of numerous specific facts, that the Macedonian side is not respecting the reality of the population mix, that the state is multinational, which in others creates the impression of being second class citizens. According to Aliti, the solution is a state which will rely on the individual - citizen, and not on the collectivity - nationality.

Naturally, every citizen should be loyal to his state and should enjoy equal rights as others. At the same time, Aliti met the Albanian Ambassador to Macedonia, Saban Murati, at his request. In the statement after their meeting, mention is made of the positive stance of Albania with regard to the participation of Albanians in the new government. As opposed to the statement of Arben Djaferi and his deputy, Rufi Osmani, on a programme in the Albanian language on TV Skopje, that they oppose the participation of Albanians in the Government, referring to Albania's support for such a position.

Another piece of evidence for the "Bosnian cliche" - are international mediators. In a short period of time, Skopje was visited by Mathew Nimitz, bringing Gligorov Clinton's letter, in which, according to some speculations, the American President also mentions the Albanians. The letter has not been published yet, although the prevailing practice here is that everything in favour of the President sees the light of day. Owen, Stoltenberg and Ahrens also visited Skopje.

The first two availed themselves of the opportunity to ask what was happening with the Albanian University, while the third, they say, came specifically for that purpose. The proclaimed University publicized a competition for the enrolment of students in the first year. The Macedonian media do not inform of that, the Albanian ones make do. State TV broadcasts this piece of information and explaining that because of the length of the text, it cannot carry it integrally, refers the listeners to obtain further information from the seat of the University, which should have been sealed.

The daily Fljaka e vlazerimit is more inventive

• it does not publish information on the competition, but an interview with a man who gives all the relevant information on the manner of enrolment in his answers. According to the good old "one - day memories" things go on, just like nothing happened.

Iso Rusi