DEMOCRATIC DIALOGUE OF NATIONAL PROGRAMS

AIM Skopje, March 20, 1996

Commitment of the program of Macedonian National Convention to affirm man as an individual and Macedonia as a national state simply implies that concepts of "man" and "Macedonian" are - synonyms.

Whether Macedonia should develop as a national or a civic state, or should its stratified society be supplemented with some other attributes, are questions concerning which intellectuals have been disputing ever since Macedonia gained independence, and the answer in a large number of cases can be determined in advance according to ethnic origin of the person giving it. Even if there are some intellectuals from the Macedonian cultural environment who are not convinced that a civic state would not in the least endanger statehood creation of the nation (which indeed sometimes and in some aspects faces serious denials), they certainly do not belong to the newly registered Macedonian association with a pretentious name - the National Convention.

This officially new association of Macedonian intellectuals is not so new after all, since its founders claimed at the promotional meeting with journalists that it was in fact already 21 months old, but its application for becoming legal was for who knows what reason on ice in a competent state agency. The founders refer to a gathering held in 1994 when a Declaration on protection of Macedonia's "constitutional" name was signed, but the whole project passed comparatively unnoticed at the time, especially in the official media. The mentioned Declaration, according to the current testimonies, was signed by about 160 professors, some of whom were members of the Academy of Sciences and Arts, but also by numerous entrepreneurs and public figures. That is where the initiative originated to give this campaign a form of a permanent activity, to institutionalize it as a National Convention. The issue of its registration in court, however, was postponed for almost two years under "banal pretexts", according to interpretations of its activists, such as that it advocated a national state and put the national flag on the official stamp of the Convention.

Be that as it may, the initiative has finally become a legal association. The head of the Convention is Nikola Kljusev, member of the Academy and an economist of "national interest" although some distrustful persons doubtfully nod their heads concerning his scientific integrity. This member of the Academy used to be prime minister in the so-called expert government at the delicate time of transition from monism into pluralism and when his short mandate had ended, he returned to his regular job. Along the way, probably in order to show how his restless soul cannot be fettered by strict categories of the economic science, he started writing poetry seeking inspiration for his lyrics in national tradition. Nevertheless, all things considered, the "spiritus movens" and grey eminence of the Convention is the controversial Dimitar Dimitrov, a promising philosopher who started acquiring charisma at the time of the already almost forgotten ideological dispute with Macedonian liberals about a quarter of a century ago. He also made an excursion into politics, he was a minister for some time in the first multi-party government, and being close to the very top of the VMRO-DPMNE, the most Macedonian party of them all, along with his like-minded persons, he has lived to be pushed almost completely to the margins nowadays. If it were not for the attention he is receiving from the state journalists due to his previous fame, he would have been completely forgotten.

It is an incontestable fact that the two leaders, although they claim that the National Convention has no party influence and that among its leaders there are absolutely no figures bearing significance in any of the political parties, have completely determined the circle of their followers. The tempting slogan launched by Nikola Kljusev in an interview to "Nova Makedonija", the leading Skopje daily, saying that "we are opening a program which reaffirms the state and its institutions, offers social progress and civilization opening of a political and democratic dialogue", with no doubt will attract a number of disappointed intellectuals. But, on the other hand it is difficult to believe that they will manage to keep them there for a long time. Certain "strategic values" (Kljusev) of the National Convention indicate serious disadvantages, even on the theoretical level, of what is usually called the "national program". At the same time, an unforgivable discrepancy is suspected with certain civilization achievements Mr. Kljusev refers to. The National Convention, says Kljusev, advocates "maximum affirmation of man as a free and inviolable personality, with the right to political, economic and creative freedom in conditions when we are making legal principles of the state. We understand man and his obligations only as a citizen of the Republic of Macedonia, and citizenship is the feature which designates him. We cannot accept certain neologisms such as inter-ethnic relations or ethnic minorities, we recognize the ethnic situation and minority rights in the spirit of international institutions". But, also, "the Convention observes Macedonia as a national state, but it does not violate rights which ethnic groups deserve and accepts them as its citizens."

The offered view of the state in no way corresponds to the previously determined concept on maximum affirmation of man, if of course an exceptional coincidence, more precisely synonymy between the concepts of "man" and "Macedonian" is not implied. How else can one understand that someone who has always lived here will be "accepted as a citizen". Obviously, he might not be. The last census, the results of which were doubted among ethnic Albanians, shows that there are (at least) one third of non-Macedonians living in Macedonia, which means that one third of citizens of this state a priori cannot agree with the offered "proposal for a dialogue". The formulation of the national program offered by the Convention simply calls for another national program of equal exclusivism which would oppose it. The unpleasant experience from the neighbourhood, however, warns that behind such programs there are living people and that their existential prefix is often changed. Certain people in competent state agencies were probably aware of these facts while they were delaying legalization of Macedonian National Convention, and even the media which devoted it very little space.

LULJETA K. NIZAMI