BIRTHDAY SHAPING OF TUDJMAN'S CULT

AIM ZAGREB, 19 May, 1997

At the recent first public celebration of Franjo Tudjman's birthday in the Croatian National Theatre, President of the Assembly Vlatko Pavletic, who was entrusted with the task of speaking of this "truly great man in the whole Croatian history", said that there was certainly no intention of creating a new personality cult in Croatia, because no one was forced to quote thoughts from Tudjman's speeches and works. However, Pavletic himself was the first to use the syntagma: the "Tudjman's doctrine" - implying an in-depth study, with or without the use of quotations - and pretentiously elaborated it in seven items.

Thus the claim that no one was under obligation to quote the President which Pavletic had uttered probably with the intention of protecting no so much Franjo Tudjman, who is protected enough, but himself - proved to be a rather poor disguise. Quotations are not the only thing that should be taken into consideration in such matters - especially not in the case of statesmen-historians who in pursuing their original profession mostly quote others - which was best shown with this birthday. On the occasion of Tudjman's birthday the National Bank of Croatia minted a gold coin with his image valuing more than some other coins bearing cult motifs from the more recent history of Croatia (Vukovar), and the Croatian Postal Organization issued a stamp with his profile.

Those who have seen the stamp - the non-state paper "Weekly" (Tjednik) - say that its layout is discreet and unpretentious, but also remind that the ground rule in democratic countries says that no stamps with images of live statesmen should be printed, except in the case of kings and tsars. Indeed, the Croatian Radio and Television made several programmes about the Croatian President conjuring up the glorification of one-time communist "bigshots". TV broadcast programmes about his regular tennis matches on "well kept" army tennis courts on Tuskanac in which he has the upper hand in "hard and feverish" tilts (it is already common knowledge that even the greatest stars of Croatian tennis who are occasionally persuaded to be guests at these back-breaking tennis drills, can hope for nothing more than a tie).

As the cherry on the top of this cake of a story, it has been reported that another restoration of early paintings of Tudjman's daughter Nevenka is being planned. After some thirty years the top experts of the Institute for the Restoration of Works of Art from Zagreb shall save from the ravages of time her clumsy works in tempera she had painted in her teens. Ordinarily, their working tables are covered with exceptionally valuable 16th century oils, renaissance altars and similar objects, but the lack of work and money force them to also deal with such "talents". In all that they refuse to publicly state their opinion of the artistic value of these daubings, which even without professional evaluation find their way to the public. Nevenka's "Vase" is already on picture postcards of the humanitarian foundation "Save the Children of Croatia" actively and with much publicity, but also property-related scandals, managed by her mother Ankica Tudjman.

All the protagonists of this story - daughter, mother, two sons and, naturally, the celebrator - were present at the gathering at which Pavletic spoke and were his most ungrateful audience. Namely, they were the living proof that his claim on the cult cannot hold water. Moreover, judging by the expression on Tudjman's face he was not satisfied with those parts of Pavletic's speech in which he was defending Tudjman from accusations that he was hard and heartless statesman who ruled after the fashion of a typical authoritarian. The very fact that an opportunity was used to mention and quote such criticism, even though it was later on said to have been "blinded by hate" may sound as if attention was being paid to it, which is crossing the demarcation line drawn around the Croatian leader and president.

    However, on the whole Tudjman may be definitely

satisfied with Pavletic's speech as he was treated, as we have already mentioned, as a "great figure" of Croatian history and, mind you, a titan who rightfully deserves a place in the more recent history of Croatia. In seven items of the "Tudjman's doctrine" Pavletic presented theses about Tudjman the politician and historian. This is how they go, in short. Firstly, Tudjman made all his political and, in part, military decisions on the basis of his "deep" historic knowledge. Secondly, he proved his ability to make tactical concessions (Z-4) in order to score strategic victory in the end. Thirdly, he never succumbed to illusions in his pursuit of centuries old dreams. Fourthly, he proved his exceptional skill and authority in organizing the HDZ which served as a basic lever of all his political achievements.

Fifth, he rejected many seductive theses of the developed world, the latest being the one on the Balkan associations, as he has the ability to grasp things at first sight, even beneath "the gilt". Six, he often lulled his political and military opponents into believing that he would do one thing and only to do something quite different. Seven, he had a sense of measure in both in friendship and enmity so that friendship would not turn into excessive confidence and enmity into hatred. Pavletic especially insisted on this last item, which he obviously considered very important, and stated that only "destructive ignoramuses or conscious deluders of the people, with various motives, but with the same aim" could disregard it.

It is visible at first glance that Pavletic had invested much effort in preparing the largest possible inventory of Tudjman's state and historic qualities but had encountered an insurmountable problem. The "deep" knowledge of history and the ability to grasp beneath the surface were meant to create the impression that Tudjman was a visionary who predicted events and "produced" the history of the new, independent Croatia. However, some historic knowledge and the ability to observe the background of events certainly do not deserve to be called a special "doctrine" as these are the usual tools of political activists and statesmen. In addition, it is pretentious to believe that it was Tudjman who created conditions conducive to the establishment of the independent Croatia because a whole series of independent states were created at the same time all over Europe so that it is obvious that such circumstances have produced Tudjman, and not vice versa.

    Pavletic had much more luck in emphasizing those

traits of Tudjman's character which speak of his stubborn perseverance and relative cunning, as he truly had much more of these than he had "visions". The Serbs from Krajina in Croatia felt that best, and about as much the Bosnian Moslems, and even Milosevic to a degree. Tudjman had certainly arranged many things with him, but in the end-game of the war he obviously went further than agreed, and if it were not for the explicit prohibition of further warring in B&H from abroad, he would have probably attempted to grab more than he had managed.

    Naturally, Tudjman's cunning is not enough to secure

him a place in the gallery of the titans. But, even that little Pavletic had was sufficient for him to write a seemingly scientific, but actually very popular and sycophantic presentation of the mighty head of state.

MARINKO CULIC