IN THE JAWS OF POLITICS

Opposition and Cheated Depositors

AIM Skopje, 14 may, 1997

Koce Georgievski, owner of an exchange office from Bitola, committed suicide on 10 May because he had lost more than two hundred thousand German marks when the greatest Macedonian savings banks, TAT, collapsed. Unfortunate Koce, as the rumour goes, is not the only victim among the twenty thousand cheated people, and as it seems, he surely will not be the last. The greatest Macedonian financial scandal will, all things considered, continue to cause social and psychological breakdowns for a long time to come, but it does not at all differ from similar ones in any part of the world.

It is, however, another question whether this problem will remain on the level of individual human destinies, since the whole case has sunk quite deeply into politics already, and some observers are afraid of even mild analogies with the neighbouring Albania. Although this warning comparison was made during revealing of the TAT scandal, it seemed exaggerated, especially because the Macedonian Government showed expressed interest in mending the problem and possible compensation for the robbed depositors. Through their forms of self-organization, they have also shown a high level of cooperativeness and understanding for measures prepared by the administration. When the government publicized a draft regulation which prescribes only partial covering of TAT debts in monthly instalments of 500 marks, the cheated depositors immediately turned their backs on the government and sought help elsewhere.

Addressing the "local forces", Bitola administration and the mayor, who are also bearing the consequences of the unpleasant financial scandal, was not very promising, so the cheated citizens of Bitola simply threw themselves in the arms of the opposition. The result of express talks with the most prominent opposition politician, leader of VMRO-DPMNE Ljpce Georgievski, was the so far greatest protest gathering of depositors which developed into an evidently anti-government protest and brought numerous unpleasant and warning tones. Even the most attentive observer of the local circumstances will have difficulties remembering when a larger amount of abuse was last uttered at the expense of the current Macedonian leadership, head of the state Kiro Gligorov, inclusive.

Unmeasured unrest crept into the souls of neutral and benevolent citizens of Macedonia after the appearance of a representative of the Macedonian emigrants who told the gathered citizens that certain emigrants' lobby in Zurich decided that this government had to be overthrown. Whether due to exaltation he had been overtaken by or because it is true, this merry Macedonian from diaspora promised that "overthrowing of the authorities" would be achieved by the force of arms, the most modern ones which had allegedly already been purchased. This apocalyptic word had already been mentioned by one of the leaders of the cheated strikers, Ilija Nevenovski, and the leader of VMRO Fatherland Party Dimitar Crnomarov threatened that his like-minded persons were ready "to die in order to overthrow this government".

It is interesting that Macedonian official agencies still have not reacted to the unprecedented public threats with weapons, uttered in front of about ten thousand witnesses and several times more in front of their TV sets. Especially because Fadil Sulejmani, rector of the officially unrecognized Tetovo university, was sentenced to a year in prison because in a much more "intimate" company, that is in a conversation with journalists, he had demanded from his compatriots to defend this educational institution. He had never mentioned weapons, although later on blood was spilt in Tetovo. People are quite concerned and they hope that the police will not wait for an armed conflict to break out to take threats coming from Bitola seriously. On the other hand, Macedonia is trying to prove that there are no citizens of the first and the second order over here, so it is relied on the fact that it will not permit application of different criteria when such striking threats to its constitutional system are concerned.

Be what may, depositors from Bitola got support from majority of the opposition parties. They certainly expect the most from the support offered by Ljupco Georgievski. Expectations are mutual, though. Georgievski himself did not conceal it for a single moment. Speaking to the gathered citizens of Bitola, he explicitly demanded assistance in "overthrowing the anti-people authorties" and invited them to come to a previously scheduled gathering of VMRO-DPMNE to take place on the central Skopje square in as big a number as possible. Georgievski, spoke in favour of urgent compensation of all damage caused by TAT collapse, but also for criminal responsibility for all those involved, and political responsibility for those who had permitted it. Since, according to Georgievski, money will not be returned by those who had stolen it, nor will the question of responsibility be opened by the persons currently in power, new personnel are needed in the authorities. The message is more than understandable, and personal recommendation more than obvious. In the meantime, leaders of VMRO-DPMNE addressed a demand for an urgent session where the current government would be dissolved and a technical administration would be formed, with the task to organize early parliamentary elections. This of course implies that the parliament too would sign its death certificate.

In all probability, this move of Georgievski's will hardly cause any panic in the authorities and he is quite aware of it. But, this certainly is a new form of political pressure in permanent seeking early elections. The case of the financial scandal in Bitola which has, by the way, opened other scandals, came at a convenient time for Georgievski. The negative political energy accumulated in this city which is in fact one of the political strongholds of the ruling SDSM, could quite efficiently be used by Georgievski to pull his political carriage which has already at the last local elections shown that it was going upward. The problem is, however, that the distressed people are always liable to manipulations and abuses, so he will have to be very careful not to get carried away playing with fire.

BUDO VUKOBRAT