AUTONOMISTS ARE COMING?

Pre-election Voivodina

For the regime the idea of autonomy is equal to separatism, Vuk Draskovic is roaring against a state within a state, while the coalition "Voivodina" will be running at the elections and is offering Mile Isakov as a presidential candidate to Serbia.

AIM, BELGRADE, September 12, 1997

The election uproar of parties aspiring after Voivodina's votes can be summarised as - a nice try. Vuk Draskovic discovered that there are libraries in the villages of Voivodina which are older that the Serbian Academy of Sciences itself so that Voivodina has potentials to become a driving force of Serbia's development and stated: "My heart bleeds for farmers". Declarations on Voivodina are being written everywhere, but neither the regime nor the Belgrade bloc of opposition parties are prepared to change the existing system or consider political autonomy of Voivodina.

During this election campaign Socialist are again promising a better after-tomorrow, aided from the left by the Yugoslav United Left (JUL), which claims that there is, nor had there ever been any plundering of Voivodina, endeavouring to keep this province in 1988. On the right side, the Serbian Revival Movement (SPO) and Vuk Draskovic revolted by accusation charged against Belgrade for the plundering of Voivodina are trying to relativise all this by a thesis on all of Serbia being a victim of plunder. The so called left bloc is attempting to scare the electorate with stories about Voivodina's autonomy being de facto separatism, while Vuk Draskovic is yelling against a state within a state.

Thus, willy-nilly, both the ruling political bloc and SPO have reduced their election onslaught in Voivodina to a debate on the political programme of the "Voivodina" coalition (KV), a union of three civil parties which, with an autonomist programme and a slogan "Stop the Plunder", won two federal mandates, and in the cities of Voivodina, either came to power or got its share in the newly elected authorities at the elections last fall. In a way this is also a debate about the mood of the Voivodina citizens. Studies show that 41.4 percent of the population of this province think that Voivodina should be given back its autonomy, while 17.5 percent think that that is not enough, in other words that Voivodina should be an independent Yugoslav federal unit.

THE REVOLT OF A COLONY

The "Voivodina" coalition will be running at the republican elections with a thesis on a full political autonomy for Voivodina and decentralization for Serbia which implies greater, but also different economic and management rights of regions, which it is offering to voters in short messages. Along with the demand to stop the plunder, their candidates are asking for Voivodina without thieves, and send a message to Serbia - not matter how different we are, we have the same thieves. To this general racket of pre-election accusations and promises from all sides, the "Voivodina" coalition added a detail which irritated their political opponents used to offhandedly accusing the coalition of separatism. Nominating its federal delegate, a well known journalist Mile Isakov, for its presidential candidate, the KV is offering itself to Serbia, i.e. giving a "coalition of walking protesters" an opportunity to choose since the Belgrade opposition failed to do it.

According to the estimate of Nenad Canak, leader of the Voivodina "autonomy lovers", Milosevic did not manage to stay in power thanks to the police, but rather to impotent opposition. To this allegation Canak adds that "it is terrible that we still have to put up with him", but it is also "useful to see that the opposition offered by the coalition 'Together' is neither a right nor a strategic one, and that nothing would have been achieved with it, but that we should look for others". He thinks that the people of Voivodina and Sumadija have realized this, since through their regional political organizations and cooperation they are offering a third Serbia. The motto "All autonomists in one state", invented for the "Sumadija" coalition - recently founded in Kragujevac - is picturesquely interpreted as a need to have them all under one roof, but in separate rooms. Canak sees the Belgrade opposition as "Milosevic's reflection in the mirror" and thus comments on the surprise expressed at Voivodina offering a presidential candidate to Serbia:

• When there is money to be taken out of Voivodina, then we are a part of Serbia. When "Naftagas", the only company with oil fields and refineries, is to become the Oil Industry of Serbia, then we are Serbia. But, when we have a presidential candidate, then we are - Voivodina! Why is it unusual for Voivodina to try and give its presidential candidate when it is not unusual for that creature of organic origin - Seselj - to run for office? This surprise is actually a surprise with the revolt of the colony.

Canak thinks that Voivodina politicians could, in a political sense, have a role which Dositej Obradovic had in the past and thinks that the chances of M. Isakov are underestimated: "He is welcome in all parts of Serbia, and has a great personal credibility which he has earned during the anti-war campaign and by his advocating the independent media." Mile Isakov explains his nomination by adding a question to the metaphor of "a driving force of development" from Vuk Draskovic's vocabulary: If Voivodina is a driving force of development, why should not then someone who knows that force well, i.e. someone from Voivodina, be a driver? He counts on votes of those who were let down by the opposition which did not offer an integrating personality for the first position in Serbia.

The Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) entrusted the first places on its electoral lists for Voivodina to tested champions of anti-bureaucratic revolution (Radovan Pankov in Novi Sad and Mihalj Kertes in Vrbas), Serbs campaign in the mirror of truth (Milorad Vucelic in Sombor) and bankers of continuity, which also includes the inflationary 1993 (Dusan Vlatkovic in Pancevo). This could mean that the Socialists do not have enough new men of trust, but also that they have given up on a major part of Voivodina, but not on this foursome. One of the assumptions is that in these electoral units the Socialist are counting on one delegate from each, and in the republican Assembly they need proven loyalty.

FEAR OF RADICALS

Especially interesting will be the elections in the electoral unit of Novi Sad where Nenad Canak (KV), Milorad Mircic (SRS), Stevan Vrbaski (SPO) and Radovan Pankov (SPS-JUL-ND) will compete for votes. The denizens of Novi Sad remember Pankov as a teacher who came from Backa Palanka riding the "yoghurt waves" to teach them the love of Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic, but also how to forget the word Voivodina.

Divided into seven electoral units, Voivodina is getting ready to elect 55 delegates for the republican Parliament, aware that even before September 21 it can decide whether it will go to the polls at all or ignore the elections, at least by "being absent". One of the motives of those who have decided to vote could be found in the influence the Serbian Radical Party will have on everybody's future.

Current estimates show that one fifth of adult Voivodina citizens would vote for Vojislav Seselj's party. There were opinions that even the ruling SPS finally understood the damage caused by allowing Vojislav Seselj(SRS) to be the only known presidential candidate for a long time, as the public opinion polls have shown that the radical leader, like a metastasis, has started to invade the socialists' electorate. In August Seselj had two percent (22.7 percent) of possible voters more than Zoran Lilic (SPS).

This is certainly no good news for national minorities in Voivodina. The Voivodina Hungarians will go to the elections divided between six parties. Only two of them have some chances of having delegates. Jozef Kasa's Alliance of Voivodina Hungarians (SVM) and Sandor Pal's Democratic Union of the Voivodina Hungarians (DZVM) have failed to reach an agreement. Sandor Pal put up with accusations that he "had made an arrangement" with the ruling Socialists, and there were also objections that the commune of Becej was transferred to the Zrenjanin electoral unit so that he would get a delegate seat in the republican Assembly. Comparing its stands regarding autonomy the SVM is closer to the "Voivodina" coalition and the delegates of these two political organisations appear together in the federal Parliament.

A survey of the "Scan" Agency shows that 71 percent of adult population of Voivodina consider the elections to be their civil duty, regardless of the conditions, although 45 percent think that going to the elections at any cost and under any conditions is but a perfidious way of securing a democratic legitimacy for non-democratic elections. Experience from last November created a kind of pessimism because one half of the pollees think that manipulations with the electorate are such that there is no chance for democratic expression of opinion, while 54 percent of them expect new electoral manipulations, and as much as 70 percent of the population of Voivodina think that the ruling Socialists will win at the November elections, although only 22.5 percent of the electorate intends to give them their vote.

It is hard to estimate whether pessimism will prevail or will the Voivodina citizens decide to defy ("Now, I won't have it my way either") both projections and expectations.

Milena Putnik (AIM)