Political Scene of Voivodina

The Way Out through the Shadow (Cabinet)

Voivodina should soon get its shadow cabinet members of which, according to the announcements, should be the most respectable experts; it will also be a way to show to what extent centralization accelerated impoverishment of "the best developed part of Serbia"

AIM Belgrade, 20 January, 1998

It is no wonder that, almost with no comment, only a little over 75 million dinars were allocated for Voivodina from the budget of Serbia, nor that the political scene of Serbia - both the authorities and the opposition - felt no urge to say anything about the fact that this amounts to only 0.4 per cent of the total state money, and least of all to compare the percentage of money at the disposal of the assembly of Voivodina, which had already been carefully deprived of all duties and responsibilities, with the percentage (32%) of participation of this (still, although just slightly) autonomous province in the national income of Serbia.

Voivodina has not its own budget, and the provincial assembly - dominated by Socialists of Slobodan Milosevic after the elections in which in the second round, the choice was to be made between three candidates(!) - spends the money granted to it by the Republic on the administration which controls nothing, and on disciplining editorial policies of two dailies (Dnevnik in Serbia, and Magyar Szo in Hungarian) and a few weeklies intended for Voivodina Slovaks, Ruthenians and Romanians, which were all founded by the provincial assembly. This decorative responsibility of the parliament of 120 deputies is, therefore, exhausted in the newspaper publishing branch.

The announcement of formation of the provincial shadow cabinet and insisting of coordinators of Voivodina Coalition (League of Social Democrats of Voivodina - LSV and Reform Democratic Party of Voivodina - RDSV) Mile Isakov that it is a government of experts consisting of "non-partisan personages who are respected and esteemed", in the slow Novi Sad did not cause any great reaction. Not even political rivals commented the news that Nenad Canak (LSV), leader of Voivodina autonomy-fighters, could become the prime minister of this shadow cabinet, nor has the plural Voivodina political scene in any way even hinted for a whole week that it has "received the message".

And then it began: the provioncial committee of the Democratic Party announced that it would form its own shadow cabinet which would be "created in the field" and in this way differ from the one conceived by Voivodina coalition, but, judging by declarations of party leaders, there is a possibility of cooperation. Joszef Kasa, leader of the League of Voivodina Hungarians, declared that this party would not participate in this business and that it was ready only to talk about "formation of an expert team for preparation of material for joint appearances in the work of the assembly".

Until then, the political Novi Sad was busy checking publicly how every of the local Republican deputies had voted on allocation of the sum from the Republican budget for their city. After the amendment had been rejected of the mayor of Novi Sad, Stevan Vrbaski (SPO), according to which Novi Sad should have received 15.5 per cent of the money which is paid to the Republic through the sales tax, and the sum was reduced to only 6.5 per cent - which amounts to only about 89 million dinars, it turned out that all Novi Sad deputies attentively watched how everybody voted, so that deputies Josip Cikos (SPS) and Igor Mirovic (SRS) were caught "red-handed" - voting against the money for their own city.

Recently, the Socialists warned the citizens of Novi Sad that city authorities, on which they have no influence whatsoever, were not at all concerned about their home city, so that the vote on the budget in the Republican parliament is a good illustrtion of their hypocricy.

The example of Novi Sad is a good example because the ratio referring to the province and its centre are the same, only the sums of money differ, and there is no doubt that the provincial shadow cabinet is conceived to be some kind of control, but also to show what topics the current authorities are not even trying to put on the agenda, always under the pretext that it is not in their competence.

The current provincial government, says Mile Isakov, is neither doing anything, nor does it have any competences. According to his explanation, the presidential part of the shadow cabinet would consist of representatives of parties, so that along with the leaders of the League of Social Democrats of Voivodina, there are also those from the Reform Democratic Party of Voivodina in it. One of the vice-presidents, according to this explanation, should be Joszef Kasa, president of the League of Voivodina Hungarians, who refused the post after a week. The ministries would be headed by experts with unquestinable reputation and rumour reached the public that among them should be Aleksandar Tisma, respectable writer known in Europe, Slavko Borojevic, member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts, and two former ministers in the federal government of Milan Panic - Tibor Varadi and Momcilo Grubac, but it is not certain that they will actually be on the list of ministers of the shadow cabinet, since it is not quite clear whether this idea was discussed with them and what stand they hold concerning it.

The shadow cabinet is expected to offer a clear economic program and draft of the (supposed) budget, and the ministries will show what duties and responsibilities, according to this concept, should Voivodina have. It is stressed that this government will not have the ministry of defence and the ministry of foreign affairs, since these are the jobs of the federal government. Nenad Canak (LSV) insists on the necessity that the strongest opposition party ("and that means we") form the shadow cabinet and considers this to be a political obligation to create the alternative to the regime, that is, to offer a model of provincial executive power based on principles of autonomy of Voivodina he advocates, and personages who would be efficient at these posts.

The assessments that this year the international community will devote its attention to problems of the autonomy of Voivodina are accompanied by certain caution against the possibility that this question will be opened together with that of Kosovo. It is insisted here that autonomy is not necessary only for the sake of protection of ethnic minorities. Nenad Canak warns that "the regime will try to put an equation mark between Voivodina and Kosovo". In this context, it is warned that by offering a separate agreement to Voivodina Hungarians, the regime might manipulate efforts for the autonomy of Voivodina.

Jedno od objaþnjenja koje je Joºef Kasa (SVM) naveo kao razlog protiv vojvoðanske alternativne izvrþne vlasti sasvim je pragmatski. On smatra da započet dijalog sa aktuelnim vlastima treba da se odvija u korektnim odnosima i okvirima, a takoðe, traºi i partnera koji neki problem zaista moºe da reþi: "Ako traºimo od vlasti da reþi neki problem u oblasti kulture - rekonstrukciju Narodnog pozoriþta na primer - moramo da vidimo koliko opozicija ili ta vlada u senci moºe da pomogne. Jer, ako nije u stanju da iþta po tom pitanju učini, onda ne treba ni da postoji".

One of the explanations stated by Joszef Kasa (SVM) as the reason against Voivodina alternative executive authorities is quite pragmatic. He believes that the initiated dialogue with the current authorities should take place in correct relations and that it demands a partner who can really resolve a problem: "If we demand from the authorities to actually resolve a problem in the sphere of culture - reconstruction of the Natiobnal Theartre, for instance - we must take into consideration to what extent the opposition or that shadow cabinet can actually help. Because, if it is not capable of actually doing anything concerning this question, it should not exist". In political circles in Novi Sad, the stand of the League of Voivodina Hungarians is interpreted as postponement of the decision. Perhaps the institution of "empty seats" - which leaves the possibility for those who are undecided in the beginning to join in later on - is intended for the Voivodina Hungarians, if they return disappointed after negotiations with the authorities. Experience shows that previous leaders of parties which gather citizens of Voivodina of Hungarian ethnic origin have not profitted from the attempt of cooperation with the regime. The fact that the Democratic Community of Voivodina Hungarians (DZVM) headed by Andros Agoston, which was influential in the beginning, eventually split into six minor parties, among which the most influential at the moment is SVM, is certainly "small profit".

How the shadow cabinet will answer these questions will be known when it comes out of the shadow. Whatever it may do, it will be something new. The official provincial government is not capable of answering any of the local questions without asking official Belgrade for the opinion, nor does it pay any heed to what is happening in its own home.

Milena Putnik

(AIM)