By: Slobodan L. Jovanović
A system in which the success of politics is not measured by results in economics, culture and other areas related to improving the lives of individuals and groups, but by the ability to create a false image of yourself and your opponents through performances, media manipulations, Goebbels propaganda and daily brainwashing, becomes a typical pattern in countries with more than serious problems, such as Montenegro. The more serious the problems, the greater the efforts to deceive voters. Hannah Arendt wrote about the duty of citizens to take responsibility for what was done in their name, because evils were not only committed by fanatics and psychopaths, but also by ordinary people who would easily accept the interpretations with which the state showered them.
The latest reports of the European Commission for the Western Balkans (ECWB) have shown that the prevailing populist populism in the EU goes hand in hand with a policy of spectacle, deception and lies by the authorities, especially in Montenegro and Serbia. Having previously dealt with the character and work of the President of the ECWB, Oliver Varhelyi, I wrote about his close political ties with the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who cultivates good personal and political ties with the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić. And the same political platform, contained in the shortest possible sentence – the state is me! Therefore, it is not unexpected that the ECWB, in its report for Serbia, saw some non-existent “limited progress” in many areas, abstracting the destabilizing influence of the state of Serbia on the region and interference in the internal affairs of other states.
Varhelyi is famous for his attitude towards the church issue in Montenegro and statements that the Church of Serbia is endangered by the policy of the previous government and the Law on Freedom of Religion that it passed. He often resents the former government, especially after the brutal intervention of the new government towards the Protestants in Cetinje in early September, why it did not stopped the litijas that made Montenegro a medieval mockery. The explicit messages from the EU are forgotten that “peaceful protests” of citizens must not be prevented and violently stopped. However, the right to peaceful protests was not supported for the protest in Cetinje. Thanks to the ECWB, Western embassies in Podgorica and blinded EU policy, civil Montenegro has been given the epithet of extremism, even terrorism, just because it has exercised its democratic and constitutional right to public protest. “Where human rights are violated, civil disobedience is a duty,” says Jurgen Habermans.
Every right-wing populism flirts with organizations with a conservative pedigree and prone to violent methods of dealing with dissidents, intolerance, aggression. This is more than visible in Serbia, where war criminals get the halos of heroes, collect signatures for the release of murderers, members of various right-wing groups attack the media that are not in favor of the people's government, liberal citizens and the like. It is similar in Montenegro, where behind various fraternities related to the Church of Serbia and its diocese, there are many with thicker police files, individuals prone to violent behavior and ideologically associated with criminals, whether they are criminals from World War II or from recent wars on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
The constant attempts to deceive domestic and foreign countries are also reflected in the visit of the Montenegrin authorities to the United States of America (USA). I am absolutely convinced that under the wording on support for progressive forces, the European path and blah, blah, blah, which the delegation told us, there is a clear position of the American administration, with recognizable limits of tolerance towards the filth of the current government and that Dritan Abazović‘s shabby phrases are intended for domestic use only.
I don't know if the delegation tried to portray the Americans their political opponents as extremists and terrorists, but more than problematic statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the name is irrelevant, who stated that the representatives of the American administration gave their full support to the fight against organized crime, corruption and, watch out now, extremism and terrorism. It is time for someone to warn the American administration that they are dealing with populists and true liars, and that extremism exists, but in the ranks of supporters of the current government and circles around the Church of Serbia. If they don't already know? However, it is time to send to Podgorica a person who will not follow the views of fraudsters from the non-governmental sector and the media who falsely present themselves as independent, as well as to get rid of the embassy staff who are under their influence.
Let's go back to the ECWB report. In accordance with the policy of the current EU, which has forgotten the proclaimed standards in favor of mere pragmatism and the interests of the countries that make it up, Varhelyi's report is a kind of mouse – a wave of peripheral “shifts” and a substantial setback of Montenegro in fulfilling the conditions for further progress. This has only served some ministries of the current, catastrophic government to grab hold of the foam and proclaim the epochal successes that “Europe is noticing”. What is more than striking in that report is the absence of a realistic political assessment of the Montenegrin government's actions over the past year, which only mentions the production of divisions, mistrust and antagonisms in political, national and religious terms, without a proper analysis of who is responsible.
Varhelyi seems to have consciously left out the moves of the authorities that had a devastating effect on civil society and tried to address the responsibility for the divisions to both the government and the opponents of the government. Varhelyi forgot to mention the threat to the Constitution and the law, state secularism, the clericalization of society, the huge influence of the church in making political decisions, the appointment of extreme Serbian nationalists and clero-fascists, orthodox Russophiles and pro-Serbs, at the head of all cultural institutions in Montenegro, the founder of the most extreme and dirtiest nationalist portal at the head of the state university, that the leaderships of primary and secondary schools were cleaned up in education and Saint Sava cadres were appointed in their place, whose main legitimacy is participation in liturgies.
A similar thing was done in health care and public companies, the security sector was demolished and people openly in favor of Russian-Serbian politics were brought to its helm, making them extremely vulnerable, so that the founders of fascist organizations from Serbia could be appointed to leading positions in culture, so that regulations are not respected in employment; unprofessional, party people are appointed; so that nepotism is ubiquitous in employment, spouses, brothers, sisters, sons, mothers-in-law, scoundrels and many other are employed, and many undemocratic actions and violations of basic human rights, freedoms, laws, the Constitution and administrative protocols have been carried out.
If he had all this in mind and if his intentions were honorable and impartial, Varhelyi would not have relativized Pilate's enormous responsibility of the current government for the radicalization of interethnic, interfaith, political and other oppositions and would have known that Montenegrins and minority peoples were forced to fight for basic national, religious and human rights and freedoms, resistance to the government ‘s discriminatory policies and, perhaps most importantly, resistance to the transformation of Montenegro into a Russian – Serbian province and a cultural and economic colony.
That Varhelyi has a sense of humor is also shown by the statement in the Report that the Public Service of Montenegro, after the change of management, became more open to different types of content. He is right, now the Public Service is more open to the Church of Serbia, more open to Greater Serbia ideas and a half-hearted attitude towards the government, the opposition and dissidents have become the main target, it has become more open to inflammatory policy, similar to that of the 1990s and many more “Openness” that can only be sympathetic to Orban's boy. Not to mention how was carried out the purge of all staff in the Public Service that are not suitable for the Saint Sava-Greater Serbia editorial policy and the Serbianization of Montenegrin cultural and scientific policy.
Westerners, just keep “fixing” us by sending us staff from Hungary, Romania, Trump's housewives and the like, to host in Montenegro all those who are difficult to adopt in serious relationships, it has nothing to do with their prejudices and their religious inclinations, without elementary knowledge of the history, heritage and culture of the country they come to, so you will very successfully destroy all the good that Montenegro has achieved and bring it what we now have the opportunity to see. Montenegro did not regress in the negotiations with the EU because of the incompetence of the staff appointed by the current government, after replacing the previous ones, but because of your bad policy towards Montenegro, reliance on and abundant funding of non-governmental and media fraudsters, sick encouragement of the same with the financial support to denigrate Montenegro as much as possible. In principle, the more accusations against the former government, the more money arrives.