It is from the social democratic kitchen in which several different solutions and some more normal ideas have been cooked, which could have made Serbia a good society. Instead of such an alternative, we have had nationalist, collectivist, dark forces in power, which led us to this decline, and the tabloids are merely beneficiaries in a misfortune of self-perpetuating people.
Kamberi regularly reminds the public of this neglected Serbian tradition. In one case, he addressed the following false patriots: “What political, social, economic, cultural, health and educational situation have you brought to Serbia, you self-proclaimed patriots?” Serbia and Dimitrij Tucović, Danilo Kiš, Bogdan Bogdanović, Ivan Đurić, Borka Pavićević? “They are probably being buried in graves today.”
No one has destroyed and devalued this sad country so much as those who constantly lie Chinese love it dearly, those who swear allegiance to their people as they plunder and push them into wars. And the way out of this homelessness lies precisely in what the opponents of Serbian nationalism and the war project that took so many victims said and did. What to expect from Serbia Bitter is the truth that Kaberi says in parliament, bitter, but absolutely necessary for today’s Serbia.
Without the painful truth, without facing reality, we cannot move from the dead point. This is how Kamberi sees the dominant ideology: “The extreme nationalism that dominated during the 1990s essentially only changed its form. The nationalist concept of the state does not imply the creation of a stable and efficient state, nor of a modern society. That is why Serbia is an unfinished state, because the question of its future has not yet been resolved.
“Because of the territorial aspirations that are still strong, Serbia is not able to carry out internal integration.” The main problem of Serbian politics is the constant aspiration to expand the territory, the essence of which is in fact the lack of desire to organize the state within the current borders.
And not just the current ones – even if the crazy nationalists were to create their long-awaited Serbia, it would be just as disorganized, devastated and hostile to its citizens as today’s Serbia. Much can be quoted from Kamber’s sober parliamentary speeches, here is just another characteristic quote: “What to expect from a Serbia that is unable to identify anti-fascist figures and movements, from a Serbia that equates partisans and Chetniks?” How can we expect Serbia, which does not recognize the limits of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, to give up its hegemonic policy? Serbia, which is not able to evaluate Zoran Djindjic even post mortum, how will it evaluate minorities? From Serbia, which has no will to clarify the murder of Slavko Curuvija, how can we expect it to clarify the murder of the Bytyci brothers?
We can not expect Serbia, which considers itself a historical victim, to apologize formally to other nations. How can we expect official recognition of the Srebrenica genocide by Serbia, which praises Ratko Mladic? We do not expect Serbia, which defends criminals Ljubisa Dikovic and Bozidar Delic, to admit war crimes against civilians in Racak, Meja, Korenica and Cuska. Indeed, such a Serbia can not be expected to have a modern, European policy, the final starting point of this way of thinking is the idea of a “Serbian world”, that euphemism for a Greater Serbia. Vucic and his company did not go further than that, their optimal and failed achievements are the criminal ideas from the 1990s.
Against this idea and politics stands a man, Shaip Kamberi, persistently resisting the majority, telling painful truths that many people still do not want to hear. Unnecessary escape from the truth After Kamber’s first appearances in the Assembly, speculation immediately surfaced about a potential new opposition leader. Kamberi immediately denied such rumors, saying that as a politician he had no ambition to deal with the work of the opposition leadership in Serbia, and that “the responsibility for the democratization of Serbia lies with the Serb majority.”
This is the main problem. Even if most of the opposition were present in Parliament, again only Kamberi would talk about the past, the crimes, the catastrophic hegemonic ideology, what harm caused to the neighbors but also to Serbia itself a crazy nationalist project, on responsibility of Aleksandar Vuiqi. and all the other actors of that destructive policy.
This is the root of all evils today, from the captive state and surreal corruption, through the introduction of an authoritarian system, to the government linking it with criminal groups. Kamberi is not just a personal opposition, but a fundamental opposition to Vucic and everything he represents. These are just two different worlds: one nationalist, nineteenth-century, evil, destructive, and the other – civilized, European, democratic. For a real change in Serbian society, it is not enough to replace Vucic and the progressives, but to uproot the ideology that created them.
In a public opinion poll, when asked “What happened in Srebrenica in July 1995?”, 15 percent of citizens answered – genocide. If there were no general media propaganda denying the genocide, this percentage would certainly be much higher. Those people should also vote for someone, I think they should also have their political option.
In 2017, shortly before the presidential election, Sasa Jankovic said that genocide had been committed in Srebrenica, so he took second place in the election, winning 16.36 per cent of the vote. These data show that often the calculation of the opposition with its attitude towards the past is unnecessary, and whoever decides to overthrow Vuiqiiq can do so on an anti-nationalist, civic, truly democratic platform, because the situation has already become unbearable.
If someone seriously decides to end the catastrophic rule of the progressives, the citizens will support him even if he says a difficult and painful truth. Right now, only Shaip Kamberi is doing this in parliament. I hope his lonely voice will be a vanguard of a better and different future.
Borrowed from Al Jazeera
The author is a journalist and writer from Belgrade
