Farce and tragicomedy of human vanity.
It's never been worse.
We have never had such a treacherous government.
When we come to power, we will fix everything.
They are traitors and we are patriots.
An established election narrative to anger the electorate. A well-conceived scheme to vote against the existing coalition without seeing the program of the future coalition, which always promises a lot and delivers nothing. All this sublimation of the deep state and the majority of citizens as its collaborators is nothing but a circus carousel, which gives the appearance that something is moving, something is spinning, but in essence it stands still, because the axis around which it must spin has long been rusty.
The situation becomes more than comical. The deep bazaar, pardon the pun, known for its bifurcated actions and personnel decisions, jumped against the new governing coalition, made up of partners who, until yesterday, allegedly did not tolerate each other and used insulting words, but when in power, they cooperate perfectly. Government arouses positive feelings in people. Shows constructiveness, tolerance and willingness to cooperate. Especially if everything is greased with well-paid features.
So, until yesterday, the bloodthirsty enemies of the political scene, who for years insulted and slandered each other, Vesna Bendevska, Antonio Miloševski and Jovan Trpenovski sat at the same table as vice-presidents in the parliament and swore the same thing - that they will work together for the interests of that country.
The new mandate-holder Mickoski, who campaigned with a worn-out national-chauvinist far-right narrative, characteristic of some conservatives two hundred years ago, presenting himself as a center-right, announced his "dream team" of ministers, who neither ideologically nor qualitatively have points of common ground. Mainly made up of leftists and little Titos who pretend to be right-wing today but don't know how, so they use a utilitarian nationalist narrative and everything looks like a farce, a tragicomedy of human vanity.
Retaining power at all costs is a consequence of Tito's regime, but not from an ideological point of view, because even then there was no ideology, but a consequence of the lack of ethical, cultural and above all human standards. After throwing the real communists into prison, the artificial pale models of the communists, who were ready for anything for the sake of their mercantile interests, took the lead. Their artificiality, their imitation, was revealed by their lack of reaction to attacks on the basic and true doctrines and their state organizations, to which an authentic communist would surely react. But since commitment and loyalty were the main prerequisites for career growth, artificial, mercantile communists multiplied like mushrooms after the rain, so that the result of their artificiality, disguised with arrogance, we see even today. What is happening is a direct consequence of that time.
As for the meritocratic criteria in the selection of individuals who will lead this society, the situation becomes even more dramatic! These are people who see their education only as a bare decoration and jewel for their resume, but in essence do not have the specific knowledge, experience or integrity to fulfill such duties. Above all, such places should be filled with people who know that education is the main mechanism by which certain values are built and protected, because an educated person (I am not talking only about schooling, but also about individual development) would never engaged in such primitive national-chauvinist rhetoric. Here I cannot but mention the name of Ivan Stoilkovic, president of the Democratic Party of Serbs in North Macedonia, the new deputy prime minister in charge of relations with the communities - chosen by Mickoski. Stoilkovic announced a little over a year ago that if the Bulgarians were included in the constitution, the Serbs would leave North Macedonia!!!
This chauvinistic view of things is the product of a limited mind that should otherwise guide the coming period. To make the contradiction even greater, on June 17, VMRO-DPMNE celebrated its 34th birthday with a jubilee celebration, to which Mr. Ivan Stoilkovich, who is a categorical opponent of the Bulgarians in the Constitution, was invited. Guest of honor! Let's remind Mr. Stoilkovich for the umpteenth time that the real VMRO was created by Macedonian Bulgarians in 1893.
At the same time, Mickoski announced an increase in the number of ministries, so that from the existing 16 ministries they now became 20. North Macedonia became the country with the largest possible administrative apparatus of all European countries. The preservation of more than 70 years of constitutional system, the perfect party-state relations, as well as the characteristic onion structure of society, where everyone is dependent on everyone, are the key segments for the rule of a clique.
The duplication of offices and administrative apparatus, the coexistence of real and divine authority, are enough to cause further confusion, but not to explain the formlessness of the whole structure.
But the dichotomy will continue, and total domination will tend to organize the infinite multiplicity and differentiation of each individual, as if the whole people were but one person. This is possible only if each person can be reduced to an unchanging identity of reactions, with conditioned reflexes. After the destruction of individual, legal and political personality and identity, a kind of collective identity is offered to the majority. To preserve this whole dichotomy, a story is needed, a conspiracy, on which the media effendi - propagandists will work masterfully. The merry-go-round will continue to spin, and the coordinated population of "sympathizers" will be offered a narrative in the form of a divine conspiracy even from around the world against what they call "our country". The Macedonian Bulgarians will continue to serve as cannon fodder, at which the accumulated anger of the collective will be directed.
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Eli Sekulovska, human rights activist in North Macedonia. The analysis was written specially for BGNES Agency.
