We are especially dismayed with the unnecessary and dangerous
succumbing of a pro-European government to the anti-European
hysteria and strategy that log barricades at two border
crossings in northern Kosovo can become the barrier to granting
the status of candidate and the date for the beginning of
negotiations for Serbia's accession to the European Union.
In a country where time means nothing, losing
the status of candidate or being a candidate without a date for
negotiations, will only mean yet another loss of opportunity for
a normal future, yet another decline of all that has managed to
survive in Serbia, yet more isolation on the margins of Europe
of all those who have not already escaped from Serbia.
The responsibility for the confusion in which
we find ourselves lies in the policy of the current government.
It's calculating and hesitation has seriously endangered the
pro-European orientation of society and the country's vital
interests which depend upon it. No one should therefore expect
of us to be silent on-lookers in the battle that is being waged
against a European Serbia. Today we cannot do the work which
only the government can do. The present leaders of Serbia must
assume the responsibility for its European future. If they
choose to see the truth, they will see us, who can wait no
longer, clearing the minefields for the European path of Serbia
of which they are in charge.
It is a sad country which perpetually condemns
itself to the suffering that stems from its resistance to its
own European future. Terrible is the price of lies by all who
belittle the weight of December 9. Serbia does not understand
the significance of that date, just as it failed to understand
the significance of the fall of the Berlin Wall or the
consequences of its acquiescence to the policy of war and crime
of the 1990s. Therefore it should be known that we will all -
unless we respond with truth and democratic mobilization - be
devastated in a way worse than during the 1990s by the ruthless
idea that Serbia can do without Europe.
In Serbia that December day is felt both as a
threat and an opportunity. It reflects our past and our future,
the positive and negative energy of Serbia. The successes and
failures, the happiness and disappointments, the joys and fears
of our generation. Therefore, by taking a clear stand about the
future of our country we must stand up against the political
hypnosis which belittles the real significance of Europe for
Serbia. We will disappear in the self-isolation which is being
offered to us as an honorable response to the alleged dishonor
of Europe.
We must not withdraw before the lies which
hide the black statistics of Serbia. We are the poorest of
European societies, with the lowest wages and pensions, the
largest unemployment rate, the smallest investments, the largest
growth of debt, the most dysfunctional education system and the
largest brain-drain in Europe. This is not a picture of our
abilities and aptitudes, but the price of a misguided and
erroneous policy. That price will keep increasing until we
abandon this policy.
It is frightening that a part of our
political, religious, economic and cultural elite recognizes its
interest in that deepest of historical holes in which we will
find ourselves if we lose our European future. We have a
government, but not a state. In a country which is an onlooker
in European integrations there is no employment unless provided
by the "government", there is no sport unless the "government"
presides over it, there is no culture without the stamp of
"government", nor media which has been spared of "government"
editorial policy.
The good thing is that we are aware of this
reality, and that we are prepared through a struggle for a
European Serbia to clearly state in what kind of world we wish
to live in. We see meaning only in a Serbia with changed
priorities, a country of free citizens that has finally found
peace with itself and its neighbors, a society ruled by law and
efficient institutions, a community which values and incites
knowledge, work and success, develops competition and strives
towards an open economy, modernizing all that is backward. Only
this idea can be confirmed by time as a positive vision of a
society which knows what to do with itself in the 21st century.
Today, as a mature society, capable of
rational judgment regarding its own interests, we should rally
around the idea of a turnabout which would lead Serbia into
Europe. We must force official Serbian policy to take the
necessary decisions, change the course of its Kosovo policy, and
seize the opportunity to fulfill the greatest obligation of this
generation.
Our response to the threat of destruction by
the united anti-European front must be clear, decisive and
strong. This is why we seek to unite all those who are in favor
of Serbia in Europe as the only ideology that today can
represent the choice of this country. We should subordinate all
our differences, all our disappointments to the struggle of
Serbia joining the European Union. Now is the time to mobilize
all our strength against poverty and backwardness.
We refuse to withdraw or make compromises with
the anti-European usurpers of our future. We must not, nor do we
have the right, to withdraw before the same ideas which during
the 1990s pushed us into a bloody adventure, ending in the
historically greatest defeat of Serbia and the Serbian nation.
We ended up in columns of refugees, waiting in cues before
embassies of countries to which our dearest family members fled,
while Serbia was left disgraced by the crimes committed in its
name towards other nations and towards itself. These forces have
now united around a common goal, to raise barricades on all
roads leading to Europe. Hiding behind the slogans of the Kosovo
tragedy, which they perpetrated, they proclaim Europe the enemy
of Serbia and all Serbs worldwide, evoking yet another tragedy
in Kosovo and Serbia, fanning the flames of hatred towards our
neighbors and threatening that we will be the leaders of a new
chaos.
Europe is our primary national interest, among
other things because hundreds of thousands of Serbian citizens
live and work in Europe, and because 80 percent of all Serbian
exports end up on that great market, and because of the
investments and the funds, and because Europe is also a system
of values to which we aspire. The European Union is in our
anti-fascist history, in our politics, our economy and
technology, culture and education, in our sports, in everything.
Ignoring the truth and reality of Kosovo does
not change that truth or that reality. Kosovo has not been under
Serbian sovereignty since the war of 1999 and the Kumanovo
capitulation, after which Serbia withdrew from Kosovo. Hence the
strategy "both EU and Kosovo" really means "neither EU nor
Kosovo". Between European states there are no borders or customs
barriers, while our government, claiming it is leading Serbia
into Europe, is risking that that very same Europe closes its
doors to Serbia because of four customs officers at two border
crossings. No one can comprehend this. Just as no reasonable
person in Serbia can understand Serbs who fill Kosovo Serbs with
hatred against their Albanian neighbors, inciting them, over and
over, to draw blood in Kosovo yet again.
Serbia must change its policy if it wants to
join Europe. Instead of old Kosovo slogans, we need new
political courage. Society is moved by valuable ideas, just as
it is destroyed by forgeries - which are what the current
government's Kosovo policy has turned into. We need a vision of
Serbia that will hold-up, not fail, the test of time. An idea
that should make clear the horizon that is in front of us. We
cannot reach such a vision or idea if we are left outside of
Europe, in perpetual conflict and misunderstanding with the
leading, democratic countries of the world.
This is why we believe that the struggle for
Serbia in Europe and Europe in Serbia is the only correct and
honest policy.
This is why Serbia needs a turnabout! |
