Anatomy of petty matchmaking generosity

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President of Serbia has legality when it comes to the presidency of this country. The will of the majority certainly gives him formal legitimacy. It is also possible that new elections or a consultative referendum would confirm that legality. In this country, there are probably only a small number of fools who would take over power by violent means, outside of regular democratic means, i.e. election process. So how then did this gentleman's offer by the president to get out of the crisis caused by the student protest by re-examining the people's affection for him, initially through a referendum on confidence, and then through the reconstruction of the government or new elections, met with such a lukewarm response among the students?

What the hell do these students want anyway?

To begin with, the students' demands are clearly and precisely formulated. It is striking that none of them contains any request addressed to the president, none of them calls the president to any activity, does not express any expectation from him. Quite the opposite - the student demands express an implicit expectation that the omnipotent, omnipresent president of our republic does nothing this time, that, in other words, he refrains from his perpetual hyper-doing in a position that does not allow him to do so - and that, for a change, the institutions of the state do what they would be expected to do. The basic demand of the students is even more precise and modest, it is requested, in fact, that one republican institution - the prosecutor's office - does what it should do.

In fact, it is even more modest: the prosecutor's office is requested to do its job of determining responsibility and opening documentation related to one specific event - the collapse of the roof of the newly reconstructed station building in Novi Sad, which caused the death of 15 people. The students do not demand the removal of the president, they did not demand the fall of the government, they do not demand a change of government, they do not demand the determination of responsibility for numerous previous affairs, colossal in scale, devastating in their consequences, mind-boggling due to the insatiability of the gargantuan appetites and ambitions of the main protagonists, humiliating for the citizens of this country faced with the powerlessness to stop the brazen robbery and feasting of the powerful, they do not call out the government for numerous lightly uttered, betrayed promises (in the style of "We will reveal the names Ivanović's killers in a few days", "We will finish the metro by 2023", "You will be unpleasantly surprised when I tell you what actually happened in the Panda cafe"), they do not claim responsibility for mercilessly flooding the citizens with false or half-truthful statistics that make up the ugliness of one of the poorest and most unsuccessful European countries, they do not remind us of the rampant, Goebbelsian warmongering propaganda and the destruction of independent media at the end of 90s as a political legacy of a young radical Vučić, which he used to pave the path of Milosevic's Serbian counter-revolutionary policy, they do not even mention the ubiquitous relativization and recommendation of that policy in the regime's media, probably as a stock of historically proven constructive ideas for the future of Serbia.

PAWN SACRIFICE

No, students are not asking for any of that. It seems that there were no more modest demands in the history of civil uprisings in Serbia than these current student demands. So what is the problem in answering them adequately? An adequate answer would be expected not for the president to show a series of recorders - which should probably assure us that everything was in the best order with the construction of the station - but for the prosecutor's office to open an investigation that will thoroughly examine both the technical and financial aspects related to the reconstruction of the canopy. I assume that proving the involvement of the highest representatives of the current political authorities in Serbia in the malfeasance surrounding the reconstruction of the station is not easy, that extensive and thorough preparation of the prosecutor's office is required, that funds, additional expertise, the formation of a parliamentary commission, the request for advisory and financial assistance from the EU, and last but not least, complete transparency of the work of the prosecutor's office are needed, therefore - hitherto unseen, perhaps difficult to achieve in practice, but necessary - public insight into every stage of that process. Proving corruption has always been difficult, requiring large resources, preparation and strengthening of the prosecutor's office, which is the only one capable of conducting a thorough investigation. It has never been easy anywhere, and it won't be easy now either. In order for Romanian prosecutor Laura Kovesi to be able to deal with corruption after severe threats, it was necessary to provide and equip her personal guard.

However, for those who worked with good will and the law, it would not be a problem to provide such extraordinary support to the prosecution's efforts. Instead of - as a man innocent in this matter - proposing inventive technical recommendations and all the necessary support for the realization of this student request, the president instead first proposes a consultative referendum on how much the people trust him, with - as it is hinted - an abundance of missing documents, or what is even worse, submitted but forged. Finally, there is the "sacrifice of pawns" - in this case, a group of followers gathered in what was called the Government of the Republic of Serbia. True, the president also amnestied a group of indicted (and some unindicted) activists, some of the members of the Sturmabteilung wing of the party - who beat the students - were arrested, and he promised more allocations for education.

FACES OF CORRUPTION

The reason for these apparently generous offers and moves by the president, instead of a response to a far more modest request, is that a thoroughly implemented process of verifying responsibility for the death of 15 people would certainly open the door to a fragrant garden of paradise in which saintly SNS figures live modestly - but Augie's stables of what is Vučić's version of Serbia today - lost in time and space, a marginal half-satrapy of stunted institutions, a confused social project of comprehensive and systematic forcing of citizens into loyalty and serving the all-powerful ruler, his cronies, their interests and their distorted picture of the world, made up of banal and tasteless stereotypes and prejudices about themselves and the world. A thoroughly conducted investigation would most likely first confront us with the unspeakable face of corruption, arrogant greed and indifference of the government towards the well-being and life of ordinary people. It could still lead us to a different truth than the one offered to us, both about others and about ourselves. We would find ourselves, perhaps, uncomfortably close to the very heart of darkness, and face the detours that led to it.

In the lobby of the heart of darkness, we would most likely not find much more than a small, insecure and not very interesting boy, without any special gifts, but too hungry for attention, appreciation and recognition to miss the opportunity to abuse poorly controlled political power and shape reality to fulfill his needs. Of course, we would find many others, similar to him, as a rule, even worse. At the very center of the heart of darkness is something else, not those essentially insignificant, changeable, more or less pest opportunists, who come and go, and who will continue to swarm its lobby, attracted by the possibilities offered there.

In the center of the heart of darkness there is even less spectacular and terrifying than in its lobby. At the heart of the darkness is the absence of effective mechanisms to control the government and the quick replacement of those who abused the power. Those mechanisms are the following: an active, living, democratic process (everyday practice of controlling and limiting the power of privileged and politically powerful individuals and groups; constant checking and optimization of system institutions, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary mechanisms - such as whistle-blowers, non-governmental organizations, ombudsmen, etc. - with the aim of protecting and empowering marginal groups and increasing the equality of all participants in the political process), the rule of law and strengthening the institutions of the rule of law, the openness and transparency of the decision-making process wherever it takes place, strengthening of critical thinking, strengthening of respect for rational argumentation (instead of that based on emotions, mythical and magical thinking and cult of personality), strengthening of the position of the citizen, as an active, equal, solidary and competent participant in the political process (and not a passive, intimidated and helpless subject, who is used to recognizing saviors in those who oppress him, to bow before them and serve them), and as the foundation of all the above, freedom of speech. It doesn't seem like much when listed, but it is the content of what distinguishes happy and prosperous societies from poor and unhappy ones, and whose recent historical establishment implied centuries of previous wanderings, delusions, untold sufferings and sacrifices.

A MIRROR OF THE FUNCTIONING OF THE STATE

That is why determining responsibility for the dangerous collapse of the canopy is so important for the future of this society and for all those who believe in its future. That's why Vučić (semi) fulfills the other demands of the students, sacrifices less important figures, offers a referendum and elections, because the public's knowledge of the details of the circumstances of the fall of the canopy would most likely lead - to the unfathomable horror - to the loss of power and, possibly, the permanent removal from the withered breast of Mother Serbia. That is why it is important to prevent that process, or at least weaken, dilute, or blur it in such a way that the connection of the higher echelons of government with those events is completely diluted and lost, or else redirect the public's attention to other events - a referendum or new elections - so that interest in the case is lost, as it was lost in numerous previous affairs. The circumstances that led to the fall of the canopy represent a microscript, a mirror of the functioning of our country as a whole, and highlighting those circumstances would most likely be disastrous not only for the current government, but also for all those future demagogues who would take advantage of them by performing public functions. That is why shedding light on the fall of the canopy represents the most direct blow to the heart of darkness and a key step in the recovery of society.

It feels good to regain faith that maybe Auggie's barns can be cleaned up in our lifetimes, rundown and smelly as they may be. The magnificent and inspiring student movement is the Heracles of our story, the spiritus movens, hopefully, of the great cleansing. But given the state of disrepair of our Augusian stables, it is unlikely that Heracles will clean them up on his own without the help of all of us.

The author is a full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade