Domovina Urednistvo
After nearly 26 years of freedom from the Yugoslav prison, Croatia is going through an existential crisis. It is at a crossroads and events over the next few years will determine whether the country continues as a fully independent entity or devolves into some form of regional configuration, writes Branko Miletic.
The 21st century realpolitik bind that the Republic of Croatia (RH) now finds itself in is a direct result of the decade-long UDBA (or Hrvatska UDBA or HUDBA) power claw-back aided and abetted by the US power vacuum in Europe.
Add to that, the concerted and foreign-funded psychological operation (Psy-Ops as the US Army calls it) being played out in the country’s media and political landscape is proof that Croatia as an independent entity is now under clear and present danger.
A Trojan Horse comes to the Sabor
The start of this situation can be traced back to election of Stipe Mesic as the president in 2000, just months after the death Croatia’s founder and first president, Dr. Franjo Tudjman.
Mesic, an avowed communist and acolyte of Franjo Greguric, the last prime minister of the so-called Socialist Republic of Croatia (SRH), instituted a series of so-called ‘reforms that brought those that Tudjman (who for the purposes of national unity during the war years) rejected, directly back into the halls of power.
Mesic’s rise in turn led to the resurgence of far-left groups (such as Antifa, Zivi Zid etc.) across the country, which unlike their progressive counterparts in the West, have neither the democratic roots nor any liberal traditions to draw upon.
These totalitarian clones hinge their entire political philosophy on Marxist relativism and Russian subservience, with their main aim being the realisation of a fourth, regionalised Yugoslav-like political entity.
The situation today in 2017
So now at the beginning of 2017 we have a socio-political situation in the RH that depending on your perspective, at best resembles a farce and at worst, a tragic comedy without a conclusion in sight.
For a start, there is the circular rise, fall and rise once again of a discredited and dishonest professional political class that knows only how to gorge itself at the trough of public expense – exemplified by the likes of Ivo Sanader, Jadranka Kosor, and Vladimir Seks on the right and Zoran Milanovic, Vesna Pusic and Ivo Josipovic on the left.
While in early 2016, Croatia was one of the first countries to embrace what academic Dr. Tomislav Sunic calls the ‘European New Right’ with the election of the Oreskovic government, thanks to the political machinations by Mesic and Co., the Oreskovic regime lasted barely six months before the neo-Yugoslav political mafia instituted a well-organised putsch through its ‘assets’ in the ruling HDZ party.
The Jabba the Hutt of the media
As mentioned, there is a concerted psy-ops campaign underpinning much of this war against the free Croatian state.
At the heart of this campaign is the state-owned media monopoly.
Much like the Star Wars character Jabba the Hutt, which has become a euphemism for suffocating political corruption, the monolithic state-owned Hrvatska Radio Televizija (HRT), is both an obstacle to media reform and a symptom of how little the country has progressed from the dark days of communist Yugoslavia.
While there is the fig leaf of a free media and free speech in the country, in practice, HRT’s mentality has not moved far from its totalitarian roots.
This was clearly evident recently when Marko Juric, presenter of the popular Markov Trg political TV show was suspended for the contents of one of his recent programs.
The Juric case has exposed that freedom of speech in today’s Croatia is only free as along as you agree with the prevailing neo-Yugoslav left wing dogma that has infected the country’s elite.
The chetniks have conquered Zagreb
During the 1991-95 war, Croatia gave blood and treasure to keep Serb chetniks from occupying Zagreb.
Now two decades later, their political inheritors are closer than ever to the levers of power.
Serb National Council (SNV) President Milorad Pupovac is a prime example.
A full time chetnik apologist, Pupovac has been given unprecedented access and sweeping influence in the new government as head of the inter-parliamentary committee for co-operation – an unwieldy title for what is an obscure role that at the same time seems to entitle him to endlessly critique Croatia both at home and abroad.
There are other examples too, like that of deputy mayors in a number of regional parts of Croatia who during the 1991-95 war fought against the country on the side of Serb paramilitary forces.
Regardless, after 25 years of being internationally recognised as a sovereign nation, Croatia is slowly succumbing to the poison that was once called pan-Slavism thanks mainly to the efforts of the HUDBA and supported by their chetnik allies in both the SDP and HDZ.
So what needs to be done?
There are many things that can be done, both by the citizens of Croatia and also the Diaspora.
For the country’s 4.2 million citizens, the most immediate course of action would be to stop voting in those politicians who have dirtied their hands in the many scandals we have seen, such as the most recent one concerning INA ownership, shares and foreign control.
Removing the tragi-comedic farce that is placing former chetniks in local government would be another way to change the moribund status quo.
There are nearly 100 registered political parties across the country, so there is no shortage of alternatives at the polls.
The second would be to get the legislation for a ‘lustration’ across the line.
The South African version – known as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission did remarkably well in the late 1990s. Without the moral and political cleaning out of the past, there can be no real and meaningful future for the country.
Reforming the judiciary would also be a help to Croatia’s future growth along with instituting a range of other initiatives like the introduction up of the proper (read: de-Illyrianised) Croatian language.
Also officially recognising all religions (as is done in the West) like the Croatian Orthodox Church etc. would do a long way to help this democratization.
Together with that, a proper ‘de-communization’ process needs to be put in place starting with the removal of any references to AVNOJ or other vestiges of Yugo-communist rule from the country’s constitution – one cannot have a democratic country whose founding constitution contains odes to totalitarianism.
Lastly, the Croatian population must come to the collective realisation that those who have spent their entire adult lives working against the country will not and cannot be reformed.
As for the Diaspora, there too are many options that are open.
Firstly the rivers of money that are sent to Croatia need to stop and stop now.
This is critical. According to figures from the Croatian government, between 1989 and 2014, some $USD100 million was sent to Croatia by the Diaspora.
While during the war years, that influx of cash helped in the buying of much-needed weapons, these days, the Diaspora in effect is funding the HUDBA and their chetnik allies.
That money would be better spent funding or even setting up a political party that is not only more patriotic and less corrupt, but also one that takes in the concerns of all Croatians regardless of who or where they are.
Secondly there is the issue of funding alternate media channels. These days with digital technology, there is no shortage of ways to get your message across the country and across the globe.
Thirdly, we now have a framework to achieve all the above and more with initiatives like Dinko Dedic’s Projekt Velebit.
Projekt Velebit has the real potential to act as an ameliorator to Croatia’s political woes; a bridge over what has become very troubled political waters.
The Projekt Velebit movement however needs active support and funding from the Diaspora to be able to fully realise its potential, especially in its initial phase of growth.
Most of all, the Diaspora can and should act as a massive lobby both for the country and Croatians in general – it is probably an understatement to say that there are almost as money Croats living outside the RH than in it, so the potential for a massive and powerful political movement is literally right under our noses.
The political elite in Zagreb need to realise that this lobbying can be for or against them – as its not the government of the day that matters but Croatia as a free country and as a viable concept that is of prime importance.
While these ideas may seem expensive, harsh or even to some perhaps a bit far fetched, the brutal truth of the matter is that if something does not change soon, Croatia will turn in a direction that not only will be against what most Croats want, but also one that will become quickly irreversible.
