1 So, it could be done after all. In a crisis situation, such as the current forest fires, the state can coordinate all institutions in a timely manner to intervene effectively. We’ve lost so much trust in the institutions that when they do the job they’re paid to do, it comes as a surprise to us. It turns out it was actually possible to coordinate the Crisis Management Centre and the Protection and Rescue Directorate, the Government and municipal authorities, the president of the state, the police, the military, all the foreign countries that sent aircraft to combat the fires…
In a country where various institutions, whether state or municipal, can’t agree on who’s responsible for mowing the grass beside the roads and collecting rubbish, it’s truly a miracle that all those who act like they’re not the competent authority under normal conditions can at least coordinate well in a crisis.
We’ll be a normal country when that’s the case all the time, and not just in a crisis. When institutions are prepared and able to coordinate under normal conditions, so they won’t be caught off guard by snow in January and fires in July. For the money they pay as taxpayers, citizens expect their needs to be met every day and for politicians not to seek applause for doing their jobs.
2 Since we saw it could actually be done, it’s appropriate for the Government to stop complaining about the horrible circumstances they encountered, that money had been wasted as if there were no tomorrow, that they found holes in the budget… We keep hearing the same old tune after every change of government. In 2017, SDSM complained about the disarray VMRO-DPMNE and DUI left behind. In 2024, VMRO-DPMNE is complaining about the disarray SDSM and DUI left behind. Every government makes excuses that the previous one was bad. Only DUI doesn’t complain about the previous government. It complains about not being part of the government.
We had great disappointments with SDSM. However, Hristijan Mickoski’s promises were also grand. Considering the great disappointments and the grand promises, it’s perfectly normal for the expectations of the new government to also be high. It’s wrong to pretend that they didn’t know what to expect when they dished out promises left and right.
They’re saying the situation was horrible. If it hadn’t been horrible, VMRO-DPMNE wouldn’t have won, and SDSM wouldn’t have lost so convincingly in the elections.
The rule of SDSM and DUI is now history. And any further complaining by the new government will be aimed at distracting us from something they promised and cannot fulfil.
3 Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski led the Macedonian delegation at the NATO Summit in Washington, and then went to London for the meeting of the European Political Community. I personally witnessed that there was no one in Washington to confirm that “our interlocutors had the opportunity to see a different breed of politicians…,” because he successfully avoided both Macedonian and foreign journalists and made statements only to himself.
Where does Mickoski get the impression that foreigners perceive him and his team as “a different breed of politicians who have come to defend state interests with a clear plan and are not corrupt”? Maybe that is really the case, but how would we know? What we do know though is that among those politicians there are some who’ve been tried for corruption but have been granted a pardon.
After all, the people they spoke to are the ones who should provide feedback. It’s not right for them to claim how others perceive them. This situation is like when someone hooks up with a girl and brags around: Guys, you have no idea how hot my girlfriend is, I’m the best boyfriend she’s ever had. Meanwhile, she remains silent.
4 The State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (SCPC) has given Prime Minister Mickoski a 15-day deadline to provide documents proving that the expenses for his son’s travel and stay in Washington and New York weren’t covered by the state budget, but were instead paid from the funds of Mickoski’s family, as stated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Former Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski also took his daughter to Rome, and both his son and daughter to New York and Washington. He too claimed that the travel expenses for his daughter and his son were covered by the family budget and that he’d provide the bills if necessary. However, he never did.
Who’s responsible for requesting those bills? The current Anti-Corruption Commission, whose president, Tatjana Dimitrovska, was given a diplomatic passport by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the remaining six members who’ve submitted a request and are still waiting.
And who’ll catch them if they use their diplomatic passports for tourist trips? Who’ll control them if they misuse their diplomatic passports?
Diplomatic passports are issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. What if, tomorrow, the current members of the Anti-Corruption Commission need to investigate the Minister of Foreign Affairs due to a complaint about illegal spending of state money? Regardless of who the minister is. Yesterday it was Bujar Osmani, today it’s Timcho Mucunski, tomorrow it will be someone else. Who will conduct that investigation? The anti-corruption officers who received their diplomatic passports from the very minister they’re supposed to investigate.
Legally, the members of the Anti-Corruption Commission are entitled to diplomatic passports because they’re elected by the Parliament. But then again, what example do they set by doing that? They’re supposed to be the most honest and least susceptible to bribery, are they not? The members of the previous composition of the Anti-Corruption Commission didn’t have diplomatic passports, yet we never heard of anyone being stopped at the border during their official trips.
That’s the level of the anti-corruption officers. The passports are what they care about the most. We had a special prosecutor who went down over purses and a sofa, and now we have an Anti-Corruption Commission that might go down due to cutting in line at border crossings.
They do travel a lot. They attend anti-corruption trainings organised by the USA and the EU. What are they taught there? That they should secure privileges for themselves first.
5 Two or three weeks ago, in Skopje’s Kisela Voda municipality, five people, along with an ambulance crew, got stuck in an elevator designed for three people. Fire fighters were called in to rescue them.
This week, twelve people got stuck in an elevator designated for three people in Veles. Eight adults and four children. Fire fighters were sent to rescue them as well.
When it comes to the five people who managed to get into an elevator meant for three, you might say they panicked, it was a case of emergency. But how did 12 people manage to get into such a small elevator? Ok, they squeezed in the children somehow, but eight more people in an elevator for three? What must that have looked like? They probably had to piggyback the children.
Not only is Macedonia proud again, but it has also started to defy the laws of physics.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
