1 Since Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski has gone on holiday, it must mean that things are not as bleak as we’d think regarding the defence of the state’s integrity and sovereignty. The destabilisation that, according to his insight, is being organised by DUI can apparently wait. To be fair, Mickoski himself announced that the destabilisation would hit us this autumn, but it wouldn’t be right to disclose the intelligence he has before the time comes. At the very least, he could have let us enjoy our holidays in peace and quiet.
First, in his Ilinden speech at Mechkin Kamen, the Prime Minister disclosed to us that “there are elements and entities in society that continuously make demands that spark conflicts.” Then, on a couple of occasions, he identified those “entities” as DUI, accusing them of organising a destabilisation to cover up their crimes, and warned that “some groups will be unwittingly manipulated to challenge our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” and claimed that “DUI threatens the inter-ethnic reputation of the country and poses a risk to Macedonia’s peace and stability.” Following this, Minister of Internal Affairs Panche Toshkovski stated that “there is information supporting what the Prime Minister has said and the public should be informed of all the facts,” but that the citizens shouldn’t worry.
We remember Nikola Gruevski’s ruling principle – seek out enemies, keep the nation on high alert and then act like you’re saving the country.
Fine. Seek out enemies. But, at least make sure you find them.
Do you remember that back in the day, things would be nice and easy for a while, and then out of the blue a missile launcher would be fired at the Government building during the night. After that came press conferences, then statements, then “we find out from intelligence sources” yet – the shooter and the reason behind it were never revealed. Indeed, time has passed, the wheel has turned, VMRO-DPMNE is back in power, but a line from the wiretapped conversations keeps ringing in my ears: “How about we start a war!” from the period when the coalition with DUI was going smoothly. And as for the operation to “break up a terrorist group” in Kumanovo’s Divo Naselje in 2015, where 8 police officers died, let’s not even go there, that topic is far too painful.
It seems that Mickoski still hasn’t realised that he’s no longer in the opposition. He’s the prime minister now. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and various civil services responsible for state security are under his jurisdiction. Every security service in the world has its own insights and addresses them. That’s their job. As a citizen, I don’t expect the Prime Minister to inform me on television that there are indications that someone wants to destabilise the country, and on top of that to announce that such destabilisation will occur this autumn. I expect the Prime Minister to report what the state authorities have done. Have they identified those behind the destabilisation, have they summoned them for questioning, have they filed criminal charges against them, have they detained them. If the indications were so serious, President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova would have convened the Security Council this summer.
That information would be important to me. And that information would calm me down. It doesn’t work like this, the prime minister upsets you and then goes on holiday.
The approach appears to be: I’ll make the big revelation and then leave you to figure things out.
2 You know what? We shouldn’t have to figure things out ourselves. There are people responsible for figuring out issues with the security of the state and its citizens. Let’s not forget the new management personnel at the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been handpicked. The deputy minister from the VLEN Coalition, Astrid Iseini, is a kinesiologist with a degree in physical education. The new State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sasho Petrushevski, from ZNAM, previously served as the director of Kumanovo parking lots and, before that, as the director of “Cleanliness and Greenery”.
Whether it’s VLEN or ZNAM, it is what it is. The state may not be stable, but the government coalition must be. Those are the candidates we have, we can’t find better. And of course, everyone wants their slice of the pie.
3 It’s a shame that Minister Toshkovski suspended the head of security for the Speaker of the Assembly, Afrim Gashi, who cocked his gun in the VIP lounge at the Skopje Airport to allow Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani to pass through security without having her hand luggage scanned.
Guys from DUI were sissies. They stormed the Control Tower with their record cards and beat people with their fists. These new guys from VLEN are ready to put a gun to a colleague’s head and escort the Kosovo president to a plane without her phone being scanned. Imagine that, someone paid for a VIP lounge at Skopje Airport and suddenly a civilian rushes up to them with flashing lights and waves a cocked gun. A hostage drama with a VIP treatment. It’s not like Vjosa Osmani’s life was in danger. Her vanity took a hit.
These are the kinds of police officers who are supposed to defend the country from destabilisation. People ready to fight a battle for Kosovo on Macedonian soil.
4 Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti addressed the incident with the Kosovo President, saying that neither he nor Mickoski can be customs officers, police officers, supervisors of the police, airport supervisors, etc…
Let Kurt speak for himself. Our Mickoski can certainly be a customs officer too. On July 20, during the laying of the foundation stone for a kindergarten, he said: “I want you to know that I will personally review the customs invoices for imported medicines. I will personally sit and review them to make sure there are no abnormal incomes for individuals at the expense of the citizens’ health”.
Let’s just hope the shipments of medicines won’t arrive at the same time the President of Kosovo decides to fly from Skopje. Mickoski said that next time she travels from Skopje Airport, he’ll personally accompany her because that incident “caused a feeling that we regret and we don’t want it to happen again.” He claims that he himself doesn’t use the VIP lounge, and that he, as prime minister, and the Macedonian president go through all standard security checks, but when Vjosa Osmani travels, he’ll be pleased “to welcome her as a host at the airport and accompany her during her time at Skopje Airport until she departs, to prevent any similar incidents.”
Well, how about that. A Prime Minister, customs officer, airport security officer, and VIP escort, all at the same time. Does Mickoski have some hidden x-ray device to check her luggage himself? So what if he welcomes her and sees her off? He’s a Prime Minister who respects security procedures, and she’s a President who doesn’t want to respect security procedures. Will he comfort her in the VIP lounge as she watches her phone being scanned, feeling sad? What will he say to her: Don’t worry, Madam President, it’s a standard procedure all over the world, everyone’s personal luggage is checked when they fly commercially. Here, if necessary, let them pass my phone through the scanner too.
5 The Minister of Education and Science, Vesna Janevska, apologised to the public for her “badly worded statement” about foreign language textbooks. She could’ve simply stated that there would be no foreign language textbooks for the new school year because the previous government didn’t provide them, and that would be completely in line with the new government’s favourite excuses. Instead, Janevska chose to say this:
“The language is alive, you know, children start learning it from TV series as well. The point is for them to understand and speak it, not to learn the grammar of a language that’s foreign to them, nouns, pronouns, and all that, I believe it won’t be a problem.”
The minister is clearly out of touch with the current times. Children now learn to speak a foreign language from television and mobile devices as babies and in kindergarten, so by the time they reach school age, they do need textbooks to learn “grammar, nouns, pronouns, and all that.”
However, she’s right about one thing. They don’t need grammar, nouns, pronouns, and all that when filling out immigrant visa forms.
6 “The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Cvetan Tripunovski, held a working meeting with Flakron Bexheti, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. The topic of today’s meeting was current affairs in the Ministry. ‘Through conversation and good coordination, the Ministry works for the good of farmers and citizens,’ the minister stated,” reads the announcement from the Ministry’s Press Office.
So, a working meeting. On current activities. A meeting fit for a PR announcement, along with a photo for the public. No one rushed into someone else with a cocked gun or beat them with their fists. The meeting between the minister and the deputy minister from the same ministry was peaceful.
Well, this truly is beyond parody.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
