1 The fact that the MPs from the ruling parties didn’t even come out of Parliament during the protest in Skopje to hear our the parents of the children who died in the Kochani fire only deepened distrust in the institutions and further fuelled suspicions of selective justice.

The parents had travelled from Kochani and simply wanted to be heard. But the VMRO-DPMNE MPs, including those from Kochani and the eastern regions of Macedonia, where most of the victims in the tragedy came from, didn’t come out to offer their condolences to the very people they supposedly represent in the legislative branch. They should have been the first to come out, but instead, they chose to stay back and watch as the MPs from Levica and SDSM faced the parents’ anger and from the comfort of the parliamentary corridors they gloated: Wow, they really got a proper booing.

From day one after the tragedy, the government has been doing everything it can to avoid having fingers pointed in its direction. Swinging between lines like “now’s not the time for protests”, “the media shouldn’t report this way”, “a ban on flying drones has been introduced”… Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, at his first press conference after the accident, clashed with journalists who asked whether the mayor of Kochani would resign – he defended him at first, and two days later, we saw the mayor of Kochani in detention.

What exactly scared the ruling MPS? Were they afraid of being booed by the families of the victims from Kochani? So what? That’s the voice of the very people who elected them. Why don’t they want to hear that voice?

At the protest that moved from Kochani to Skopje, all MPs should have come out before the parents. The tragedy that struck the entire country was far too great to draw lines between government and opposition. Everyone should have been outside. If nothing else, at least to offer them a glass of water. And all of them should have faced the anger of the parents whose children died on 16 March in a nightclub that, by the state’s own standards, should have never been operating as a nightclub in the first place. That way, they would have shown respect for the mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers of the victims, who are also their voters. Even if there was a chance they’d be booed. That hurts far less than the deaths of 62 and the injuries of 200 young people.

That’s how one defends the integrity of the institution of the State Assembly.  And that’s how the legislative branch demands that the executive and judicial branches take all necessary measures to ensure both an impartial and thorough investigation, and the tools needed to prevent a mass murder fuelled by corruption from ever happening again. And that’s how the legislative branch takes the initiative to change the laws and appoint people to lead institutions capable of ensuring such a tragedy is never repeated.

That would be the case if we had MPs with integrity. Instead, what we have in Parliament are third-rate party mediocrities, placed there solely to raise their hands on command and spew venom and hatred at political opponents. We, in fact, do not have Parliament of people’s representatives. We have representatives of bribed civil servants blackmailed into voting as the party machinery dictates, who don’t give a damn about the public interest.

2 Is there any clearer proof of servility to the ruling party than the protest by the employees of the Skopje Zoo, who haven’t received their salaries for two months, yet refuse to blame anyone for it? The Zoo employs 50 people, and their salaries are paid by the Ministry of Culture, but according to the president of the local trade union organisation, they’re not protesting against anyone and are simply showing us that they really haven’t been paid since March.

“We’re not blaming anyone, people, believe us, not ministers, not mayors, not directors, we’re only asking for our salaries to be given to us,” said the president of the trade union at the gathering in front of the Zoo, which one of the caretakers described as “not even a protest, this is happening during a break,” while also sending the message that they’ve been left without health insurance, too.

We all know how people get employed in state institutions. They themselves know how they got employed. That’s why they’re not blaming anyone. But are we, the taxpayers, the ones working to fund even their salaries, supposed to be upset that they haven’t been paid? Personally, what I find more alarming than the fact they haven’t been paid from our money is that they’re not even willing to blame their employer, in this case the Ministry of Culture, for leaving them without pay.

The old story about every Macedonian keeping a pistol tucked away since Ottoman times, just in case, no longer holds. The pistol has long been melted down in some scrap yard. The Macedonian citizen isn’t scared. He’s servile. Isn’t this a textbook case of party servility cranked up to the maximum – sending a message that you haven’t been paid for Easter and May Day, yet refusing to blame anyone for it? And to top it off – it wasn’t a protest. It happened during a break.

If that’s the case, then perhaps they shouldn’t be paid at all. Just let them have more breaks.

3 But then again, a state job is a state job. Even if the salary turns up late.

The Agency for Administration has published several job adverts for civil servant positions in the Ministry of Sport. One of the job adverts is for a “Junior Scanning Officer.”

How many documents are being scanned in the Ministry of Sport that they need a special person just for that operation? Other employees can’t just scan what they need. A special person will sit by the scanner, and their sole responsibility will be to scan documents. Are there such positions in all ministries? One more thing’s been bugging me. Since they’re now hiring a junior scanning officer, does that mean the post of senior scanning officer has already been filled on a state salary?

A serious state can’t afford to have a state institution with someone hired to scan documents, but no one to staple the scanned documents with a stapler afterwards. Automatically, the next job advert will be for a “Junior Stapling Officer.”

Local elections are just around the corner. Adverts for made-up positions are yet to come. Who knows what kind of creativity municipal administrations will display in inventing roles. You’d need to start as a Junior Poster-Sticker to be eligible for promotion to Senior Poster-Sticker. That’s how you climb the ladder in the civil service.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski