1 Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski says we’ll show the European Union that “with reforms back home, we will prove to be the best student in the class and that the EU will want us.”
We showed just what kind of student we are on the very day our Prime Minister made that statement. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee gave the Macedonian Government a few more months to act so that Ohrid’s coastline doesn’t end up on the list of endangered world heritage sites. This good student has already failed UNESCO’s exam twice, and is now given a third chance to retake it.
It’s hard to believe that someone who was given two full years twice in a row and failed the exam both times will suddenly learn their lesson in just a few months – by February, no less. We’re master of self-sabotage. While 40 organisations from the region and across Europe are urging UNESCO to stop giving us chances and finally add Ohrid to the list of endangered world heritage sites, our Government is boasting that it’s managed to get another chance. The destruction of Ohrid’s coastline is well underway, but we won’t make it in time, give us just a bit more time to finish destroying it.
The Ministry of Transport has launched a tender for the demolition of illegal buildings in protected areas, old town centres, national parks, archaeological sites, because, until now, the municipalities have refused to demolish them. I’d love to see that happen in Ohrid, but I doubt it will be the case. February, the deadline UNESCO gave us to save Ohrid on our own, is just around the corner. By then, who knows whether the tender will even be finalised, given all the complaints and procedures. And as luck would have it, the local elections are scheduled for the same time…
So, if Mickoski really wants to be the best student, he ought to bring out the bulldozers immediately. And not just in Ohrid. And not just for “your” illegal buildings, but for “ours” as well. More specifically, he should focus on the serious buildings, and not try to pull the wool over our eyes with sheds and makeshift outdoor seating areas.
Our country has failed twice a fairly significant exam in protecting natural and cultural heritage recognised by the world since the last century. It’d be stupid for us to fail it a third time and end up with a commission exam.
Given how fond Mickoski is of boasting that he’s saving our identity, here’s a chance to back it up with action, beyond the ad-hoc party speeches. Ohrid is part of the Macedonian too, is it not?
2 In Skopje, our identity has already gone up in flames. This summer, our illegal landfills catch fire on a daily basis. But we cling to them stubbornly and keep restoring them, and even creating new ones.
Here in the capital, our ambitions are far more modest than demolishing illegal buildings, even when they’re in front of a police station, and even when Mayor Danela Arsovska is attacked during an inspection in Chair. For now, we’re just asking for the basic city functions. We want the city services we pay handsomely for to collect our rubbish from the bins, sweep our streets, and provide public transport. We also want them to provide water for drinking and washing, because this summer, water supply has become unreliable. So much so that the President’s residence on Vodno was left without water.
In winter, we suffocate in smog, in summer, in smoke from burning illegal landfills. But there’s no point to talk about that topic now when pollution will return the moment the elections are over.
As if that even matters. The citizens of Skopje don’t vote for a normal life. They vote to feel proud.
3 You can’t exactly claim that we’ve lost our identity just because the Macedonian language isn’t mentioned in a European Parliament report, especially when such reports rarely reference the language of identity of the country in question. The rapporteur, Thomas Weitz, wanted to include it, perhaps out of respect, or empathy, given that only our path to Europe has been blocked for decades, precisely because Bulgaria, as an EU member state, denies the existence of a Macedonian identity.
At an extraordinary press conference at the VMRO-DPMNE headquarters, Mickoski declared that “the truth has now come to light” that the issue isn’t about including Bulgarians in our Constitution, but that “Bulgaria wants to destroy the Macedonian nation and identity.”
If the aim was “for the world to see the challenges and injustices we face as a state and a people in the 21st century,” as Mickoski said, then – Well done, Prime Minister, the best student gets top marks.
But then again, what are we supposed to do with those top marks? The EU has seen that Bulgaria is our enemy. How are we going to turn that to our advantage? We can’t really scold the EU. They’re family. They’re certainly not going to pick a fight with one of their own over someone from the outside. So instead, maybe we should be figuring out how to get the EU on our side. Does the Prime Minister have a plan for that?
Not even 24 hours had passed since Mickoski’s dramatic call for unity with the opposition on this issue, when he was back to accusing SDSM of being traitors, bootlickers, of selling the flag, of selling the name… He speaks of unity in a way that guarantees they will never unite. And then Filipche fires back: They promised pride, we got humiliation.
We’re neither any prouder nor any more humiliated.
However, if you truly want unity, then you set everything else aside and move forward.
If the vote in the European Parliament showed Europe who Bulgaria is and what its true intentions are, back home it exposed the level of our parties and political elites, who can’t agree on what constitutes the most important national interest.
[dropcap41[/dropcap] The calls for unity, patriotism, and identity protection managed to drown out the news that the SDSM MPs proposed 12 laws in Parliament, laws that VMRO-DPMNE had promised during last year’s election campaign. However, VMRO-DPMNE’s MPs didn’t vote for them.
It’s not like VMRO-DPMNE’s MPs are so brain-dead that they forgot the promises that got them elected just a year ago. Thinking isn’t really part of the job description, so they voted “against” out of pure reflex. The order they have is: vote against anything SDSM proposes, even if it was originally our idea.
5 As the fires rage on, every summer we bring up the topic of why the fire fighting aircraft weren’t serviced on time, and how old the fire brigade’s fleet is.
How come politicians always remember to replace the luxury vehicles for the head of state, the prime minister, ministers, and directors of public enterprises every 3 years? How come mayors always remember to buy expensive cars because the current ones are worn out, costly to maintain, and unsafe? How is it that those very same people never seem to think of buying new fire engines and ambulances, not every 3, but at least every 5 years?
It’s not up to Macedonian politicians to think about such things. Why would they trouble themselves with fire fighting vehicles, ambulances, or other catastrophic situations, when that responsibility is already handled by foreign donors, ambassadors in Skopje, private companies, and individuals?
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
