1 I listened to the charges regarding the fire in Kochani that claimed 62 lives, including six children. Almost everything that State Prosecutor Ljupcho Kocevski listed as part of the institutional chain of inaction, from local to state level, mirrors the examples readers send us daily for the “Report Corruption” column. After the tragedy on March 16, we received dozens of complaints with letters they had sent to mayors, municipal services, various inspectorates, various ministries, and even to Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and the President’s Office, and some of those cases are now in legal proceedings.
The complaints concern illegal buildings, extensions, outdoors seating areas, usurped public space, inadequate ventilation, hazardous warehouse setups, improvised conversions of business premises, lack of parking, blocked access for ambulances and fire engines, loud music, fights… Same old, same old. Almost identical to the reports that institutions had been receiving for years about the nightclub in Kochani.
There will be a trial for this tragedy. I believe someone will be convicted. But what about all the reports the state continues to ignore? I hope they won’t ask us to hand them over so they can check whether the matter falls under their jurisdiction. No point in asking, we already know they’ll claim they’re not the competent authority. After all, the ones we received are just copies, they’re the ones holding the originals. All those documents that desperate citizens send to our editorial office had previously been properly submitted to various institutions, archived with dates, printed, signed by the recipient… All for nothing. Citizens keep writing, and there’s no one to respond. Or, in the best-case scenario, they respond by saying that the issue isn’t under the jurisdiction of that institution.
Three months have passed since the tragedy that struck us. But the shock, it seems, didn’t last long. Just look around you. Take a moment to reflect on where we live. What do you see when you step out of your house, when you leave the office, when you go to a party? Can you feel it? Kochani is lurking in every corner.
2 The Government can provide rehabilitation to the more than 200 injured not only in the Ponikva resort, but in a few other resorts as well. It could also pay for hotels. At the very least, it could open a few more phone lines to support the families of the victims. But all of that is in vain if the government continues to ignore what’s plain as day and the very thing that bothers citizens most. It’s all in vain if there’s no political will to change the current practices along the lines of “We’re not the competent authority.”
But I’m afraid there is no political will. Especially after hearing Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski turn against the civic initiatives from Kochani. Instead of thanking them for everything they’ve done for the people of Kochani, he discredited them. At the birthday celebration of VMRO-DPMNE’s Union of Young Forces in Veles, he said: “We can now see how a civic movement in support of Kochani is slowly turning into a political movement. From supporting the victims of the terrible tragedy in Kochani, they’ve moved on to talking about multi-storey car parks, water supply systems, sewage infrastructure, fulfilling unfulfilled promises, all in the spirit of local elections.”
Are citizens not allowed to talk about multi-storey car parks, water supply systems, sewage infrastructure, and fulfilling unfulfilled promises? Is that topic an exclusive right of parties during pre-election rallies, where they make promises they never keep? After all, is it forbidden for a civic movement to turn into a political movement? Is that against the Constitution, is it against any law? Is anyone else even allowed to speak about politics, or is that a primordial right reserved solely for VMRO-DPMNE? And possibly, on occasion, in exceptional situations, SDSM might also exercise that right.
3 The “Support Kochani” initiative has done more for the people of Kochani than the ten Macedonian governments combined, including Mickoski’s. And naturally Mickoski is afraid of them, so he discredits them. Instead of helping them and praising their success, and even joining them, he chooses to undermine them and is trying to tear them down. Just like other civic associations and initiatives that have dared to disturb the peace of the parties in municipalities where they won several council seats in the last local elections.
So if VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM are really that big and powerful, why are they even dealing with civic movements? Why are they wasting their time, coming up with ways to eliminate them from the elections?
Once again, the government and the opposition have joined forces to amend the Electoral Code and raise the threshold for required signatures for independent candidates, despite the Constitutional Court having previously abolished the 1% voter threshold, ruling that increasing the number of required signatures for proposing independent candidates constitutes interference in citizens’ right to vote.
That’s why I think it’s a farce when Hristijan Mickoski claims that VMRO-DPMNE has nothing against the entire territory of the country becoming a single electoral unit. Just as it was a farce when Zoran Zaev said that SDSM would support a single electoral unit, but never dared to put it on the agenda.
It’s easier to collect signatures to register a political party than to register an independent candidate for elections.
This is Macedonia. Long live the party.
4 Minister of Education Vesna Janevska said that last year we had 17,000 fewer pupils and students, as many had moved abroad over the past seven years. At an event held a week after it was announced that Shtip alone had 100 fewer first-year students enrolled compared to the previous year, she said: “You see, the economy is doing well for now, and if it continues in the same direction, I believe that in a few years, some of them will start to return.”
Apparently, coming to power is the quickest way to lose touch with reality.
5 Minister of Finance Gordana Kochoska-Dimitrieska threatened to sue MP Fatmir Bytyqi if he dared to ask outside the Parliament why the Ministry of Finance hasn’t refunded VAT to some companies even after nine months, suspecting the money is being returned only to party-affiliated companies.
When Minister Kochoska-Dimitrieska insulted MP Slavjanka Petrovska a few months ago for not having children, instead of answering a question about supermarket prices, we thought perhaps she’d just lost her temper, had a bad day, and snapped. But it turns out, it likely has nothing to do with her temper at all.
The fact that Kochoska-Dimitrieska doesn’t like the question has nothing to do with her twisted understanding of what it means to be a minister. Fatmir Bytyqi is an MP. MPs ask questions at parliamentary question time. They do so in the Assembly, which appoints and dismisses ministers, the very place where ministers report to MPs elected by the people.
VMRO-DPMNE should consider sending their minister to a long-overdue democracy course, like the ones run by “Konrad Adenauer.” The introductory courses on democracy in a parliamentary republic wrapped up in the early nineties of the last century. The minister clearly missed that class.
6 The Municipality of Aerodrom has fined the Skopje Public Enterprise “Communal Hygiene” 80,000 euros for failing to collect rubbish from waste containers.
And how will “Communal Hygiene” pay the fine? With the money of Skopje’s citizens, the money they pay in utility bills.
So, Skopje residents pay once to have their rubbish collected. Then they pay a second time because their rubbish isn’t collected. Ripped off twice.
That’s right. Citizens aren’t supposed to get involved in politics, especially not before local elections, so now, on top of daring to speak about multi-storey car parks and water supply systems, they’ve started talking about rubbish. Citizens are supposed to pay for the mistakes politicians make. Twice.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
