1 It’s a pity Americans give us so much money to fight corruption in Macedonia. In the series of grants, of the latest 10.3 million dollars that USAID gives for the development of democracy, they said half of it would be for the fight against corruption. US Ambassador Kate Byrnes said “they are looking forward to seeing how this investment pays off”.
It seems they’ll have to wait a little longer than expected. The fight against corruption has been reduced to 127 trainings on the code of ethics of newly elected officials and integrity tests, which Deputy Prime Minister Slavica Grkovska boasted about. Also with the poetic speech of First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi, that “the word percent must not refer to commissions, but to the implementation of the fight against corruption”. I’m not convinced Grubi himself believes in what he’s saying. Unless he thinks he’s telling jokes.
It doesn’t matter how many trainings Grkovska organizes and how many integrity tests she makes because it’s likely none of them will be implemented. Since we know how officials are appointed. That particracy in our society is already so normalized that no one even pretends it’s not so, and they’re even less ashamed to admit it. The possibilities for operating in a non-partisan manner, not just in politics, but also in business, culture, healthcare, education, even in sports and show business, are so narrowed down that life outside of the party practically doesn’t exist.
I’m grateful Americans are giving us so much money to turn us into a normal democratic society, but not even these 10 million will change the mindset of most of our citizens. That practice of clientelism, of submissiveness to the party and the responsibility to give something to get things done is so firmly established, that it’s unlikely it will get changed just with trainings, tests and paid media campaigns against corruption. Artan Grubi can recite poetry all he wants, but prose says something else.
2 Americans have been waiting for thirty years to see results in the judiciary as well. The same day when they announced they were going to give us another 10 million dollars for the development of democracy, the Board of Directors of the Academy for Judges and Prosecutors cancelled the competition for the post of director. Their members, simply, didn’t vote for the candidates and didn’t say why.
Loads of judges and prosecutors used to go on study trips in America for thirty years. Millions of dollars of American taxpayers have been spent to raise the capacity of Macedonian judges and prosecutors, hoping to educate them about law and justice. However, that’s not how law and justice work here. Macedonian judges and prosecutors know that once they come back they won’t need what they had learned in America. Simply, they know where they return. Because they also know how they were hired. They also know how they were elected as judges and prosecutors. Even their bosses know how they became bosses. So, in line with the locally acquired knowledge, they know who they need to serve.
As a matter of fact, we all saw how things stand with law and justice during the last five or six years, following the daily absurdity of the court processes related to the illegal wiretapping and the establishment of the Special Prosecutor’s Office. We’re unmatched when it comes to that. We can teach Americans a lesson in not enforcing the law. Starting with how trials can be delayed indefinitely, with retired jurors and lawyers who need translators, verdicts travelling endlessly from the Court of First Instance to the Court of Appeal, then to the Supreme Court and back, all the way to giving the convicted the opportunity to choose where to serve prison time, with full board included.
3 It’s more or less the same as when the current global climate changes are the only guilty party when the corrupt deals for the chaotic construction must remain hidden. A torrential rain of less than half an hour in the capital showed how fake the term “investors” is in the field of construction, “investors” whose interests have been protected by each local and state government since 1991. The lower quality of life makes us feel the consequences of their “investments” every single day, but this time, with the deluge, we brutally felt the consequences of the corrupt connection between the “investors” with each local government.
The mayor of Municipality Centar, Goran Gerasimovski, says that “a city without construction is a dead city.” The mayor is right, loosely speaking. A city with corrupt construction is a dead city. And his job as a mayor is to not kill the city. His job is to make sure the urban plans are carried out exclusively for the public interest and to improve the quality of life. If construction is done solely for the interest of the “investors” and the ones who approve that construction, with no regard for the ones who will end up living in their “investments”, the mayor will be the one who turns the city into a dead city. Or, let’s not be so cruel, he’ll turn it into a chaotic city with anxious and unhappy citizens.
So, I agree with the mayors that it’s important to build. No one’s against building. However, not building in a way that lets someone make a fortune and run away, while we’re still drowning in torrential rains.
4 On 30 August, President Stevo Prendarovski received the credentials from the newly appointed Ambassador of Ukraine Larisa Deer.
A country that has been at war for six months, after it was brutally attacked by Russia, found the time and thought it fitting to appoint an ambassador to a very small and not very significant country like Macedonia, after the mandate of the previous ambassador ended. Macedonia, on the other hand, a country which is a member of NATO, a candidate for EU membership, which lives in freedom and democracy, hasn’t been able to appoint ambassadors to the major world centres for several years. Because its diplomacy has been reduced to political bargaining and wish lists.
5 I don’t know how the school year started in Ukraine. Here, on 1 September, the state hasn’t printed textbooks for the children. Just as it hadn’t printed report cards on 10 June.
The government is out of harm’s way. At least, may our children be safe and sound.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
