WILD BOAR

by | 16 December, 2022

In this country, the only ones getting punished are the taxpayers who regularly pay their taxes and fines

1 The Skopje Court of Appeal annulled Sasho Mijalkov’s 12-year prison sentence for mass illegal wiretapping, who was convicted as a former director of the Administration for Security and Counter Intelligence in the “Fortress – Target” case. That was the main case and the basis for the founding of the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO), which investigated the suspicions of crime we heard about in Zaev’s “information bombs”. Seven years of hope for justice and expectations for a rule of law gone down the drain.

This verdict of the Court of Appeal just goes to show that not only is the illegal wiretapping of thousands of citizens allowed, but also that all the crimes we heard about pay off. In this country, the only ones getting punished are the taxpayers who regularly pay their taxes and fines.

2 When the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Good Governance Policies, Slavica Grkovska, says “This has to stop” I remember the joke about the hunter who went poaching for wild boars. He killed the boar, put it on his back and carried it through the forest. The forestry police caught him and asked him: Where are you going? –Just having a walk in the forest? Have you been hunting wild boars? – No, God, no. Then what are you carrying on your back? The hunter turned back and said: Woah, no way. Where did this come from?

In a similar fashion Grkovska was also surprised at the verdict for Mijalkov, whose statute of limitations will expire in 2025, so it’s unlikely he’ll ever be convicted for the massive illegal wiretapping. Grkovska is asking the Court of Appeal to explain in detail this decision “for which there is doubt whether it is in line with the rule of law and the equality before the law”.

I wonder why the Deputy Prime Minister is surprised, considering that two years ago the Assembly passed an amendment to the Law on allocation and management of cases, according to which it’s not allowed to publish verdicts which are still not effective. The majority voted and passed this amendment. The MPs of her party, SDSM, voted for it. It wouldn’t have been passed without them. At the beginning of each verdict it’s written “On behalf of the citizens…” Who are those citizens on whose behalf these verdicts are passed? And why did the Assembly vote to hide verdicts from citizens?

SDSM has been in power for six years, it’s already halfway through the second term, in the first term there was even a Deputy Prime Minister in charge of anti-corruption, who hunted down expired butter, and now this Deputy Prime Minister is saying “This has to stop”.

Well – it doesn’t stop.

In a way it sounds funny. However, it’s tragic. Because when the Deputy Prime Minister says “This has to stop” it’s no longer an expression of surprise. It’s an expression of powerlessness.

3 Dear taxpayers, all of you who pay your utility bills regularly, who put aside for health, pension and social insurance, who pay personal tax and parking fines, show some solidarity. Let’s also pay the electricity bill of those poor directors in state, municipal and public enterprises, who were appointed by the parties and who demand to be given a company car, a secretary and a driver, but have no money to pay for electricity.

Let us all show solidarity and reward the incompetent who’ve wasted our money. They know how to choose the latest iPhone, but they don’t know how to pay a bill. The question is: When will it stop? What is the guarantee that they’ll start paying for their electricity tomorrow? How can they guarantee that starting from tomorrow they’ll be more responsible with spending the money they’re given from the Budget? With the lies of their party leaders about how competent and responsible their directors are? We all saw that this type of debt forgiveness doesn’t work. Zaev’s government covered the debts of the Municipalities, and we saw what mayors did with that money. Just like Ramiz Merko in Struga, they’ll be rubbing their hands, ka-ching, I’m going to buy a new Audi, the current one is beneath me, it’s already depreciated…

Taxpayers pay for the same service twice. We’ve already paid those directors once so they’d pay their bills regularly. Now we’re going to pay a second time. This is where the corrupt spending of public money begins.

4 The debts weren’t incurred only in the last year, when the price of electricity rose. Some university clinics hadn’t paid their bills for years. The same clinics where economic directors were appointed by parties.

The party appoints him, they free some doctor’s room to make him an office, since it’s not ok for a director to not have an office, they give him a company car, a driver, since it’s not ok for a  director to not have a driver, then they give him a secretary, since it’s not ok for him to call restaurants and book lunches by himself, then they give him a mobile phone, since it’s not ok for his battery to run out while he’s at a seminar abroad, he then goes to hire a dozen of “our guys”, since it’s not ok to be given a director-level job by the party and not do anything in return… And, lo and behold, the messiah Dimitar Kovachevski appears and says to them: Don’t worry, Japanese, German and Dutch taxpayers will buy you echo and X-ray machines and ambulances, and Macedonian taxpayers will pay for the electricity you haven’t paid, the same way they’ve already paid for your car, your driver, your secretary and the fat fees for “our” advisers.

This way, anyone could be a director with unlimited funds. Since we’re talking about hospitals, the director knows that the hospital can be left without medicines and with broken machines, but the state can’t allow a hospital to have its electricity cut off, so he thinks to himself: Go to hell! I won’t pay for electricity. Ask my leader if you can replace me. You can’t.

Recently, at the “8th of September” hospital, during the promotion of some machine provided with Italian support, Prime Minister Kovachevski said: We have high-quality doctors, high-quality equipment, but the system is no good. Well, here is the system, Prime Minister! Change it. For starters, abolish the economic directors at the clinics where they’ve been appointed. It turned out that job position was redundant. Instead of saving money, they misuse the Budget.

5 Since the election campaign, and during the entire first year of her term, the mayor of Skopje, Danela Arsovska, has been manipulating that she’s been attacked, threatened, ignored and insists that she’s a victim just because she’s a woman who got involved in men’s business.

Mixing up concepts doesn’t hold water, since after a whole year at the head of the capital we all saw how capable she is of managing it. She didn’t manage to organize a simple New Year’s decoration, yet we’re surprised at the fact she left the capital without public transport for the first time in history.

The problem with Danela is not that she’s a woman, but that she’s incompetent for the position she performs. Hiding her incompetence behind femininity is an insult to all women. Especially when it comes to the ones who do their job successfully every day.

6 In the History and Society textbook for fifth grade, it’s written that Mount Everest in the Himalayas is 29,035 metres high, and the Dead Sea is 1,400 metres below sea level. It also states that Macedonia borders Albania to the east and Bulgaria to the west.

Each textbook is signed by the authors and the reviewers. Before it’s published it’s proof-read. It’s one thing that the authors don’t distinguish between feet and metres, but it’s another that the review committee didn’t notice that there’s a mountain 29 kilometres high! 29 kilometres. And that there’s a kilometre and a half under the sea! What about east and west!? They taught us how to tell the cardinal points in kindergarten.

And now the Ministry of Education is to examine how such a textbook was even approved.

The findings of the investigation are clear. Illiteracy in our country is measured in kilometers. And irresponsibility in feet.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski