{"id":137316,"date":"2024-03-01T20:05:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T19:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goranmihajlovski.com\/?p=137316"},"modified":"2024-03-03T20:06:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T19:06:32","slug":"down-the-drain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goranmihajlovski.com\/en\/i-want-to-say\/down-the-drain\/","title":{"rendered":"DOWN THE DRAIN"},"content":{"rendered":"

1<\/span> The pre-election campaign has kicked off with parties sowing fear.<\/p>\n

SDSM is scaring us that VMRO might return. VMRO is scaring us that SDSM would stay in power. DUI doesn\u2019t see an internal enemy, so it\u2019s scaring us with Russia.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all scaring us with something. Yet, none of them scares us with corruption. Corruption isn\u2019t a topic during the elections. Because in Macedonia, no one\u2019s afraid of corruption. Only America is afraid of corruption raging in Macedonia.<\/p>\n

2<\/span> When SDSM came into power in 2017, its first move was to eliminate government advertising on television. Almost seven years later, they joined forces with the MPs from VMRO-DPMNE and passed a law that reinstated government advertising on television with money from the state budget. They even fast-tracked it, they voted for it at night, with the use of the European flag, in case they lose the elections, leaving VMRO-DPMNE unable to spend state funds for party propaganda again.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s simply unbelievable that at the end of its mandate, the government reinstates VMRO-DPMNE\u2019s most powerful tool \u2013 propaganda paid with state funds, which had been grinding us down for 11 years . It\u2019s almost as if the ruling SDSM is its own greatest enemy. You\u2019d think, VMRO-DPMNE must be paying people within SDSM to work against their own interests. And, as the elections draw near, they\u2019re intensifying their efforts to sabotage themselves: \u201cMickoski, we\u2019ll assist you, have this law, we want to make your governing easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost as if they enjoyed it when VMRO-DPMNE bashed them on television, when they didn\u2019t let them appear on the news even for a minute, when they beat them inside the Assembly and none of that was broadcasted, when they deliberately didn\u2019t report from Zoran Zaev\u2019s press conferences when he released the \u201cinformation bombs\u201d with the wiretapped conversations, when the organised attack on the Assembly on 27 April 2017 was described as \u201cthe most peaceful attack on the Assembly\u201d and \u201can unpleasant even,\u201d when in debate shows they stuck nails to their faces, when they covered them with tombstones\u2026 Striving to buy love with our money, they\u2019re sucking up to the same owners of the televisions whose power supply they used to cut off. One can\u2019t but wonder how it\u2019s possible to get amnesia after such a traumatic experience, after only seven years.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s consider the notion that people in SDSM don\u2019t even think about the possibility of electoral defeat, because their leader Dimitar Kovachevski is boosting their morale by banging on the podium and shouting \u201cVictory, victory\u2026!\u201d But, even if they do end up winning, what does the reinstatement of government advertising on private televisions imply about their future governance? It implies, the millions are here, let\u2019s now spend them on propaganda, the way VMRO-DPMNE used to do. Let\u2019s repeat the 11 years of evil, which Zaev promised would never happen again.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve gone to great lengths to make it easier for VMRO-DPMNE to come back to power in full glory, cleansed of all the horrid things it inflicted on us. First, they legalised \u201cSkopje 2014\u201d for them. Then they passed a law to reduce the sentences of VMRO officials, allowing the statute of limitations on their crimes to expire so they wouldn\u2019t be prosecuted. They made their life easier, enabling them to concentrate on the party activities to regain power. And finally, they reinstated the law that will enable them to tap into the state budget and to deal the final blow.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d think SDSM is apologising to VMRO-DPMNE\u00a0 for keeping them upset for some time, but now they\u2019re restoring the entire toolkit for governing with impunity. The only thing left for them to do is to apologise to Nikola Gruevski for failing to bring him back as they had planned and let\u2019s close this chapter of our lives \u2013 seven years down the drain.<\/p>\n

3<\/span> God forbid, I don\u2019t even want to think about that, but occasionally it crosses my mind: they\u2019re aware they\u2019re sinking, so much so that they don\u2019t give a damn that they\u2019re causing further damage to the country. Why? What have we, the citizens, done to anger them? It\u2019s not like we are na\u00efve, but we must have been hopelessly desperate to believe that after the systematic 11-year-long destruction and capture of the state by VMRO-DPMNE, someone within SDSM would emerge capable of making a change with new norms and new values. They had the power and the enthusiasm of the citizens, international support, and even had a progressive civic platform for the progress of the state that they simply had to follow. However, that civic platform, demanding vital changes in the exercise of power, was kidnapped and destroyed by SDSM.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s make one thing clear. Let me repeat, for the hundredth time, a point that parties can\u2019t comprehend because they don\u2019t expect people to have an opinion, but obedience. We\u2019re not discussing the expectations of SDSM sympathizers or their fellow party members. We\u2019re talking about citizens who believed that things shouldn\u2019t get worse than they already were. Not that they couldn\u2019t have, but that they shouldn\u2019t .<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why, as in every election, this time we should be very careful how we cast the vote we hold in our hands.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pre-election campaign has kicked off with parties sowing fear. SDSM is scaring us that VMRO might return. VMRO is scaring us that SDSM would stay in power. DUI doesn\u2019t see an internal enemy, so it\u2019s scaring us with Russia. They\u2019re all scaring us with something. Yet, none of them scares us with corruption. Corruption […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1528],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-i-want-to-say"],"yoast_head":"\nDOWN THE DRAIN - Goran Mihajlovski<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DOWN THE DRAIN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The pre-election campaign has kicked off with parties sowing fear. SDSM is scaring us that VMRO might return. VMRO is scaring us that SDSM would stay in power. DUI doesn\u2019t see an internal enemy, so it\u2019s scaring us with Russia. 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