By: Saša Janković
Dear Ilir,
These days, Serbia has been commemorating the beginning of the NATO bombing in 1999. As with most major events, there is no consensus about it. For some, it was an unprovoked act of aggression; for others, a necessary intervention.
I have an opinion about it, but I am not writing to present it to the public, especially not to those who live in Kosovo. Today, arguments rarely travel across our divisions, and even less often succeed in changing minds. The division I want to speak about is not even between our societies. It exists deeply within them.
Amongst ourselves, let alone with others, we no longer have even a minimal shared understanding of the past, nor agreement on the key issues of the present, nor the futures that we hope for look similar. This thorough disintegration down to the level of an individual – societal atomization, which many confuse for a freedom of choice and freedom in general – makes us easy to be ruled and difficult to unite.
It makes us politically impotent.
Not everyone, though.
Those currently in power in Serbia and within Kosovo have their organization, discipline, and clear goals. Whether they act in the public interest, or as I believe – to its detriment, they have a decisive advantage: an organized group is always stronger than scattered others, especially when it assumes control over the state institutions and public resources. They rule over us today.
That is why my dilemma today is not who was right in 1999, but whether there are enough people now who still can recognize common dangers and interests and, despite some differences, act together. Do we have critical mass to succeed? Are true democrats politically impotent? A look over the region suggests me that this question extends beyond the two of us, beyond Kosovo and Serbia. And far, far beyond.
To be organized does not mean to have the same view on everything. It requires shared fundamental values, agreed goals, methods and leadership structure which make everyone reasonably comfortable. To succeed and change the course of events, it also requires a minimum of trust – the kind you and I have developed – and the courage to step outside political populism, conformism, and stereotypes. The last I recognize in Zoran Milanović in Croatia.
That is why I believe that people like us should talk less about how to achieve the full consensus on everything, and more about how to act together even if we differ in certain views.
Otherwise, we and millions like us, will each remain on our own lone islands, in increasingly powerless societies and under increasingly powerful regimes.
With hope that we can do better,
Sasa J
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