SERBIA AND THE SERBIAN PEOPLE’S POSITION - Part 02

We need to establish the Serbian people’s full historic democratic right and national and cultural integrity no matter in which republic they live. Gaining equality and independence for the Serbian people has deep historical meaning. In less than fifty years, in two generations, one after another, we have been twice exposed to physical destruction, to forced assimilation, to re-Christianization, to cultural genocide, to ideological indoctrination, to depreciation and denial of our own tradition under the guise of this imposed guilt complex. Intellectually and politically disarmed, the Serbian people have been subjected to vicious temptations that have left deep traces in their spiritual condition at the end of this century. If we care for our future and for being in the family of cultural and civilized nations in this world, the Serbian people must be again given the opportunity to find themselves and become a historical subject, again to gain awareness of their historical and spiritual being, and to clearly perceive their economic and cultural interests, to get into the modern social and national program that has inspired the present and will inspire future generations.

The continuous depressed state of the Serbian people, with a forceful expression of chauvinism and Serb-phobia in some places, satisfies the restoration of everything drastic in the manifestation of

national feeling in the Serbian people and their reactions which can be flammable, and also dangerous. It is our duty that, not for one moment, not for one case, we should not oversee and underestimate this danger. But, above that, in the principled struggle against Serbian nationalism, the ruling ideological and political symmetry in the historic guilt can not be accepted.

The rejection of that symmetry, devastating in spirit and morale with old injustices and lies, is a requirement for mobility and Yugoslav democratic effectiveness and humanistic consciousness in contemporary Serbian culture.

The citizens and the working class that are not represented in the respective councils can not be attributed only to national favouritism, but aspiration for Serbia to lead from a disadvantaged position and thus weaken its political influence. But the greatest tragedy is that the Serbian people have no state like all other peoples. It is true that contained in the first article of the Serbian Constitution is a provision that Serbia is a country, but inevitably the question arises; what kind of country is it when it is not allowed to administer its own territory and has no available means to maintain order in some of its territory, to ensure the personal safety and property of its citizens, to stand in the way of genocide in Kosovo and to stop the Serbian exodus from their century-old homes. This situation highlights the political discrimination against Serbia, especially if we consider that the SFRY Constitution imposed on the internal federalization is a permanent source of conflict between Serbia proper and its territories. Aggressive Albanian nationalism in Kosovo can not be suppressed if Serbia does not cease to be the only republic whose internal relations are governed by others.

With the SFRY Constitution, the formally established equality for all republics was impaired by the imposition on the Republic of Serbia to give up a good portion of its rights and powers in favour of autonomous provinces, whose status is largely governed by the Federal Constitution. Serbia must openly declare that this arrangement is an imposed arrangement. This is especially true of the position of the provinces, promoted in the republics which feel far more as constituent elements of the Federation, rather than as part of the Republic of Serbia. Besides the fact that it did not care

for the state of the Serbian people, the SFRY Constitution created irreconcilable difficulties when it was constituted. In order to meet Serbia’s legitimate interests, inevitably the Constitution must be revised. The autonomous provinces must become true constituents of the Republic of Serbia, where they can have a degree of autonomy but not by disrupting the integrity of the country and to exercise the general interests of the wider community.

The unresolved issue of Serbian statehood is not the only drawback which should be removed by constitutional changes. Yugoslavia, with the 1974 Constitution, became a very loose federal union in which there were other alternatives to consider, and not just Yugoslavia, according to recent statements made by Slovene public figures and former Macedonian politicians. These alternatives and the way they were carried out suggest a planned disintegration and a breakup of Yugoslavia. The Serbian people cannot calmly wait for their future to unfold in such uncertainty. Because of this an opportunity must be opened for all nations in Yugoslavia to express their aspirations and intentions. Serbia, in such a case, could itself determine and define its own national interests. Discussion and agreements of this kind would have to precede review of the Constitution. Of course, Serbia cannot afford to take a passive attitude and just listen to what the others have to say, as it has often done.

While striving for AVNOJ choices, Serbia must consider that not everything depends only on Serbia and that the others may have alternatives. Because of that, the task placed ahead of it is clearly to look after its own economic and national interests. With its insistence on federal regulation, Serbia would contribute not only to the equality of all nations in Yugoslavia, but will also address the political and economic crisis.

The equal position for which Serbia must strive clarifies the initiative in addressing key political and economic issues with aims that this initiative also belongs to the others. Four decades of Serbia being passive, proved to be bad for the whole of Yugoslavia, which deprived it of ideas and criticism of an environment with a long state tradition, with a sharpened sense of national independence and with a rich experience in combating domestic usurpers of political

freedoms. Without the Serbian people’s equal participation in the adoption and implementation process of all vital decisions, Yugoslavia cannot be strong and its very survival as a democratic socialist community would be jeopardized.

An epoch of Yugoslav community and Serbian existence apparently is ending with a historically worn out ideology, with general stagnation and regression primarily expressed in the economic, political, moral, and cultural and civilization-al sphere.

This kind of situation requires imperatively urgent fundamentals, deeply thought out, scientifically based and consistently implemented reforms to the overall state structure and social organization of the Yugoslav community of nations, and in the sphere of democratic socialism and faster and more effective participation in our contemporary civilization. The social reforms, to a greater extent, need to activate the human forces in the country to become productive, enlightened and a democratic society, to be able to live off their work and creation and to make a powerful contribution to the world community.

The first condition for our transformation and rebirth is the democratic mobilization of all of our nation’s bright and moral forces, not only to carry out the decisions of the political forums, but also to create programs and to design the future of our democratic way, for the first time in our recent history, a general social task which really merges knowledge and experience, conscience and courage, inventiveness and responsiveness on a basis of a long-term program.

The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, on this occasion, has expressed its willingness, and wholeheartedly and with all its strength is dedicated and committed to these vital tasks and to the historical orders of our generation.