Macedonia Is A Failed State
“Macedonia is a failed state,” my dining companion told me. “As soon as Ivanov made the pardons, Macedonia failed.”
This particular companion is what we euphemistically call a member of the International Community and he had a point though I wonder if it went too far. I’m not entirely sure Macedonia is a failure or the victim of state capture by the VMRO-DPMNE party which has tried to merge itself as one with the government, or is slowly drowning, out at sea somewhere but still salvageable. What I do know is that Macedonia is currently having one of the most incredible revolutions that I can think of right now.
This is the first people’s movement I’ve seen in this region which has brought along everyone-every minority group is behind this movement. Not only every minority, but every social class and age group has been out on the streets nightly-in the thousands- for the past nine weeks, in every city in the country. In 2001 Macedonians and Albanians had a brief war only resolved by the Ohrid Agreement facilitated by the US and EU. One Macedonian was convicted by the ICTY of war crimes against Albanians. Despite all of this Macedonians and Albanians are out on the streets together.
The demonstrations are relaxed, peaceful and organized walkabouts. They started at six and ended by eight. People brought their children. A visiting colleague told me these were the nicest hooligans-as the government referred to them- she’d seen.
Almost everyone I met at the demos or around Skopje was as suspicious of the opposition as they were of the ruling party. To a person, they wanted massive change. They did not necessarily know how it should be changed but the system that benefitted the ruling parties, both Macedonian and Albanian, had to go. One woman told me she hadn’t been paid in five months and to make matters worse the government had requistioned the space in front of her house and placed a “tooth” (a block) there. She could no longer park her car in front of her house. “Who knows what this tooth will become!? Another plastic statue? I don’t even know who these statues are!”
The vandalism of the Skopje 2014 project that was created by the government to revitalize the center of Skopje as a Neo-classical inspired playground, is the genius of the protest. The paint splatters and graffiti vividly show the public contempt for one of the most costliest and needless acts of narrative building since Turkmenistan’s makeover as a personal tribute to its autocratic leader. In Macedonia over a quarter of the two million population lives below poverty and unemployment hovers at 24% according to the government’s own figures. Skopje 2014 costs — BIRN has estimated — have risen to 560 million Euros.
The Skopje 2014 remake of Skopje was always on one hand the arrogance and power display by the government and the poverty of VMRO-DPMNE’s imagination and intelligence. Did they really think they could rewrite the Macedonia’s nationalist narrative in faux marble plastic and first year art student statues? Even Mussolini understood that shiny buildings don’t replace feeding your people. Reclaiming those monuments, statues and spaces was the first victory of the movement.
This revolution actually started a year ago, the wiretaps revealed extensive government corruption were released, people were on the streets and then everything was stopped by the Kumanovo attack which depending on who you talk to was a false flag attack step up by the government or KLA terrorist attack launched with help from covert (or even overt) forces from Kosovo. The demonstrations stopped.
The Pržino Agreement was negotiated by the US and the EU. The Special Prosecutors Office was set up to investigate corruption and crimes by the State. Gruevski stepped down in January. In April, President Ivanov issued the pardons and the Colorful Revolution began. The second victory was when Ivanov finally withdrew all the pardons.
The International Community i.e. The US and EU have voiced their support of the people and to a lesser extent the movement, to their credit. This hasn’t stopped the arrests of the activists or pushed the government to move out. This situation has been brewing for years, however, and the US and the EU ought both to look at Macedonia as a lesson and a case for the rest of the Balkans. The EU and the US have swept Macedonia and the rest of the Balkans to a corner to fester among themselves at the mercy of political elites. As long as these elites keep their people quiet, everything is fine. In these days of security driven foreign policy there is little incentive to push for democracy.
Howard French, the well-known former foreign reporter for the New York Times was recently tweeting about Africa and the US Foreign Policy system: He noted that Africa has no constituency in the US, so there is no accountability in the foreign policy corridors. Because of a security driven attitude toward the region that the US has a long-term infatuation with authoritarians: “In its rapture DC convinces itself that the authoritarians will not only be good regional proxies, but also deliver growth, stability. The story never ends well. Personal rule and limited participation drive hollowing of institutions, and usually grave corruption. What follows are years of chaos, economic regression. Meanwhile democracies get neglected, as limited US bandwidth for Africa gets lavished on the strongmen of the moment.”
And this time it is Macedonia and the Balkans playing Africa.
