August, many years later

Commentary

August, many years later

By: Miodrag Vlahović

It is a sad anniversary.

There is no need to repeat what has been explained, analyzed, criticized, and condemned countless times. Yet, time and again…

We are interested in what the Montenegrin opposition—and Montenegrin intellectuals of all stripes and varieties—have actually done over the last six summers, ever since the August finale of the “religious processions” special operation back in 2020.

What new ideas have they put forward? What new political concepts and programs? What successful acts of civic and political protest or resistance?

It is hard to recall anything—because there is nothing to recall.

There was no shadow government; no joint parliamentary action (such as an inquiry or a parliamentary committee) regarding the events at Belveder and Cetinje in September 2021; no serious effort to monitor or engage with the civic protests concerning the census; no meaningful action regarding the treasonous so-called “Basic Agreement” with the occupying and usurping church; nor did Montenegrin opposition figures manage to sustain the civic outcry following the two horrific tragedies in Cetinje…

There is no excuse for why all of that was missed. Nor is there any will to even mention it.

In short: zero ideas, new plans or programs. No political manifestos or charters. No collective attempt to devise a strategy for this new, unprecedented political and social landscape. Everything has changed, yet the only change visible to our opposition leaders is that they are no longer in power.

Montenegrin intellectuals (intellectuals in Montenegro) remain silent. Or they churn out the same old text, with a persistence and frequency that fail to mask a profound dearth of ideas. They are still settling scores with the tragic year of 1918 and waging quasi-ideological battles against long-dead communists.

Meanwhile, they eye each other warily—specifically those deemed “unsuitable” or “unconventional,” who care about different topics. Or who care about those same aforementioned issues, but approach them differently, from a different angle.

The Montenegrin opposition (that is, the large party and the small three-member coalition) is playing the part of the offended bride. They aren’t in power, yet they expect to be. It is as if the Deus ex machina is just about to arrive! Who will make the cut, and who will be left out in the cold—that is the question!

And until that word arrives from Europe—it is best not to rock the boat. It is safest to stick to socio-economic topics: safe, tame, and intellectual. Issues that—need it even be said?—the Charlatan-Prime Minister and the Chetnik-Duke-Speaker will resolve, right before the elections, with yet another massive state loan and a couple of token arrests. Simple and effective.

“Bread and circuses” from the ruling side, versus a “wait-and-see” tactic from the opposition.

And on the opposition side, nothing but “sovereignists”—people who apparently haven’t read that the “sovereignist” camp actually consists of the likes of the old Orbán, Fico, Babiš, a certain French lady, and a heap of hardline right-wing nationalists scattered across Europe. And the AfD, of course—the most “sovereignist” of them all!

They keep insisting—persistently, very persistently!—that “sovereignist forces must unite,” doing so with dogged determination and a load of platitudes that have been rehashed countless times… They heap praise upon one another ad nauseam, claiming this aligns with the spirit of unity—just like before the referendum! A call for national unity—but *our* kind of unity—as a response to the historically idiotic unity championed by Greater-Serbian nationalists! As if we were still in the same waters, flowing beneath the same bridge.

When, a few months ago, we invited a group of Montenegrin politicians, analysts, and (in)dependent intellectuals to a discussion held without an audience or the media, it took three hours—and even a fourth—for all the party and civil society representatives present to grasp that the gathering had not been convened to criticize a major party and a minor coalition, or to found a new Montenegrin party, but rather to address the need for a new national or state program.

And so, there will be no second meeting. They deem it unnecessary, superfluous, and utterly pointless—despite our clearly stated position that our much-discussed “ambition” ended with that initial gathering and that any subsequent meeting would have to be convened by one of them.

There will be no second gathering—at least not until the wait for a abovementioned Montenegrin “God from the machine” comes to a rescue.

Indeed, what need do we have for such a national or state program? As if there were anything new to be written? Who is interested in that, while Euro-bureaucrats weigh every word and “sovereigntists” apologetically try to prove their commitment to the EU? They shy away from harsh words—deeming them “undiplomatic”!

And then—the refrain that “we shouldn’t quarrel” or “stand out too much”! These are mortal sins in the provincial political culture of Montenegro—dirty labels that stick all on their own. It is warmer in the herd, and even safer inside a sectarian cell.

And then there are—as we have already mentioned—boycotts and ostracism: the disciplines Montenegrins love best. Komnen [Cerovic] and Đido [Milovan Djilas], forever!

To conclude: people devoid of ideas cannot bring about change. Nor can local provincials, inhibited and burdened by a heavy load of spite. Nor politicians who are sincerely (“sincerely”!) fighting only for a spot or a ranking on parliamentary lists. Nor their obedient editors in the “most Montenegrin” media outlets.

That is why the sixth anniversary of August is so particularly sad and dramatic.

We are witnessing a general collapse and—by all appearances—are prepared to continue watching it passively, while fearing the very thought that we—collectively and individually—bear the greatest and most important obligation: to offer something new and better to Montenegro and its citizens.

This marks the sixth anniversary of “August.” A seventh—with the same or similar government and an opposition keeping the same distance, devoid of fundamental change—would mark a point of no return for Montenegro.

That is why we must speak openly about what needs to be done. Whoever stifles that conversation stifles Montenegro.