Macedonia in the sign of turtle and crab

Erol Rizaov

The future of Macedonia is shocking and discouraging, as announced in the warning diagnosis in the World Bank Report. The real experts, not our party propagandists, have calculated that Macedonia needs an equal 70 years to reach the average of EU member states if it continues to move forward with the current turtle pace, and often backward as a crab.

With an average of 2.8 percent growth, as was the level of development in the past years, we need to sacrifice a few generations and let them live in poverty and misery, perhaps even for a century to equalize to an average level with Europe. It is an optimistic assessment, if the EU countries do not accelerate their growth significantly. Until then, one third of the population will starve, will be born and die in misery with uncertainty how to survive the day. The second third will live in extreme stress, fearing they will join the first third overnight. And the remaining third will be the group of the lucky ones with a decent life, if we manage to preserve the country, and if anybody stays and lives in this Never-land country.

It’s not as if this World Bank evaluation was unknown to our economists, but this time the “surprise” of the figures of the world financial colossus and police comes because of the absurdity of our domestic idiotic political debates, which are still being processed with national, patriotic, identity and other primitive populist tools.

A normal person, after reading the report and hearing the warnings of the scientists about economic development, would probably cry out: how is it possible that we are still such morons and fools that can’t even see their finger in front of their nose? How much longer will we let them feed us with stereotypes and misconceptions? What is the boiling point and the awareness when the majority of the citizens recognize the true values ​​that lead forward in this poor country, and that need to be strongly supported without a second thought.

Who else from the world and domestic political scene needs to tell our patriots and heroes, dukes, partisans and fighters in their almost 30 years of battles for power that the basic precondition for economic development is political stability, the rule of law, the development of democracy, the control of democracy corruption and the fight against organized crime. Without the realization of these foundations in each parliamentary state, there is no establishment of confidence among the people, and without confidence there is neither faster development, nor possible reforms. Macedonian governments with their instant reforms resemble firefighters, who, with the help of old destroyed fire trucks, try to extinguish hundreds of fires a day that are mostly caused by the governments themselves.

The Prime Minister is required for the completion of any kind of task. This recidivism that received epic dimensions in the era of Gruevism has been retained to this day. The citizens of Macedonia do not trust the institutions of the system, and they demand meetings with the Prime Minister, the Minister or the Mayor for a service that should be completed by the administration without any intervention. Absurdity goes so far as we face public calls to not respect the law, because it is a deliberate factory error. There is some truth in that, but the path is not in contempt of such a law, but in its change, and most importantly in its application. In Macedonia, in the rule of law, the worst thing is the in-applicability of laws and the viability of corruption and crime, even when criminals are captured, detected, and convicted, if they are coming from the top of power.

The voluntary and fire-fighting interventions of the government cannot be considered as reforms. What is a sign of real long-term reform is the involvement of science in determining the strategies of future development. Without a long-term strategic plan created from the social and economics aspect of experienced scientists and planners, which must be introduced in the party programs with wide consensus in Macedonia, faster development is not possible.

Accession negotiations with the EU that usually last for many years, in the case of Macedonia for at least eight years, are actually the most significant period in which the capacity and readiness of the state, the institutions of the system, the governments and politicians, as well as the citizens to accept the European values ​​and on the European arena for measuring the success of the country and of the government in power. This does not include populist scales to determine the level of patriotism, but to realize each chapter that contains the necessary changes that must begin with changing the awareness of what we really want to make of Macedonia and how to reach this goal.

If for 28 years now, since the first day of independence, I would even say before the independence, the majority of citizens that Macedonia feels like it has no other, better alternative than the EU and NATO, why then it is not our patriotic and national and civilization debt to the homeland and future generations, so to speak so that fake patriots understand me as well, to whom the attitude towards the homeland which they so much love is still an incest from which morons are born.

And another misconception about the EU, which is more and more often heard lately, although more in informal conversations of public figures whose expertise is well known. The thesis for the so-called European “directives” is presented, which are represented almost as irresponsible orders of dictatorship that can create chaos in Macedonia. The truth is completely different. One can always say “no” to Brussels when it has a home-made offer with a better solution, or a solution that is within the specificities and the particularity of states and mentality. Europe actually maintains the foundation of the compromise and fostering diversity as the greatest achievement.

It is also the most important solution for the political stability in Macedonia. If the diagnosis of our pain is known, if the medicine is known, if the purpose and determination of the citizens is known, if the path which we need to take is known, then any interference should be removed by lawful determination.

Views expressed in this article are personal views of the author and do not represent the editorial policy of Nezavisen Vesnik