The Yugoslav Assault Continues

When Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader publicly expressed his displeasure over Mile Pesorda’s slander lawsuit filed against Yugoslav author Predrag Matvejevic, the Croatian mail-order media applauded him. Sanader, sucking up (sticking to his PR strategy) to the media elites that are politically and ideologically opposed to his constituency, struck another blow to conscientious Croats who are well-aware of his demagoguery and treasonous politics. Once again, having seemingly forgotten how he was voted into power, Mr. Sanader took quite a stand in defense of a Yugoslav ideologue that has refused to come to terms with reality. Matvejevic’s beloved Yugoslavia, much like the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, as the joke goes, has been dead for years. It’s just that nobody has told him yet.

On the flip side, Sanader made sure to ignore the dubious and unsubstantiated indictments brought against four Croatian journalists by the Hague Tribunal. Their crime? They took it upon themselves to expose current Croatian president Stipe Mesic’s treasonous testimony before the same Tribunal. The most prominent of the bunch, Josip Jovic, ex-editor and columnist of the not-so-free Slobodna Dalmacija, has not been as lucky as the Yugoslav Matvejevic. For his courage has not warranted Sanader’s public outcry. Jovic, as opposed to Matvejevic and Slavenka Drakulic, is not backed by international non-governmental organizations. He is not on the favorable side of the political spectrum. He is not a neo-Yugoslav, balkanite mouthpiece. And unlike Drakulic and Matvejevic, he is not a spoke in the media wheel that intends to once again spin Croatia into yet another abyss of a fallacious Brotherhood and Unity.

When Jovic was stripped of his job as editor of Slobodna Dalmacija in 2000, not a peep could be heard by the cosmopolitan and self-proclaimed media avantguarde. Much like when she conveniently forgot to take the proper stance against greater-Serbian rape and genocide, the famed Balkan Feminist, Drakulic, wasn’t writing any protest letters from her digs in Stockholm, while Matvejevic, naturally, kept quiet. Where were these heroic defenders of the free-press when Jovic needed their help the most? Can it be simply chalked up to coincidence that they failed to stand up for a fellow journalist and publicist? Or does Jovic, like many others of his world-view and opinions, not enjoy the same rights that Matvejevic, Drakulic and Sanader, claim to promote? My money is on the latter.

Keeping all of the aforementioned in mind, how ironic that Drakulic and Matvejevic, heading a team of neo-Yugoslav propagandists, would write an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel alerting her of the suppression of the free-press in Croatia. Remember, it was Sanader seated next to Merkel in Berlin at the Croatia Vs. Brazil World Cup match. More importantly, it was Sanader who stuck his neck out, sending a political message to the Croatian Justice system, for Matvejevic while he was being sued by Croatian patriot and writer, Pesorda. How ironic and opportune.

Who are they and what do they want?

How are young, educated Americans to learn of Croatia’s unique situation if they encounter the works of Slavenka Drakulic at their university bookstores, just as I had encountered them? How are they to think of and form opinions of the Croatian people as a whole; their history, their politics and, most importantly, their struggle for independence, if they are, through the help of the US’ academic Left, force-fed the crypto-communist diatribes of this internationally recognized author? While many did not survive Tito’s communism, Drakulic not only survived, but she lived to tell a tale of of a supposedly relaxed socialist regime. For Drakulic, just like Matvejevic, just like Puhovski, moral benchmark and authority in Croatia, were tied, in one way or another, to the murderous Yugoslav regime. They can credit Tito’s regime and the half-century ravaging of the Croatian nation for their diplomas, intellectual accolades and careers. They deserve no thanks from the Croatian people. For they failed when it came time to defend their rights in international circles during the nation’s fight for existence. Not only did they fail, they overtly sided with the enemy. Having never recovered from the collapse of their beloved communist state, Drakulic and Matvejevic left the country, only to openly attack Croatia’s wartime leadership at a critical moment in her history—marketing themselves as exiles and victims of forbidden political dissent. All at a time when public opinion practically counted as much as spilt blood.

The collapse of communism and the dawn of Globalization and its neo-liberal paradigm have provided shelter for these self-proclaimed dissidents. Their works fall on fertile ground across Europe. A Europe that welcomes with open arms anything it can get from these intellectuals who provide her with an alibi for incompetence, disinterest and simple disregard for human life in its own backyard. For it was Europe that could have prevented the bloodshed in the ex-Yugoslavia. It was Europe, in particularly the Left, that cherished Tito’s prized socialism and shed tears for her bloody demise. They wished to not see her go. And today it wishes to piece her back together by all means possible. And it is the likes of Matvejevic and Drakulic that do the propaganda dirty work. How ironic that they chose to rat Sanader out. And how pathetic their claims that the media in Croatia is “right-wing.” After all, they are products of the same system which spawned the butcher Milosevic.

To expose their phony cosmopolitan image and reputation is imperative. It is high time that neo-Yugoslavism is treated for what it is. An ideology intent on destroying the Croatian identity. An identity, in itself and by itself, truly cosmopolitan. For unlike Yugoslavism, being Croatian means, and has always meant, to uphold and cherish civilization, universal values and human decency.