He grinds his teeth again
from this side and that side,
and people are in a hurry again
to get down on the low branches
And who puts me in line
tie a bell around my neck,
and says: "either you are theirs, or you are ours
you have no other!"
(Gibbonni, Tolerance, 2010)
I
Primitive forms of census were carried out in Babylon (about 3800 BC), then throughout the ancient world (Egypt, Greece, Rome), mostly for the purpose of registering taxpayers or insight into military strength. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the lists disappeared for a long period.
After almost five hundred years, William the Conqueror makes a kind of census of English landowners and their possessions in order to determine taxes. The first modern census was taken in the French territory of Canada, in New France in 1665 and 1666.
The international standard is that population censuses are carried out at the end or at the beginning of each decade, for the sake of easier comparison of data at the world level.
II
In theory and international practice, the population census is only a matter of statistics, which originally should serve the state for better performance of its basic function - strengthening internal policy, especially in the fields of education, health, employment and social services.
But, alas, every event in our Western Balkans (even though that adjective in the name did not affect the advancement of values and mentality at all) that even gives an opportunity to interfere in the national, becomes a historical question of survival.
Thus, like nowhere else in the world, here and in the surrounding area, every year we have either an election or a referendum or a census or some similar event that receives the epithet - historical! Obviously with the intention of maintaining fitness until the next elections, the upcoming population census in Montenegro brings heated political passions, national (not to say nationalist) campaigns, an attempt by shepherds to capture as many as possible in their fold, in order to justify their presence on the political stage. scene.
While the Citizen is silent. Submissive! By p(r) description!
III
Preparations for the first population census in independent Montenegro brought to the surface the crucial problems of building Montenegro as a civil state.
Nationalism, in its negative manifestation, as the strongest and most expansive force of our Region, also on this occasion shows exceptional supremacy over all liberalistic-universal forms of shaping individual autonomy and constitutionalization of political power, forms that Europe successfully completed during the revolutions of 1848. Having the opportunity to witness perfidious census campaigns led by almost all national communities in Montenegro, and taking into account the passivity of promoters of the Montenegrin identity and the Montenegrin language, the question arises: are they citizens who at all times possess a reserve identity, a reserve national and state identification, the true perspective of a state that aspires to assert itself outside the Balkans, and is the principle of a civil state proclaimed in the Constitution, is constitutional patriotism also necessary, which is based on the assumption of civil loyalty to the constitutional and civil order?
Because the invitations to count, well camouflaged, as they are sent these days, do not contribute to the development of awareness of difference, but also to the integration of different social communities that coexist in a multinational state such as Montenegro.
Unfortunately, the politicization and nationalist mobilization of the population census of a small Balkan country with only 620.000 inhabitants is only harsh evidence of political reality, which unequivocally proves that the end of history that F. Fukuyama predicted with the universalization of liberal democracy will still, at least when it comes to us, still enough to wait.
IV
The population census, which has been transformed into the state that was best described by the Split singer-songwriter Gibonni in the lyrics from the beginning of this column, is welcomed by only two national communities in Montenegro without visible excitement (I almost say: as a normal, statistical phenomenon).
If we are already fixated on the fact that the census is above all a political event (if nothing else, those who claim it is, they managed to make it that), then this will be an opportunity for all Albanians to find themselves behind a common "political" denominator. , considering that, exceptionally from other national communities in Montenegro, only the Albanians have an unambiguously defined and developed national identity.
On the other hand, the silence of the Montenegrin, the most numerous national community, and the lack of public affirmation of the Montenegrin collective identity, carry the risk that Montenegrins will not be the majority in their country again, and let's just remember the repercussions that resulted from the 2003 census.
Because, for example, an Albanian could certainly participate in the creation of the Montenegrin state, but he cannot participate in the creation of the Montenegrin identity. Once, before the referendum, one of the banners of supporters of independent Montenegro read: "Happy 1918, Montenegrins!".
Silence and passivity can contribute to the fact that somewhere in Cetinje, after the census, the graffiti "Happy 1848, Montenegrins!" will appear. Not because that year almost corresponds with Garašanin's "Nachertani", but as a reminder when those we aspire to have completed the issues of their identity and nationalization of their nation...
amcamaj@t-com.me
Bonus video:
