The situation in Montenegrin society, the events in Montenegrin cities - Nikšić, Herceg Novi, Berane and Podgorica, impose on the citizens of Montenegro the obligation to ask themselves a very simple question - when did all this that is happening to us today actually begin and how do we plan to close the circle and put an end to it? This is no longer a question for our fathers, grandfathers or great-grandfathers, whom we gladly refer to, they had their own life trials and decisions. Let's leave them alone, let's try to re-examine ourselves at least once.
In my case, if I were to "forget" growing up and studying in a country where only two simple words were enough for progress - brotherhood and unity, it all started in Sarajevo in 1992. My medical studies, my immense and persistent desire to dedicate my life to fighting for the lives of other people, led me into the vortex of a fratricidal war. From the most beautiful city in the world, of course because of the people who lived there, certainly not because of the harsh winters, grayness and the constant taste of burnt coal in the air, Sarajevo became the greatest social evil, a place where war is waged and people are killed. The first victim of the war was the beautiful medical student Suada Dilberović, one of three sisters born in Dubrovnik. She had the same desire as me, but not the chance, she was killed by a sniper.
Today, Suada's image is more and more often before my eyes. She was killed at a time when the political leaders of the time were working on reconciliation, even though the citizens of Sarajevo were not even in a quarrel. On the contrary, we were all together in the streets trying to preserve the peace. In what ways did we work on reconciliation – we destroyed Konavle and Dubrovnik, transported fuel for the Serbian army in Bosnia, deported people and sent them to their executioners, took people off trains to be killed, and all the while paradoxically said that we preserved the peace. So, we wanted a theater, but not in our own home. And as it usually happens, theater arrived here too. Having learned from previous experience, because the most beautiful and best thing that happens in the life of each of us over time is experience, today, 33 years later, we are working on reconciliation by calling Montenegrins bastards, citizens of Montenegro of Islamic faith we do not call Bosniaks or Muslims but Turks, citizens of Albanian nationality are Šiptars and of course, Croats are not Croats but all of them are Ustashas. We are also building reconciliation by convincing citizens that there is no inflation, we do not allocate money for their treatment, we erect monuments to monstrous mass murderers, we humiliate deserving recipients of the highest state awards by awarding them to obscure figures, we bow down to haters of everything that has a Montenegrin overtone, for which the best example is Mr. Matija Bećković.
What makes today's story, which is fortunately only about reconciliation for now, interesting is that, behind the reconciliation of the reality of non-conflicted citizens, there is democracy, the "will of the people" to which our politicians persistently refer, and the Serbian Orthodox Church, which openly guides the political processes in the country. They are the ones who will lead us into Europe.
The reality is different. There is no democracy in Montenegro, there has always been only a dictatorship of democracy here. Democracy implies ideas and people who deserve social respect. We have turned it into a farce. In Montenegro, ideas and people who deserve respect are superfluous, they are not needed, and over time they have become dangerous for Montenegrin society. Today's democracy serves only the powerful to maintain their power. There is no longer any place for free and intelligent people.
There is no Orthodox Church in Montenegro in its essential and spiritual sense. From the moment the Serbian Orthodox Church interfered in the public life of Montenegro, it lost the character of a religious institution. No religion should govern the public life and institutions of a state. Quite simply, if two people see the same thing in two different ways, but they see it, in the end one of them will still be right, and the other will be forced to agree with it. When it comes to believing in something we cannot see, it is very likely that we will never, ever agree.
I return to our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, our ancestors, perhaps they will once again help us close this circle of lies and put an end to it. They sacrificed their lives so that we could live freely today. Do their sacrifices deserve even a shred of our respect for everything they left us? What do you think, do our children and those yet to be born deserve to live in a free country? If we do not provide this for them, what will we do with them?
Finally, I will quote citizen Botun: "Ma'se is more friendly than Botun, let us live normally, for God's sake!"
I support him not because of his motives, but because of the way he said it, and I would say – Ma'se comrade from Montenegro!
The author is a cardiac surgeon and president of the Duklja Academy of Sciences and Arts (DANU)
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