Betrayed expectations

Two epochal events in the last 20 years have marked the political history of Montenegro. The independent and sovereign state of Montenegro in the referendum of 2006 is in itself an epochal historical event for all time. As the great poet V. Hugo said: One cannot live without bread, but one cannot live without a homeland either. For Montenegro, the democratic replacement of the former political regime in 2020 was also a historically important epochal event, after decades of rule by an autocratic order.

Unfortunately, the 2006 referendum has remained in the shadows to this day, primarily due to the policies of the former regime, which over the past 20 years have had incalculable devastating consequences for society and the social system. The legal norms written in the Constitution that Montenegro is an independent and sovereign state, a civil, democratic, ecological and social justice state, based on the rule of law – They remained a dead letter on paper.. Instead of all these democratic and state attributes, Montenegro was and remains a party and authoritarian state, in which all institutions are agreed upon. party feudal and personal estates political elites. The independent and sovereign state of Montenegro, i.e. its institutions after the referendum, were not dismantled, collapsed, uprooted, or devastated by anyone from outside, but – imagine the irony – its most ardent protagonists and patriot from the inside – the political elite of the former political regime that left behind the ruins and charred remains of a severely wounded and devastated state. Referendum promises about Montenegro as a future welfare state, in which they are Education and knowledge are the foundations of society, the key to success and progress, an investment in the future., were and remain mere phrases that no one believes in. And there have never been more lies and empty talk about education and the quality of education than in the last 20 years, and less quality and more illiterates. If education is the foundation of society (I would add the key to building a free personality), what kind of education is it that, according to an international study PISA continuously produces about 50% of functionally illiterate young people, completely unprepared and incapable of integrating into society? Despite all this, our former and current political elites turn a blind eye because they are so fascinated by power that they do not hesitate to publicly celebrate the defeats of such an education that is at the very bottom of the European scale. That education is really the foundation of our society, it would be expected that knowledge and competencies would be the key recommendation for an individual's advancement in society, and not something else, party or other identity affiliation and loyalty, as was and remains the practice of the former and current regime.

The political elites of the former regime immediately after the 2006 referendum created a "controlled dictatorship" and "controlled chaos", agony, violence, fear and insecurity in society in Montenegro. They destroyed and subdued institutions, morality, political culture, incited nationalism and chauvinism under the guise of patriotism, radically opposed and deepened Montenegrin-Serbian divisions and conflicts, produced their own "controlled" mafia for the unlimited enrichment of selected individuals and opened a merciless showdown with the unfit and critics of the system, legalized organized crime and corruption as an informal state project and forcibly stopped the civic energy for the expected democratic progress of society. Of most institutions, only a resounding name or their former trust remained, and only thanks to the rare and autonomous individuals and professionals who found themselves in them and because of whom they were the only ones recognized. There is almost no state institution that does not have some heavy mortgage of the past from which it cannot recover for decades. In such an authoritarian political regime with touches of totalitarianism, the public always had a ready answer: Let the institutions do their job, we should have trust in the institutions of the system. Now imagine how victims and critics of the system fared in such institutions! Especially in (in)dependent judicial institutions where the application of the principles of the rule of law and the rule of law was under strict party control, according to the measure of the political regime. Formally and informally, they propagated that the nation (read: leader/party/nation/state) is the highest value, in other words that man, his personality, dignity, freedom and autonomy are not important, therefore – everything contrary to the principles of a democratic, civil and humanistic society. It is as if they had forgotten the lessons of the past that in the name of passionate and sublime patriotism/nationalism, which was a cover for truth and freedom, the greatest crimes in human history were committed!

Montenegro needs a radical democratic transformation of society and the social system at all levels, the supporting pillar of which should be education, which is the only thing that frees the individual from the inherited shackles of authoritarianism.

After the parliamentary elections in 2020 and the democratic removal of the former regime, new hopes and expectations of citizens for the democratic transformation of society were opened. But, unfortunately, briefly, because even after six years of democratic changes, the promised essential democratic reconstruction and radical transition of the social system are not in sight. It has hardly even been stepped into, if those changes under external pressure, technical, cosmetic and populist, are not counted. The new political elites seem to believe that the democratic transformation of society will happen automatically, by itself or by directive from outside, just because the political regime has changed and THEY have replaced THEY of the past. Therefore, we can now certainly speak of some old and inherited patterns of non-transparent governance and even continuity with the former authoritarian order, due to the inertia of the authoritarian system and the party state. Here are just some of the characteristics that indicate this: the absolute subordination of the state to the party apparatus and an attempt to control all institutions, especially the judiciary, centralization of management, impotence, inability or obstruction to consistently deal with crime and corruption, an arrogant and nihilistic attitude towards citizens as loyal subjects, the absolute subordination of the principle of competence to the principle of party affiliation, as in the old "good times", as well as negative personnel selection according to which autonomous individuals and competent professionals were left aside, unsuitable and unnecessary, as outcasts of society.

From 2006 to today, the most disappointment has remained due to the unfulfilled promises of the former and current regimes, if we do not count the new/old energy of Montenegrin/Serbian nationalism and clericalism, which, unfortunately, was and remains (reserve) opium and consolation for the manipulation of betrayed citizens. After the experience of the authoritarian politics of the former regime and its successors after 2020, there is no longer any illusion that a truly democratic society can be created by unfree and incompetent politicians in authoritarian overcoats. Legalizing Serbian national and religious fanaticism with the same goal - the struggle for power and the preservation of power - is not an alternative to Montenegrin paranoid nationalism. Montenegro needs a radical democratic transformation of society and the social system at all levels, the supporting pillar of which should be education, which is the only way to free the individual from the inherited shackles of authoritarianism.

The author is a sociologist