The representative of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Dragutin Papović said that the selection procedure for the scientific title in the field of Cultural Heritage of Montenegro in the second half of the XNUMXth century, which is ongoing at the Historical Institute of the University of Montenegro, was irregular from the beginning.
As he states, the field of competition is wrongly addressed, because it does not belong to historical but to cultural sciences.
"After that, it is unclear whether it refers to the state of the cultural heritage of Montenegro in the second half of the XNUMXth century or to the cultural heritage of Montenegro that was created in that period. The creator of the area in a hurry did not realize that the term cultural heritage encompasses a variety of creativity for which study and knowledge require experts from several fields, so it is impossible for one person to respond to such a field and that at the Institute of History," said Papović.
According to him, Democratic Front MP Budimir Aleksić applied for the competition, "despite the fact that he is neither a historian nor a cultural expert".
"Aleksić completed his basic, master's and doctoral studies in the field of literary science. He received his doctorate on the subject of 'Fantasy and science fiction in novels for children and youth by Cedo Vuković'. In his biography published on the website of the Cetinje Seminary, Aleksić himself says that he areas of interest: history of Serbian literature and culture and children's literature. In addition to children's literature, Aleksić mainly deals with the analysis of recent epic and fiddle songs, as evidenced by his works 'Fiddles in the Poems of Radovan Bećirović' and 'Zavičaj in the Literary Creation of Radovan Bećirović'. it has nothing to do with the cultural heritage of Montenegro in the second half of the XNUMXth century and nothing to do with the Historical Institute," Papović points out.
The following were appointed to the review committee: regular professors from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts Darko Antović and Siniša Jelušić, as well as academician of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) Slavenko Terzić.
"None of them have a degree in the field for which Aleksić applied, so Article 88 of the Statute of the University of Montenegro was violated, which stipulates that at least two reviewers must have a degree in the field for which the candidate is applying. Antović teaches the courses History of Yugoslav Drama and Theater and Production, and Academician Jelušić teaches the subjects: Comparative Theory, History and Theory of Drama and Theater, Author's Poetics and Dramatology. Regular professors Antović and Jelušić do not have the qualifications to evaluate works from Aleksić's science of literature and fiddling, nor to evaluate who will be elected. academician Terzić as a historian can evaluate works from historical science, but Aleksić has no scientific historical works, so in the review Terzić dealt with Aleksić's literary works 'The Battle of Mojkovac in the Serbian Chronicle Epic' and 'Njegoš and Lovćen as Poetics' the inspiration of Momir Vojvodić.''These works have nothing to do with historical science, the cultural heritage of Montenegro and the Institute of History. Aleksić co-authored one paper published in a journal from the relevant AHCI list, but that paper is irrelevant for the competition, because even the reviewers did not consider it separately in the report. Although they gave a positive opinion, the reviewers failed to prove the justification of Aleksić's candidacy for the scientific profession," adds Papović.
It is clear from the competition, he believes, that someone defined the field incorrectly, that this field has nothing to do with the activities of the Historical Institute, that a candidate who has no professional or scientific contact with that field or with the Historical Institute applied for the competition, that they are on the review committee selected members who are not competent in that area and that two of the three members of the commission have no points of contact with the science of literature or with the science of history.
"From a professional, scientific and statutory point of view, the competition is absurd. Cedo Vuković's fiction is small compared to Aleksić's competition fiction," Papović said.
As he said, there are other shortcomings in the competition.
"The candidate did not attach a precise biography. He kept silent that he was elected as an assistant professor in 2016, and in 2022 as an associate professor at the Faculty of Culture and Media of the Megatrend University in Belgrade. At the Communication Study Program, he teaches the following subjects: Literature and Journalism, Creative writing, reading and interpretation and copywriting. According to official data, Aleksić has been working full-time or part-time at this University since February 1.02.2022, 21. Article 2020 of the Montenegrin Labor Law stipulates that an employment contract cannot be concluded with a person who has already has a full-time or part-time employment contract. In addition, Aleksić was a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Montenegro, i.e. a public official, from December 2022 to January 2006. Given that he simultaneously worked at Megatrend University and that he was a public official in the management structure of the University of Montenegro, the existence of a conflict of interest is obvious and this should be investigated by the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption. It should also be investigated that Aleksić performs his parliamentary function in the Parliament of Montenegro professionally, despite the fact that he has a permanent job at Megatrend University. Aleksić also has a third job. Since XNUMX, he has been working as a professor at the Cetinje Theological Seminary. Now he wants a fourth. Just so that the labor inspection doesn't find out about it," says Papović.
He also adds that Aleksić, during the election to the teaching position at Megatrend University, submitted the same works that he submitted in the competition for the selection to the scientific position at the Historical Institute of Montenegro.
"It seems that Aleksić's works are so versatile that on the basis of them he can be simultaneously elected as a professor at the Faculty of Culture and Media and as a scientific associate at the Historical Institute of Montenegro. It is striking that Aleksić's works were published mostly by the magazine 'Serbian Heritage' and the Institute for Serbian culture from Nikšić. The answer to the question of how this magazine and the Institute recognized the great importance of Aleksić's works lies in the fact that Aleksić is the president of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Serbian Culture, that this Institute publishes 'Serbian Heritage' and that Aleksić is a member of the editorial board of this magazine. Aleksić is his best publisher. In the table for quantitative evaluation of scientific-research and professional bibliography, he entered the maximum number of points for the works he published himself," writes Papović.
In addition to omitting important information from the biography, he adds, Aleksić did not present a complete bibliography for selection to the position.
"That's why he didn't report the book he co-authored, 'Soul Traders: Dukljan-Montenegrin religious trafficking in the light of documents'. He also wrote off the book with the suggestive title 'Red-Montenegro: on the unification and Croatization of Montenegro, then and now'. Given that he has ambition to work at the Institute of History, it is strange that he did not report the book "Herzegovina in the plans of Montenegro and the assimilation of Herzegovinian Serbs in the Montenegrin state framework 1878-1918". He also left out the book published in co-authorship "The Montenegrin question – rise or fall". He did not report articles "Investigation of poturica as a theme of the Mountain Garland in the interpretations of Montenegrin ideologues", "Saint Sava and Saint Sava in the interpretations of Montenegrin ideologues" and "Peter I Petrović - epic poet and ideologist of Serbian integralism". He also left the work "The influence of foreign factors on fragmentation" out of the selected bibliography of the Serbian ethnic space: on the example of the attempt to restore the Montenegrin state under the Italian protectorate in 1941', who announced in tandem with Aleksandar Stamatović at the international scientific conference that 'Serbian unification is (not) an illusion'. He failed to mention his participation in the scientific conference "Constitutional Genocide of Serbs: Serbian people in the new constitution of Montenegro" and his participation in the scientific conference "Podgorica Assembly in 1918 and the unification of Montenegro and Serbia". In the selected bibliography, there is not even his work 'Serbian literature on the Podgorica Assembly and the unification of Montenegro and Serbia', which he announced at the scientific meeting in Herceg Novi in 2018, dedicated to the celebration of the centenary of the Podgorica Assembly. He also left out his fundamental work "Kosovo Covenant - Identity Vertical of Montenegro". The work on the Kosovo Covenant was sacrificed because of the election. It was as if Aleksić was frightened by the thought that during the consideration of his application in the competent bodies of the University, one of the Montenegrin ideologues could be found and block his election. That's why Aleksić cleaned up his bibliography better than the Croatized Dukljan-Montenegrin ideological commission would have done," says Papović.
The bottom line, he emphasizes, is that "a place in the Institute of History is being invented for Aleksić because of his worldview."
"In 2019, he invited the mayor of Beran to erect a monument to the Chetnik commander Pavlo Đurišić, who is a legally declared war criminal from the Second World War, with sponsors. Those in the know say that soon after the expected election he should become the director of the institute, so that with that authority and in Radovan Bećirović's style of fiddling glorifies the Podgorica Assembly and the Chetnik movement," concludes the DPS deputy.
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