Dr Franjo Tudjman
Ushers Croatia Out Of Communism – 1991
Photo: http://www.franjotudjman.hr
It is pre-election campaign for Croatian President time and the current incumbent Ivo Josipovic, who wants another mandate, has axed one of his chief advisers, Dejan Jovic, for stating the country’s 1991 independence referendum as non-liberal and undemocratic. There is, however, little, if any, public trust in the sincerity of this move by Josipovic.
The appointment of Dejan Jovic as presidential adviser had been a thorn in Croatian as well as Croat/Bosniak eyes of Bosnia and Herzegovina for years. Open letters have over the years been sent to Josipovic to remove Jovic from the advisory capacity; many newspaper articles have called for the same – to no avail.
Jovic, a Croatian Serb national, graduated with degrees in Political Science from Zagreb/Croatia (1990) and Ljubljana/Slovenia (MSc in 1994). In 1994 he moved to the United Kingdom where he obtained a MSc degree in Political Theory (at the University of Manchester, 1995) and a PhD at London School of Economics (1999). Dr Jovic has served as a consultant for the Economist Intelligence Unit (UK). Jovic has defended Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic, defended or tried to justify in favour of Serb aggression against Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in early 1990’s when these states voted to secede from communist Yugoslavia, has supported Srebrenica genocide deniers, has been strongly associated with organising and promoting the international malicious hike of equating Croatian defenders/veterans of 1990’s Croatian Homeland War with WWII Nazis, equating aggressor with the victims, driving the notion that love of the Serbs (the aggressor) should be built and that Serbs’ sins of genocidal aggression and ethnic cleansing in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina should be forgiven and guilt attributed to all sides!
If you’re wondering how such a man of such obviously anti-independence for Croatia and pro-Yugoslavia political convictions could have been a chief adviser to the president of Croatia do not tire yourself: Jovic and Josipovic belong to the same political caste of former communist Yugoslavia; they belong to the same train of thought as those of League of Communists who walked out of the Croatian Parliament in 1990 and 1991 when independence, democracy and secession from communist Yugoslavia were being considered. Ditching Jovic at the hour of presidential elections campaign convinces nobody that Josipovic differs in his opinions regarding the right of Croatia to pride itself of its independence from Jovic.
A few days ago Dejan Jovic expressed his highly controversial thoughts on the referendum on independence from Yugoslavia in an academic journal, “Political Thought“.
Whether by doing so he aimed to serve two “masters” (communist Yugoslavia nostalgics within the territory of former Yugoslavia and anti-Croatia, and anti-Scotland independence lot within British political underground), all of whom would not want the notion that freedom and independence are a worthy cause to support spread across Europe and beyond, is a question that naturally arises upon reading the said article.
In his article Jovic refers to the recent referendum in Scotland, others held earlier in Quebec, and those held in former Yugoslavia, and says those in former Yugoslavia – Croatia included – were “very non-liberal. Maybe they were ‘democratic’ if by ‘democracy’ we mean only the determination of those who have more and who less [votes]. But they were certainly not liberal”. According to him, the vote was not liberal because there “was not enough freedom so that everyone, without justifiable fear of drastic consequences, could express exactly what he/she thought”.
With such a statement Jovic attempts maliciously to bring into question the veracity and legitimacy of the independence from communist Yugoslavia that 94% Croatian voters in early 1990’s ushered in and he brings into question the will of the majority of Croatian people! In this shameful display of lies Jovic attempts to say that Croatian people were forced by someone or some political force to vote for independence and that the will of those against independence could not come to expression.
Jovic chooses to ignore the fact that around the times of the Berlin Wall coming down in 1989 there was a whole lot of liberal will across Eastern and Southern Eastern Europe (bar Serbia) to ditch communist regimes and federations into the gutter where it belonged. The factual history, after all, is witness and evidence of that. Croats all over the world in 1991 voted freely, enthusiastically and with great belief in freedom and democracy that secession from communist Yugoslavia could bring. In one of the sentences of his abovementioned article in “Political Thought” Jovic claims that aggression and violence were main characteristics of “our referendums”!
The fact that Jovic chooses to ignore the fact that organised and systematic aggression and violence (Serb led/orchestrated and controlled by Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic) actually came after the referendums on independence in both Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990’s can only serve as yet another example of Jovic’e strongly palpable political corruptness in the minds of the reader of his article.
Jovic says “the parties that promote secession from Great Britain – e.g. Scottish national party – are not only permitted to exist, but they hold government in Scotland. Nobody makes any problems with that. Similarly, the parties in Scotland and Great Britain that are against secession act freely and one can freely advocate for radical political options…even those options (radical Islam) are permitted as long as there is no advocating to violence…”. It’s interesting to note that Jovic omitted in his article to mention the well publicised UK pressure for “No” vote in the Scottish referendum; he failed to indicate to media reports alleging vote fraud currently being addressed by many in Scotland. I guess “pressure” to Jovic might mean different things, depending on which political map you stand!
League of Communists and other pro-communist/pro-Yugoslavia political parties also freely existed in Croatia from 1990 – they arose as a result of independence movement and they tried to stop Croatian independence. Jovic failed to mention in his article this fact but rather decided to uplift a Great British freedom of political expression as if helping to convince the world “all was proper in the Scottish independence referendum as far as UK government is concerned”!
Anyway, if by Jovic’s statement, one might understand that Great British “state” would act strongly against radical political options that commit violent acts, it certainly doesn’t match with the fact that Great Britain headed the international push for the UN Arms Embargo against Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990’s, severely disadvantaging them in self-defence against the radical Serb nationalistic parties, whose soldiers ethnically cleansed territories of non-Serbs, committed genocide… The radical political option in Croatia in 1990’s was not the referendum and plight for independence from communist Yugoslavia! Given that Croatian people in their majority have long before 1990 subscribed to the political option of independent Croatia, the radical political option of the time was the Serb-led fight and violence designed and implemented with the view of intimidating people into staying in Yugoslavia! Don’t you forget that, Dejan Jovic, and those who might think you have something useful to say on democracy and independence of Croatia! Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)