Franjo Tudjman Photo: www.tudjman.hr

National conscience, as well as personal one, can turn 21.

To the gladness of many in Croatia and abroad, that the insidious political hide of the former President Stjepan Mesic is now being torn off by Serbia, as well – the full exposure of his odious political insides may yet come to fruition. Perhaps this time the Croatian people and authorities will pay more attention to this issue and bring Stjepan Mesic to political account of the obvious damage he has caused to Croatian reputation and truth with his political, dark underworld that sought not only to destroy the good name and the good intentions of Franjo Tudjman, but of the whole Croatian independence movement, any which way.

A Youtube video recently published – containing excerpts of interview with Veljko Kadijevic (General and Commander of Yugoslav People’s Army at the time it charged forth in aggression against Slovenia and Croatia in 1991 and 1992) – maintains that Stjepan Mesic, with his cronies Josip Boljkovac and Martin Spegelj were close collaborators of Franjo Tudjman and, yet, at all the time, were Tudjman’s most vicious enemies. Mesic had always wanted to topple Tudjman and be the leader and call all the shots in former Yugoslavia.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE VIDEO’S CONTENT, DIALOGUE, CAPTIONS – CLICK HERE
It transpires from this video that if there were crimes committed by Croatians during Serb aggression in Croatia then, it seems that the authorities must look away from Franjo Tudjman (whose conviction for war crimes Mesic tried, unsuccessfully, to secure in the ICTY) and poke the underground Mesic had, unbeknown to Tudjman, set up and operated in while pretending to stand by Tudjman.

In his speech at the Inaugural assembly of the new Croatian Parliament, on 30th May 1990, Franjo Tudjman said:

“According to my personal persuasion, the first and the most important task of the new democratic government in Croatia should be the creation of all spiritual, material and legal preconditions for the sense of legal civil and national security of all its citizens, for peace and trust among them. Not only the big scriptwriters from the opposing and especially hegemonic Unitarian and dogmatic camps, but also all those people who are tied to the past and who are confused by democratic movements and traditions to which they are not accustomed, do and will do everything in order to obstruct the realization of our goals, to inhibit and compromise the introduction of the rule of law system, order, work and morality. Luckily for us, and them as well, they must quickly come to understand the general internal and international circumstances, especially the omnipresent unavoidable collapse of the real Socialist system that will render their scenarios as futile historic anachronisms. That, of course, does not mean that we can afford to underestimate the dangers from different forms of threats, blackmail and even provocation which come our way almost daily from anti-Croatian and anti-democratic lairs and headquarters. On the contrary, that has to motivate us even more to jointly, all of us, and each individually, do everything so that reason, freedom and progress conquer passions, the rage of darkness and backwardness”.
One has to wonder why some media outlets in Croatia still give Stjepan Mesic space to regurgitate his political venom, based on lies and convolutions of truths in order to serve his decaying but still insatiable political ego. A couple of days ago Croatia’s Novi List published an interview with Mesic in which he tries to attack the Catholic Church as an institution that only wants “power and money, and not education and tradition”. This was Mesic’s response to the Church’s opinions regarding the recently introduced and highly controversial sex education in schools! At the same time, in this interview, Mesic says that the Church had tried to assert power and political clout as “chief arbitrator” in Croatia before. He gives the example of the Church’s criticisms of the ICTY in the Hague and their defence of the Croatian Generals (Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac) who were being tried for war crimes there. Mesic makes no mention in this interview of the fact that the Church, like much of its “flock” were absolutely and humanly right in defending the Generals – the Generals were acquitted of war crimes on 16 November 2012 in the Hague.

What else can one expect from a former Communist, a Church hater by “virtue” of the political orientation he’s pathologically obsessed with, and who has not come to terms with democracy and Croatian independence, even after 21 years?

One answer to that question is that Mesic will not stop with his relentless, abominable attacks against Franjo Tudjman and his leadership in taking Croatia out of Communism and into democracy.

Hence, in the same interview for Novi List, Mesic says about the increasing will in Croatia (particularly led by the largest party in opposition, Croatian Democratic Union/HDZ and its president Tomislav Karamarko) to return to Tudjman’s ideals: “to attribute Croatian independence and the support for it to Tudjmanism does not match the historical truth and that’s why it is unacceptable. Because Tudjmanism is also a failed politics towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, and pacts with Milosevic, and criminal privatisation, and non-punishment of perpetrators of war crimes from our side, and the lack of prosecutions of those involved in corruption …”

For all the wrongs that Mesic says happened under Tudjman’s leadership even the blind person can see that others, not Tudjman, should be made responsible, and it just could well be that it is the political cronies of Stjepan Mesic, and he him self, who are to be hunted down and pinned against the wall of human justice about which Tudjman spoke so fervently and truthfully.

When we talk of Tudjmanism we are to speak of his principles, guidelines and recipes for a true democracy modeled upon those of the European Union and the United States of America, especially. Unless we want to continue vilifying Tudjman and the whole of the Croatian nation for having the courage to free itself from oppressive Communist Yugoslavia, we do not ascribe to Tudjman the wrongs others have done “in his name” and unbeknownst to him. While pointing the finger at Tudjman has benefited Mesic’s personal political career (particularly among the former communist echelons and some international anti-Croatian independence political forces) it is truly time to uphold the wonderful memory of freedom and prosperity Tudjman wanted for his people and start pointing fingers at those who purposefully strayed from the path he recommended, bringing the Croatian people of today into a state of economic and political squalor; and Stjepan Mesic would surely be counted among them. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)