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» Politics » (E) What we discussed in Zuerich last night ... the Middle Way
| (E) What we discussed in Zuerich last night ... the Middle Way |
| By Nenad N. Bach |
Published
11/11/2001
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Politics
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Unrated
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(E) What we discussed in Zuerich last night ... the Middle Way
... there used to be an agreement between Cro-gvt and
us (diaspora ) that there should be an independent
Croatia, that Croatia was a victim of Serbian
expansion, and that ideas "all sides gulilty", "Croats
are fascists etc were lies and propaganda. That
'concensus' has been shattered.
All within 2 years. What will happen in the next 2
years, and how do we respond? Brian>>
Dear Brian and all,
I am too tired to write a detailed discussion report tonight in English
on the discussion last night in Zuerich, but the essence is clear
and stated (incompletely below); I will write longer version
probably in Croatian later on as soon as I fully recover ...
There were some 40-50 people and Ms Hloverka Srzic (HTV deputy
director) was the brilliant moderator and Dr. Mate Granic, the only Zgb
politician present, made an introductory speach and replied to many questions
(just like several others, myself included who were at the
''high'' table; everything was recorded by the camera that was there ) ...
As Dr. M. Granic is experienced, and his brother is with Racan,
he could hardly refuse to transfer our messages to Zagreb,
so, we have directly ''charged'' him (he agreed) with several tasks
given below; BTW off the record he told us stories on
the Dayton, and many oter negotiations that place the
whole recent history in a somewhat different perspective
yet that shows that Racan et. al., including his brother
Goran, have failed in their part in establishing better and more
prosperous Croatia and a true national concensus on our future ...
Following Granic I was asked to summarize your/our ideas
from the Internet, as well as my own vision and analysis
and possibilities of Croatia in the 21st knowledge-century ,,,
I will not repeat it here as I write often to all of you
and I will just say, that I clearly stated what are you/we discussing
lately here and I gave Hlovorka the list of several goals
that are gradually emerging after John's Montreal talk ...
and subsequent discussions ... etc ...
''Diaspora'': as Sito-Coric emphasized and we all agreed
we used the term 'izvandomovinski Hrvati' for Croats
worldwide, yet there was a special discussion on the
BiH problem (their representative was there, so was Dr.
Spoljaric from Croatian Embassy in Bern)
We all agreed to try to avoid the word diaspora
(for several reasons; one is that in the 3rd millennium
the space-time notions and the Croatian population correlations
will not just be ''two-dimensional''; ((sorry, but couldn't resist :-)
Few other members of the panel emphasized the problems
of corruption and inefficiency as well as the problem of the
mentality (Oswin Gaupp) ... and in almost 4 hours of
non-stop discussion at least 20 people joined with
questions or suggestions (I have 7 pages of notes ...);
in general there were too many discussions of the past
and past mistakes, so people in the audience asked
again that we all better focus on the future.
So, what we charged M. Granic with is roughly this
(we will send it to all other politicians too and especially
will make pressure groups on the HDZ as well as Racan's SDP,
as we simply had enough of all the political 'circus' in Zagreb):
i) This government has no program or policy concerning Croatians
outside Croatia and we all had enough of that; moreover,
they are not qualified and that comes from foreign ambassadors
in Croatia and even the West experts agree.
Actually I knew things were bad, yet I didn't know they were
THAT bad ... and the number of testimonies was overwhealming
to the extent that I had to ocasionally defend the present
government and point out 2-3 good things that they did.
Anyway, it was clear from what we heard that Racan's gvt
days are numbered ... So, let's replace them.
Ideally with people that are more qualified and roughly 'centrist':
that means those who understand what is just PLAIN LOGIC
in running a normal coherent Croatian State within the world context
(and who are not crooks or extremest in the wrong way etc).
ii) The expectation is that the next election will be by summer 2002
and that the coalition of centirst parties will get in.
If Budisa takes over again the HSLS, leaves the Racan coalition
and joins with the HSS, DC ... and a new arrangement is made
with the HDZ then it's feasible that by summer or the autumn
2002 we see the political change in Zagreb.
iii) The new government (a reasonable coalition but definitely without
those who finance our direct and proclaimed enemies) will
have to act according to the principles that we have already
discussed in our forums:
- improvement of the functioning (NON-corrupted) state and emphasis on
the genuine enterpreneurship and spiritual and economic recovery
- true policy toward the BiH and with Croatian people worldwide
- active role of the HTV in altering the bolshevist mentality in Croatia
... establishing medium and long term starategy.
Moreover, read this:
A minimum NATIONAL CONCENSUS on national priorities
with a clear bottom line that DOES NOT change:
so that Racan et al fiascos like Piran bay, Prevlaka, the Hague-mistreatments,
or selling of Croatian banks to Italians (who almost by now
could keep Croatia as their demi-colony) ...
As I said I informed them on what you are trying to achieve in the North
America and there was a special, wise discussion on BiH, on Croatian
catastrophic economy (bring the experts in and finally some strategy),
on the Church and present conflics between the government
and the Archbishop conference ...
Anyway, it was 10 pm when skillful moderator, Ms Hlovorka Srzic
concluded these discussions ...
My own additional remarks are here:
In comparison with us here (''the Internet lot'') this was ''low-tech'' group
and only Hlovorka Srzic uses the Net and/or one or two engineers, so
NOTE that Croatians in Europe and Croatia are way behind the north
American Internet ''culture'' and techno-approaches ... in general.
I have heard and/or figured out things that I cannot possibly publish
here and that I will cautiously gradually disctribute by ''osmosis''
but the essence is that we really have to beware of various media
just as we have to beware of the foreign power-centers
or our proclaimed enemies.
It was and is evident from what M. Granic said that the USA
IS absolutely CRUCIAL power and that what happened in a war
and in the Dayton peace ... is the deal esentially with Washington.
That dramatically emphasizes your role in the USA (I, for one, was aware
of that) and the lobbying in Washington will simply be implemented
by the next government. If not we better create a havoc ...
Besides, the problem with the '90s UK government and how to send them
to the Hague, is a special discussion that we should not abandon soon.
Dr. Mate Granic couldn't resist to gain few political points on my
provocation-statement that even if he would win the next elections
and become the Prime-minister, I would express my condolences
as neither him nor anyone else among them (in Zagreb) have any
serious economic strategy ... there is 1 Croat in 5 working etc ...
He stated a number of tough tasks that he personally negotiated
during the war (I admit that the list is impressive), or several crisis
when over 1 weekend 250 000 refugies came to Croatia ...
so, he made a point that even if the next government may not
be an ideal government or solve all the problems, that a
reasonable coalition with a minimal national concensus
should at least DO BETTER than what we have now ...
Although you all know how sceptical am I of any politician's
statements, I admit that M. Granic this time convinced me at least
that much: if Budisa, Tomcic and Granic manage to formulate
''the middle, civilized way'' and a working coalition that will not
allow that some BASIC VALUES and Crotian self-respect
change each 3-4 years, when SDP or HDZ dominated governments
exchange power ('cause these get roughly up to 30% each) ...
then there is some hope for more stable future in Croatia.
It will be interesting to see how will HDZ politically profile
itself in the following few months, yet according to what
I heard last night (and from what I knew from my sources)
there is some serious soul-searchig going on within the
HSS and HSLS ... wait and see ...
And now I need some rest from all this politics :-I
Davor Pavuna
pavuna@bluewin.ch
distributed by CROWN (Croatian World Net) - CroworldNet@aol.com
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