Through Bosnian Eyes: The Political Memoirs of a Bosnian Serb

II Ante Marković's Failure

M. Pejanovic, THROUGH BOSNIAN EYES II. ANTE MARKOVIC'S FAILURE When Ante Markovic took over the Federal government and started introducing his economic reforms, the standard of living began to rise. Along with purely economic reforms, Markovic came up with the idea of forming an association of reformist forces as a distinct political party. This was to be the League of Reformist Forces of Yugoslavia (SRSJ - Savez reformskih snaga Jugoslavije), encompassing all of Yugoslavia. He hoped this party would counteract the hard-line forces within the League of Communists and also a force for counteracting nationalist ideology. It would do so by following the route already taken in the Czech Republic,· for example, of finding legal, peaceful, reform-based political solutions to problems accumulated over the ages (found in abundance within the former Yugoslavia). He could have tested out this idea in any of the Republics of Yugoslavia, but he was eager to try it out in Bosnia. The Socialist Alliance had normally organized celebrations in honor of major historical events, in particular the Day of Liberation, the Day of the Uprising of Bosnia and Herzegovina, (29 July).13 Thus we organized celebrations as usual, in Kozara, on 29 July 1990. Markovic agreed, in response to our invitation, to come and speak at the Kozara rally. We met him in Prijedor, the day before. He had arranged for a general consultation with industrialists from the Banja Luka region, and public officials from the local municipalities. I found it a stirring, inspirational debate. He put 13July 29 was celebrated in the socialist period as the anniversary of the Partisan uprising in 1941 against German, Italian, and Ustasha occupation. 27 M. Pejanovic, THROUGH BOSNIAN EYES the economic questions facing everybody into a political context. These problems included the fall of the dinar against other currencies, the rapid decline in foreign currency reserves, and the precipitous drop in industrial production throughout Yugoslavia. He pointed out the problems raised by reform, especially of ownership - the process of privatizing socially owned property, or, rather, the creation of several different types of property. During this debate in Prijedor, Markovic went twice to the loudspeaker. Both times his speeches gave the impression of a man with a firm concept, a solution, and the strength and the confidence to carry them out. After this, although we had not previously asked him to do so, Markovic met separately with the delegates of the Socialist Alliance. We told Markovic about the political situation in Bosnia, the ongoing formation of political parties, and the process of pluralization. We also told him of the Socialist Alliance's transformation into a party, the DSS. Markovic himself then described to us the essentials of his idea for forming a political party, which at that time were not yet widely known. He aired these the next day at the rally. His vision was of a reformist party, liberal-social in character, which would build a model society through liberal and social-democratic reforms. This model society would, without war, without conflict, convert Yugoslavia into a market economy and parliamentary democracy, following the trend of European integration. We then told him of our own view, that such a reformist party would have greater success if united with other political forces that were forming parties based on similar concepts, in order to have as broad as possible an approach to creating the new order. For us, such cooperation was paramount in the quest to achieve reform. We felt that this force would have more success at the elections if not represented just by a single party but by an association of likeminded forces in Bosnia and in Yugoslavia. Markovic favored the notion, and we expressed the readiness of the Dss to become a future member of such an association. We told Markovic of the structure and components of our organization in Bosnia, and our estimate that we then had around 100,000 members - a number later confirmed by the first multi-party elections. At twilight we went on foot in a column to Mrakovica, where Markovic was to spend the night. The next day he gave a speech at 28 M. Pejanovic, THROUGH BOSNIAN EYES the traditional rally of the people of the Krajina on the Day of Uprising. The journey from Prijedor to Mrakovica, and the charming Kozara valley, took place in an atmosphere of intense excitement. All along the road, everywhere you looked...