By Andrej Nikolaidis, CdM columnist
Zdravko Krivokapic finally said it: Montenegro is being run from Belgrade, and BIA is destroying both the government and the prime minister. See: https://www.cdm.me/politika/krivokapic-stvarni-sef-vlade-je-van-crne-gore-govorio-sam-spajicu-i-milatovicu-da-ih-ometaju-bia-i-srpski-svet/
Phil Spector. That was the name of a brilliant music producer who, back in the 1960s, invented the Wall of Sound – a massive, impenetrable curtain of sound. Without Spector, shoegaze wouldn’t have happened, nor dream pop, nor The Raveonettes, whose very name is homage to Spector’s girl bands.
I’m totally aware that fans of Stoja and Seka Aleksic won’t be able to sleep because of this, however, if they do manage to fall asleep, they’ll dream in black and gold, as if on some faraway river, in a raven-black night, a blazing raft was burning gold. But anyone who has ever experienced depression knows how many times they’ve stayed alive (only to regret it later) because a faint glimmer of light came from the speakers, somehow, for reasons unclear, piercing the canopy of a terrifying forest and opening up a small clearing among the trees, where they gathered the strength to go on. Even when persistence felt meaningless, you were stunned by the fact that beauty exists in the world: something like a pop Lichtung.
So, without Spector, we wouldn’t be able to listen to this:
Nor this one:
Wall of Lie. That’s the name, or should be the name, of the curtain woven from fabrications, distractions, and cover-up strategies, spun by politicians, activists, and propagandists like spiders crawling out of the darkest holes, exhaling the stench of rot and decay; a curtain woven so densely that no light can pass through it, let alone a clear view of the truth, which it doesn’t just conceal but keeps imprisoned.
When things are like this – and they are always like this – it’s in vain to speak the truth.
The ancient Greeks knew the difference between doxa and episteme. The first is popular opinion. The second is knowledge. The first is what people take to be true, what becomes accepted. The second is the premise of virtue. Good governance is built on the latter, not on the former, as the populists do.
Zdravko has traveled the road from doxa to episteme: from “the peeeople have said what they think” to realizing that the BIA and actors outside Montenegro are steering that peeeople the way one manipulates a puppet show, so that what speaks through “the people” is nothing more than a ventriloquist’s voice.
To put it briefly: Zdravko is now saying what we’ve been saying since the very first day of the religious processions. Like those who left URA are saying now. While we were saying it, we were labeled fascists and servants of organized crime. Yet what was happening was so obvious that we couldn’t understand how it wasn’t clear to everyone.
Similarly: to understand or rather to acknowledge that Montenegro is part of the “Serbian World,” one needs no special interpretation skill: it has been broadcast loudly and clearly in the most-watched and most-read Belgrade media service. It wasn’t a secret. There was nothing to uncover, nothing to reach for. All that was required was to acknowledge what was right before your eyes. All that was required was not to close your eyes.
But the Wall of Lie has done its work. People will most readily accept the lie they want to hear. That’s how they accepted the lies that the BIA hadn’t actually tried to overthrow Milo, but that it helped him stay in power. That’s how they accepted the lie that Vucic stopped meddling in Montenegro’s internal affairs following August 2020. That’s how they accepted the lies that the BIA doesn’t run this country; that this country isn’t a colony; that Montenegrin nationalism (and where’s is that extreme nationalism, you liars) is the twin brother of Serbian nationalism, equally dangerous; that the SPC has “emancipatory potential”; and thus, like an aircraft carrier, they launched Miodrag Lekic, Dritan, and Gojko Perovic…
But, there’s not only one Wall of Lies, there are many more in this country. Kafka claimed that order in the world is built on lies. That certainly applies to Montenegro. Hidden behind the wall of lies about imminent EU accession, the PES silently takes blows from the Front, because no one knows how much of the Front is actually in the PES. Behind their version of that wall are also the ethnic minority parties, using privileges while supposedly sacrificing for Europe’s future.
Of similar construction is the wall behind which the Quint’s embassies are hidden – that allowed Vucic’s people to take control of the parliament, judiciary, police, and military, and then, through inaction, practically helped those same people set up and strengthen structures to prevent Montenegro from entering the EU, just as Knezevic is now doing with the wastewater treatment plant…
Hidden behind the fairy tale of unity and coordinated resistance, the opposition parties are hiding that this has been and remains a strategy of defeat. But they would rather embrace a defeat that brings them money from the state budget and full control over the losers than risk the radical dismantling of what, without radical change, will undoubtedly be defeated in 2027.
If there’s anyone here willing to learn from mistakes, here is the curtain of lies that worries me most…
When they decided to appoint Dritan as prime minister – who did they ask? That’s right, no one. Instead, they did everything they could to silence the few of us who warned that would bring disaster. At a panel in the Hotel Podgorica, I told their people that putting Dritan in the prime minister’s office was the dumbest decision in the, unfortunately, long and rich history of foolish decisions. I told them that, by making deals with Dritan, they were breaking the bloc of smaller minority parties that had held together until then. They ruined it, handing the minorities over to the other side like pawns, only to later spit on them. As if minorities were dogs that would come back to the master when whistled.
For prime minister they appointed a man, who, as the chief of BIA Vulin claimed, was “under surveillance” of the Serbian intelligence. Of course, that man did what he had been ordered to do – he signed the fundamental agreement. And in order to appoint that man as a prime minister, who did they overthrow? That’s true: Zdravko, as he had refused to sign it.
What happened then? Were there some massive protests? No. Did the opposition parties move their infrastructure and use all their energy to articulate their opposition? They did not. And why?
What are they doing now: they are telling us that those who had supported the man under BIA surveillance should be incorporated into a “unified bloc,” because “we need every vote.” Just take them home. Along the way, they’re grooming yet another potential future leader under BIA surveillance.
And are dreaming out aloud of the infamous “salvational” unity, into which – by using insults, lies, and accusations of betrayal – they would lead anyone daring to doubt that fairy tale.
(The opinions and views of our columnists aren’t necessarily the opinions or views of the CdM news team)