Serbia: The University Overshadowed by the New Law

Dr. Bozidar Jaksic

Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory
Belgrade

Summary

The international community imposed external sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro in late May 1992. In this way it tried to stop the aggressive policy of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime. Cut off from normal communications with the world, culture and science in our country were thus delivered to the mercy of the political arbitrariness of domestic strongmen. Members of the intellectual and academic community, politically labeled traitors and "mondialists", have been exposed to internal sanctions that from time to time prove worse than the external ones. As far back as March 1995 I wrote about this, concerning the Rector of the Belgrade University. At that moment, his behavior could be characterized as coarse and politically calculative. But the new Law on the University, adopted in late spring, and the Law on Information, passed in early fall this year, leave no doubt whatsoever that it has all been part of planful and deliberate policy of abolishing the autonomy of the university, freedom of conscience, scholarship and speech. When one sees scenes in Belgrade this fall, one cannot help recall the times in Germany in early and mid-1930s: some new faces, their official functions unclear, physically prevent certain professors from lecturing to students and throw them out of faculty buildings (what happened at the Faculties of Electrical Engineering and Philology are the most drastic, but by no means the only cases). Some journalists have already been punished by inordinately high fines, and night raids, confiscation, and closures have become common in various newspapers. Intrusions and seizures in private homes have also started – all with a legal background and "with the aim of protecting the freedom of speech".

For centers of political power in Serbia, the University was, and still is, a possible or actual focus of subversive political activity that must be strictly controlled. Annulling the residues of University’s autonomy and trampling the dignity of the academic community is the price to be paid quite light-heartedly in order to destroy a point of possible resistance to the creation of an autistic and xenophobic society, at odds with the whole world. Or, in the words of the official state television, of the "most prosperous society in today’s Europe". The process of decline of intellectual and moral values at the University has been going on for several decades already and will not stop with the new Law on the University. This Law is just a link in the chain of overall decay. It does not cure the illness but rather cements an unhealthy condition.

At the same time, the sanctions of the international community against Yugoslavia have affected very severely all forms of scientific and cultural cooperation of academic institutions. Paradoxical as this may sound, the sanctions have served as an additional political stimulus to the autism and xenophobia of Milosevic’s regime. Yugoslav universities have been excluded from all major programs, such as PHARE, TEMPUS or EUREKA. Not even after the formal abolishment of sanctions was the cooperation resumed or furthered. Serbia and Belarus are among the few European states that are not members of the Council of Europe, but have very cordial mutual relations. Similis simili gaudet! Hence Serbian universities have been caught between the hammer of internal sanctions and the anvil of external ones. The situation may safely be called disastrous, though not hopeless.

The principle of loyalty among colleagues is a prerequisite for constituting and maintaining the university community, but inter-colleague conformity is the beginning of its decay. The reasons for the ruin of the university lie not only in the new law. If the situation is to turn for the better, two basic conditions must be met. First of all, an intellectual community is necessary in Serbia that will use contempt as a weapon in fighting primitivism and a political power behaving in an unrestrained, Cosa nostra-like fashion. This community may only consist of people with firm moral and intellectual integrity, refined sense of human dignity, and very sound knowledge in their respective fields. Also, those should be people free from nationalist hatred against their neighbors and rejecting the pernicious ideological platitude that "…the whole world hates us". Instead of lamenting over the fate of the university in Serbia it would be worthwhile to think about how much university people are themselves responsible for refusing to take on the risks involved in living a life worthy of a human. Instead of a passive resistance to the fascization of the university it is necessary to create alternative institutions, offer the world new ideas and projects and attractive research programs. If they are really good, the international public will know how to recognize them. But this is only one of the conditions. The other, no less important, is the opening up of the channels of international cooperation. It is necessary that European universities find ways, against double hindrances stemming from both Serbia and Europe, to admit young scholars from Serbia, enabling them to work and develop, and to support alternative research programs and new projects, helping their realization in Serbia. Universities in Serbia are not comprised merely of their rectors and deans, appointed by the state. There are broad areas for possible cooperation with individuals and groups, and quite diverse ways of giving support that would be vitally important for them. Cooperation with these components of the university community should be immediately established, before it is too late.

It is not in the interest of the European culture itself to let Serbia, or any other country, be its cloaca. Deeply convinced that it is so, I ask you to take this contribution of mine as an appeal for understanding and help. Universities in Serbia will survive only as an integral part of the European university community. I invite you that we all make a joint effort in that direction, independently and in spite of all the counterproductive actions of the Serbian government. Whether power comes from God is not clear; but it is surely not eternal!