ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS in Croatia - Enough is Enough

When the State becomes corrupt, civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty.

Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep.

Democracy is an impossible thing until the power is shared by all.

Mahatma Gandhi

20 years ago my country, Croatia, became independent and 16 years passed by since war for this independence was over. Today Croats are peacefully fighting for independence again, in the form of loud protests, while demanding that our corrupted government resigns. Since 2 months ago, strong wave of anti-government protest is spreading all around the country , every day they are more people on the streets, requesting that government immediately resigns- at this moment 15 towns in Croatia regurarly organize protests.

Reason? Extraordinary corruption of our government and political elite (mafia) that destroyed majority of economy in the country in all together 15 years of their ruling...so we want them to finally quit, want to see them prosecuted because of all their crimes - and we want never see them again on our political scene. Enough is enough.

.

Croatia is beautiful country on Mediterranean Sea in south Europe. It was independent state already in 8th century, ruled by dukes and became kingdom in 10th century. It lost it`s independence in 12th century, when it joined the union with Hungary but always kept it`s parliament and it`s own country ruler. Later on, Croatia was part of Austria-Hungary empire most of the time, but also had it`s own parliament and country ruler (ban). After being incorporated in Yugoslavia for most of the 20th century, except during the WW2,  Croatia regained full independence again in 1991. First 8 years the country was ruled by right, conservative and nationalist party HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union), next 4 years by coalition of center and left parties (during that time economy started to recover), and last 7 years we have reformed HDZ again (with more or less same people), and economy is going down again, more seriously then ever before, but only because of their corruption, robberies, mafia businesses united with lack of knowledge and high incompetence for jobs they perform.

We don`t have any real reason to have serious economical problems - we are not overpopulated, have good climate, more then sufficient national resources, developed tourism, and well educated, intelligent and hard working people...but, like many nations on this world, we have chosen wrong politicians to lead the country - or, more likely they have chosen us . Whatever.

There are 4,5 millions of Croats, today 3 millions is poor thanks to the all unfavorable and hihgly illogical political and economical desicions of our government. Many experts just say that our polititians are idiots. I could not agree more then that.

We are very aware that many people on this world suffer much more and much longer then us - but 20 and something years ago, my people were not hungry and nobody was homeless, GDP was high - today there is 2/3 of citizens already facing poverty or will face it in the months to come. Times changed, somewhere on the way we lost our souls to allow this evil happens. People wanted "better" society, but have obviously chosen worse.

There is no real reason for any country to live in any type of real poverty, that people cannot affort to themselves education or not have opportunities in the life, or cannot get proper job or start some business- it is normal that some societies are richer then the others, but nobody needs to starve on this world - problems usually start with corruption of political elite in the country that has problems, because politics rule over business and/or corporation finance polititians. On that way, ordinary citizens and tax-payers can become only loosers in this rotten mafia game.

Why Croatian protesters ask from prime minister and her corrupted government to resign immediately?

Because we don`t want to see such situations ever again:

For us Croats was very hard to admit openly to the world that country is led by mafia, especially because we became independent country so recently - only 20 years ago, during that time we had war for 4 years when people thought they were fighting for independence, while actually they were fighting only because of one reason - that capital, that belonged to the state and to the people, could easily become transferred in the hands of mafia. Such changes more easily occur in the war then in peace, because while is war, nobody dares to control what politicians actually do. This is real reason of recent Balkan wars (former Yugoslavia), so many people died, just because capital needed to change it`s ownership. To sell capital of the state to private persons literally for coins , while so many people were dying and fighting among themselves and not knowing what was all about, is the worst war crime and should be treated as such.

In the middle of the war, some Croatian companies, worth of many millions of $ were sold to the private owners for price - that was less then 1 $US - yes, it was so disgusting. Whoever tried to stop that madness, was accused that was traitor of young Croatian state, what meant - big possibility to get bullet in the head, so people gradually shut up. New owners of capital were very rarely doing anything good to that capital - anyhow they usually did not have any clue how to continue with business, after they bought companies for coins, they transferred company money on their private accounts, sold all properties companies had, did not pay workers for many months and finally fired them. Our leading party HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union )organized and completely supported that criminal.

As a result of all that. today we have situation as we have - very much destroyed economy, we import almost everything (20 years ago we did not need to import many things, and exported so many products), 20% rate of unemployment, many poor and homeless people (what was not case before, neither is that situation product of war), we have lower GDP then ever in last 50 years and higher foreign dept then ever in known history

In the recent months many people opened the eyes to the fact that something is very rotten in our political milieu, especially since Croatian ex Prime Minister (Ivo Sanader) was recently arrested in Austria for his mafia business. Today the Prime Minister of the country is lady who was his closest associate, Ms Jadranka Kosor, and although she is allegedly fighting against corruption, (she sacrificed few members of government who are now in jail because of coruption), it is pretty clear that her anti-corruption measures are only fairy tale for the citizens. By our knowledge, the whole government and many parliament representatives can be prosecuted because of corruption and robbery, majority of their crimes are well known to the public, but state attorney does almost nothing, to investigate their crimes.

We can only be happy because our foreign dept (as far as we know) is much less then in majority of the states of this world, it is only 15.500 $ per citizen, so with urgent improval and self-investment in economy we can pay it off reasonably easily. But goal of our politicians is not sorting out economical problems of the country , that can be solved, with the help of tourism, agriculture, and further sensible investment in our industry, and lots of work, love and dedication from all of us and them - their goal is to create illusion that only joining EU can help us, while unfortunately this is not the case. EU is needed only to our politicians, who would get there extremely high, stable payments. They also hope that people will forget about crimes they did as the time pass by , while they plann to blame for their own incompetence and greediness EU laws. (we know all their tricks, lol) They are also familiar with the fact that EU usually doesn`t allow elections in the countries they have economical problems, so they hope that nobody would ever be able to remove them from their position. For all their crimes they even expect life-long reward. Cute, isn`t it?

.

They also never informed people that in EU only political elite benefits, that EU is already financially falling apart, many states want out while being destroyed economically by their own political elite, who does not allow them separation from EU. EU politicians artificially keep system together by any cost citizens need to pay : they come so far that they are now selling EU debts to the China, just to buy further few years and prolong suffering of many hungry millions in their own countries. If this incredible craziness continue, in the future, many EU states will be ruled by China. Croatia certainly never would want such option, to be ruled by China - for us is better to give our best to sort out our economy on our own. We are fed up of our own mafia, we don`t need neither EU mafia, nor Chinese mafia in our future.

Our protests started on Facebook - people gathered there, expressed their deep dissatisfaction. First time only 3 people decided to protest, second time there was nearly 500. Government did not allow that protesters come to the Square of st. Marc in Zagreb, where the buildings of Parliament and Government are, stopped them with police forces, so this part of the town became "Forbidden Town of our political elite".

Third day of protests, when there was more then 15.000 people peacefully protesting on the streets of capital of Croatia, out of the blue sky came group of young, angry, aggressive guys that cause clash of protesters with police forces who were blocking passages to the "Forbidden Town". As a result , police attacked protesters and many were injured and arrested. Government said that all protesters are hooligans and anarchists, while only small group was causing troubles .

My intelligent people decided immediately to change tactics and style of protests: they decided to go on the streets with peace and love only - for our country, for our citizens, even for police forces. Of course, people are not so naive to send love and politeness to our corrupted and incompetent government - paroles people shout and , transparent they carry - show what we really think about them. People clearly "call them names they deserve", among them are mafia, thieves, villains, criminals, offenders, traitors etc. Juicy swearing is also typical. Our politicians now complain that people do not have culture of non-rude protests, but swearing is certainly more polite then Molotov cocktails some other protesters around the world use, I hope political elite will be able to respect this fact.

At this moment, protests are completely non-violent, and we will all try to avoid violence as long as possible. I am proud because of incredible level of self-control Croats express in the protests - although we were robbed, humiliated, cheated and betrayed from politicians who we pay, and certainly we are very angry because of that, people managed to transform their anger into more dignified way of demanding government to resign, at least for now.

.

Croats have also decided to make entertaining and active protests for themselves and police, since to us became forbidden to protest in the front of buildings they belong to the Parliament and Government, people decided to walk around the towns of Croatia, stopping in the front of relevant buildings as:

• those ones, they belong to various political parties, (especially where resides leading one, HDZ party),
• various institutions which work for government,
• various non-governmental institutions that need wake up call
• people even started to "visit" places were our Prime minister and governmental representatives live, so they shout below their windows all what they want to tell them.

Untouchable are not so untouchable as they think they are.

Some people also get dressed as American Indians, because minister of police called protesters American Indians, most probably wanting to say that he is brave cowboy. Well, because we cannot see our Minister of police as Wyatt Erp or sheriff Mc Cloud, we started to have fun from his comment and irritate him by using out-feet of Native Americans, drums, typical Appachi calls and avatars of Indians on Facebook (that is regularly watched by police).

During the average protest in capital city - Zagreb, protesters march 6-7 miles around the town, and all of them tell that never felt so good, and honestly, for last 20 years I did not see so many smiles and shining eyes I can see now. Protests returned people the hope for the future, although we know it won`t be easy - but our politicians completely denied us any future, if situation doesn`t change, in 20 years, with their leadership, we could all be homeless, without land and eating from garbage containers. This is peacefull battle for pure life, not only for freedom: we realized that it is - them or us .

Today, surveys say, that 70% of Croats supports the anti-governmental protests, but so many are still too frightened to get involved personally - since protests begun our country is very much becoming police state, but it is good sign though - government finally realized that there are many reasons they need to be afraid of their own citizens.

Protesters are arrested often, even if they don`t brake any law - and from recently, police in capital city got orders to beat and injure peaceful protesters. The most sad was the moment when police beaten and arrested 2 completely peaceful gays, our war veterans, (brothers Krcmarek) who wanted to pray in the church of the st Marc, were they were baptised, .which is on "Forbidden Square" (police knew they were active in protests)

.

Constitution of Croatia

II BASIC PROVISIONS

1.The Republic of Croatia is a unitary and indivisible democratic and social state. Power in the Republic of Croatia is derived from the people and belongs to the people as a community of free and equal citizens. The people shall exercise this power through the election of representatives and through direct decision-making.

2.The Croatian Parliament and people shall directly, independently  decide:

• on the regulation of economic, legal and political relations in the Republic of Croatia;
• on the preservation of natural and cultural wealth and its utilization;
• on association in alliances with other states.

Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep.

Democracy is an impossible thing until the power is shared by all.

Mahatma Gandhi

In the town of Zadar, protesters put on the ancient Roman column of shame names of 5 most corrupted political parties in Croatia, leading ones and opposition. People here become aware that political oligarchy that rules the country is the main problem - big political parties have no interest in solving any economical problem of country and citizens - they are interested only in circumvention and arguing among themselves, in squeezing money out from the pockets of citizens, destroying economy of the country, and bringing citizens into dept the citizens did not want and are not responsible for but have to pay them back (foreign credits).

People are here more and more aware that we pay our politicians, and not the vice versa, so their duty is to work for us, not against us..

We came to conclusion, that we don`t want to have political destiny of USA, where people for many decades vote either for democrats or for republicans (our two leading parties are very similar to that), these two different ideological concepts are created just to divide people, and cause them to take sites, argue among themselves, while political elite (financed by big business) is only one that profits in this game.

In addition, Constitution of Croatia gives people right not only for representative democracy, we have right and duty for direct democracy as well, as most basic principle of democracy in making all decision what are of main importance for future of the country, what our government is trying to deny and pretending that this right does not exist. Whatever people think that democracy is, it certainly does not mean to go once in 4 years on elections and vote for some more or less corrupt or incompetent politicians as representatives in Parliament, who later chose government, and then next 4 years we can only pray that they will not do too much harm and will not create even bigger foreign debt. This is slavery, not democracy.

Our Constitution gives right and duty to express our political will directly as well - through referendums, through controlling what various governmental institutions do in our name - all of that was denied to us.

Last 20 years, we haven`t been  asked to express our right for direct democracy, except through elections and could chose only mafia to rule over the country. We did not have almost any referendums, that we are supposed to have : e.g. Croatian Constitution had been changed 4-5 times and nobody asked us citizens if we agree or disagree with changes, with excuse that "referendums are too expensive". Our constitutional right and duty is to approve or disapprove constitutional changes through referendum, what was not given to us.

When the State becomes corrupt, civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty.

Democracy is not a state in which people act like sheep.

Democracy is an impossible thing until the power is shared by all.          Mahatma Gandhi

-

I cannot describe you with words how many light brought this protests and civil disobedience in life of the people and in my own life as well. After 20 years of political darkness, despite all possible obstacles there is hope for Croatia and Croats again. Power of ordinary people who are passing through their own evolution while requesting positive change is pure energy of life and love. We are not politicians, we are amateurs in cruel world of injustice and corruption, we are not supported by any oppositional party - our protests are pure will of citizens - left and right, young and old united. Let this will prevail.

.