The 1964 campaign trail continues.
People of Yugoslavia,
Last year's tragic earthquake in Macedonia has shown the downright sorry state of our national infrastructure, our bureaucracy, our healthcare and social security. To all those who see or hear this message; I am not a socialist. I do not want to see our beloved fatherland fall to the fascist-communist tyranny like so many nations around us have. I do not want the abolition of our constitutional monarchy. I do not desire a forced, complete equality for all. The results of that have been seen in India, where the Red Guards terrorised the population. No, I do not want our country to be a "workers’ paradise". I want it to stand strong, prosperous, united, and free. I want our country be successful. But to achieve that success, there needs to be change. And that change lies in increased federal spending, empowering the federal government in limited areas, and giving it a larger role, so its investments and efforts can strengthen our nation and secure its full potential.
The latest tragedy that hit our nation shows that our current policy, that of a Night-watchman state, is inadequate, outdated, and flawed. Is has allowed for the working masses of Yugoslavia to squander materially and spiritually, crime and corruption to flourish, and machine politics to take hold. Our nation does not have highways. It has poor roads and underfunded railways, leading to relief aid only trickling into Macedonia. Much of the monetary assistance disappeared into the pockets of public servants. The hospitals in the country were understocked and could not spare any supplies or beds for the hit region. But there are also things that did not take their direct toll on Macedonia. Our schools are underfunded and the staff unqualified, leaving the students with a bad education and the country with a bad name abroad.
People of Yugoslavia, it is not my wish to build a new order in Yugoslavia, but to preserve and strengthen the current one. To do this, several reforms are needed.
First of all, there needs to be a thorough educational reform. The balance of power in education needs to shift from the local governments to that of the federal government, that shall organise a ministry of education. The ministry of education shall be tasked to reform the curriculum in order to bring it up to modern standards. For our teachers, both already serving and new ones, it should be ensured they have a proper qualification to teach their subjects. Unqualified staff in front of a classroom is common practice in our country, and it does our education no favour. Finally, school buildings across the country should be modernised and new ones built, to ensure that the environment of teaching and learning is a comfortable and safe one. Now some of you may be worried that transferring such an amount of power over a very important aspect of our cultures to the federal government may be a bad thing. Serbs, Croats, Slovenes and Macedonians worrying that their cultures may become extinct in favour of a unified Yugoslav one. To them I say: Worry not. The federal system shall ensure that cultures are not suppressed, and it should naturally be possible for education in Banovinas to include the language of the region, as well as Serbo-Croatian and foreign languages.
What is also important is our national infrastructure. Currently, our railroads are lacking all sorts of maintenance, most of our roads are unhardened and the few paved roads we have are in a sorry state. There are no major trade ports in Montenegro, impairing our country’s connection to the world. Our airfields are few and poor. There needs to be a severe change of policy to help our economy. I think that even the conservatives would agree with me that this is necessary for our country. The construction of new and refurbishments of old roads and railroads, a national highway system, ring roads for cities and a port for Montenegro are among the projects that our economy needs to grow further and become more efficient.
Yugoslavs, the current policy of state abstinence, watching our debt rack up, and waiting for a default is not bringing us anywhere.
Another painful aspect of our nation is corruption. The aid money we received and charity from inside our own country meant to aid Macedonia disappeared. It disappeared into the pockets of thieves, robbers and highwaymen. Some of them were physical thieves who raided aid convoys, but most of them wear suits and sit behind a desk and steal from the poor and needy, not only in this case but in everyday life, through bribes, “administration fees”, extortion. Other malpractices, such as abuse of power, fraud, favouritism and nepotism also are common. Even worse are the political machines based on ethnic and religious lines. Corruption has to be fought wherever it rears its ugly head. We must take measures against corruption that are sensible and effective alike.
Measures taken may include but not limited to paying higher and regular wages to public servants to remove the incentive to take public funds for themselves. Other important measures focus on creating more oversight and a stronger work ethic focusing on the common good. I propose that corruption and attempts to, such as offering bribes, are to be registered as criminal offences and heftier penalties imposed on it. Furthermore, there needs to be a comprehensive list of types of corruption, with practices such as bribery, embezzlement, extortion, abuse of power and favouritism enshrined in our criminal code as punishable.
Finally, there needs to be more oversight. An auditing bureau on the relevant levels that is there to examine all the local or federal government employees incomes and expenses, and to check if all the expenses of governmental departments add up. I am familiar with cases where corrupt officials register employees that do not exist so they can collect their wages. A great help in this would be the creating of a bureau where citizens can report officials who have disadvantaged them for their own, corrupt gain, as any governmental or non-governmental organisation can’t track every corrupt official.
People of Yugoslavia, our country is like a ship with a small supply of fuel left, and a stream is carrying it towards a rock that shall sink it. The small supply of fuel is our government’s policy –or rather the lack of it- and our limited monetary supplies, the stream is our nation’s poverty, budget deficit, and mounting debts, and the rock is a default. It is high time that this ship uses its remaining fuel well. To steer out of this stream and steam towards the port of prosperity. Long live the King, and long live Yugoslavia!
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