Good morning! A new protest is scheduled for tomorrow. The organizers refused to meet with the Prime Minister saying that there are no negotiations. Young people should be given full support, but one should be careful and aware that some supports have started to be rather useless than helpful.
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Kamo Śutra? (Where To Tomorrow?)
Many people rightly wonder today who the organizers of the anti-government protests in Montenegro are. The structure and organization of the protest resembles the one in Belgrade. The protests appear decentralized and do not appear to be coordinated by any party or political group. Many in Montenegro are dissatisfied with this government and the main task of the protest organizers is to try to gather and represent the majority of that dissatisfaction. This is not an easy task considering the fact that the critics of this government are very different and it will be difficult to gather them in one place. That is why the first few letters of support signed by university professors, artists and activists were very important. The names demonstrated the diversity and presence of people of different worldviews and political affiliations.
However, the continuation of these letters loses its meaning because it creates an incorrect impression that the support for the protests is narrowing into an echo-chamber of those who are not dissatisfied with the work of this government as much as they still cannot come to terms with the loss of privileges.
Although one should have an understanding of various dissatisfactions, one should be aware of all the mistakes and failures of the previous protests – from the first MANS anti-corruption ones, through Resist to We Are Numerous protests.
The desire to manage the protests and to control these young people should be abandoned. It will only backfire. One might think that some people deliberately overemphasize support for the protests because they don’t control them, but would like to cut them down in the beginning.
I don’t believe in this theory, but I had to warn Mr. Vlahovic that he and I, as well as many other people towards whom there is a certain odium due to previous political involvement, should step aside and open space for new young forces to articulate their dissatisfaction.
If these protests are identified with the former regime, that will be their end. As far as I understand and as far as I have been informed, the young people who organize the protests are authentic and independent and come from different political backgrounds, and what the Democrats are trying to present as reality has nothing to do with it.
Although the people who do not give the real organizers access to the content – give them material to discredit the protests.
Therefore, there is no doubt about the good intentions and desire for these protests to lead to some change. The question is only the method. Is there a way to support these protests without discrediting them and without turning them into an We Are Numerous echo-chamber that did not have any results. For that, it is necessary that those who used their chances long ago and who had never, anywhere, opposed the autocratic tendencies of the former government to keep their hands away from them. Honesty and lack of intrigue is key to the success of this youth. If they do not succeed and if this energy also dissipates, we will witness the continuation of disappointment and the loss of the best, the loss of hope in what our future will look like – where to tomorrow.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(Columnists’ opinions and views are not necessarily those of CdM)
