The Economist ~ A house divided: Serbia on the ropes

Day 2,064, 13:41 • Published in China United Kingdom • by Spite313


Dear friends,


Today I come to you with information about the recent internal struggle in Serbia, but also with a message of hope for the future. The challenges faced in Serbia now represent the culmination of years of conflict, which has moved back and forth between several shifting political alliances since the beginning of 2011, but now at last we see the potential for the Serbs to resolve those conflicts and unite Serbia under one common policy for the future.


As background, I will say first of all that it’s impossible and illogical to think of Serbia as a country in the same way the UK is a country or eChina is a country. Serbia is vast, bigger than any other country by a huge margin, and what’s more many of it’s players are over 1 year old and “very active”. No other country can possibly compare to their size, and as a result of this size it’s easier to think of Serbia as an Empire rather than a Kingdom, and the Serbian CP as “King of Kings”, ruling over dozens of smaller princes and kings who rule MUs and Parties which contain as many players as many countries and deal more damage.


For a long time there have been many factions in Serbia with UeS and SZR forming the two most obvious “rally points” for other parties. The ideological differences between the two are obscure for outsiders and like most political parties in eRep are more based on past grudges and senior members than any sort of genuine political agenda. From an alliance perspective, pre-2013 UeS governments tended to be somewhat introspective and ally-focused, and SZR ones more extroverted and aggressive in acquiring and protecting resources. To complicate matters, through 2012 we saw a great exodus of players from Serbia to other parts of the world as many grew angry with the constant warfare at home. For this reason the leadership of many parties including UeS shifted, and a new “third bloc” appeared from other allied parties and groups.


In addition the huge majority that SZR once had was gradually eroded by the fact that two of it’s old allies and top five parties left the coalition to form a de facto fourth group, though it never properly challenged the main three. This served to further weaken the SZR alliance meaning that this election was possibly the hardest one fought in months.


Nevertheless, SZR has maintained solid support from it’s core allies whilst for the most part UeS and the third bloc has fought over the remaining support in an attempt to make a viable opposition. Up until now this has mostly failed. This month HannibalLA, the eAmerican PTO chief, was elected President of Serbia by a mere handful of votes against a well known opposition candidate who gained many votes because of his personal reputation regardless of party backing. For many this seemed a victory for SZR, and in fact many prominent SZR members cheered his victory on election day in shouts and articles.





However in a bizarre twist of fate Hannibal announced that he was dissatisfied with their service, said they were not up to scratch and fired the whole government including Strider_83 and Desert Hamster, two of the most powerful members of SZR, dissolving the army at the same time. He has also removed the national treasury, saying it will be returned when Serbia elects competent new players as leaders. Obviously this took a lot of guts, but also represents an unexpected turning within SZR itself. Hannibal went on to say that although much of his problem with his government stems from his dislike of “power politics” and personalities overstepping their bounds, he saw this mass cleansing of his staff as an opportunity for renewal. He has stated that even if he has to destroy Serbia to remake it anew it’s worth it for an end to the same old fighting.


To me this is a breath of fresh air. I will be perfectly honest, I have fought with Strider before many times. I didn’t appreciate his tactics of using veiled threats to convince smaller TWO and ACT members to go along with him. I didn’t like the way he seemed to have two standards, one for himself and one for others. I think if people saw the way he treats “allies” they might not vote for him so much. But nevertheless I was angry more at the poisonous relationships this was creating rather than the acts themselves. It got to the point where the sour relations in Serbia were spreading to the alliance itself and poisoning it against itself.


I do not say this lightly: A strong Serbia is a strong TWO. Without leadership and unity from the Serbs, the alliance flounders. Despite military strength we are diplomatically divided, and bullying and factional disputes have no place in an alliance. A united Serbia has the potential to smooth all of the problems besetting the alliance and reset it ready for another year. A divided Serbia is in time the death toll of the alliance, as it was and as it will be again.


This dispute has brought Serbia the opportunity of a clean slate. It’s an opportunity to wipe away all the old fighting, the old problems, the old hate. A time for new players to step up and lead as Hannibal said, and the old players with old hates to step down. It’s a bitter lesson learned that sometimes remaining in leadership can be detrimental to the future of your country, especially if you’re a divisive figure like myself. Many in Serbia and in SZR will see this as an embarrassment and a betrayal. Instead they should see it as an opportunity.


Iain




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