By: Dr Andreja Valič Zver
In 2010, the sociologist John Keane published a book titled Life and Death of Democracy. It is a fairly thorough analysis of the development of various forms of democratic systems around the world, from ancient times through the Greek and medieval periods to the modern era.
The author, who belongs among left-leaning theorists of democracy, distinguishes between ancient, representative, and the so-called monitory (observational, if not outright supervisory?) democracy. Into this last category, he places civic initiatives such as NGOs. While reading these theories, a question arose in my mind: whom, in fact, do these so-called NGOs really represent? Ostentatious, loud in the media, and even aggressive in their “observational” performances, yet elected by no one, accountable to no one? For if representative or parliamentary democracy presupposes free elections, representation, separation of powers, and so forth – then what, and whom on earth, does “monitory” democracy represent?
The answer came slowly but surely. Slovenians experienced it firsthand, as guinea pigs of Soros’s global cannibalism, during the time of the cyclists’ protests and the so-called people’s assemblies. NGOs, mostly lavishly funded from taxpayers’ pockets, sprouted like mushrooms after the rain. Calls for tenders from various ministries, under left-wing governments, were tailor-made for them, and the success of obfuscation was almost guaranteed. And the result? Well, let’s not be petty, the main point is that taxpayer money is distributed to “ours,” who then reliably support “us” in elections, in the media, in lecture halls, and elsewhere. To preserve power, and with it, financial resources. A cunning deception of voters that Keane hinted at in his book, operating at full steam not only in Slovenia but spreading like a vast infection throughout the democratic world.
This malignant sore, a.k.a. “monitory democracy,” recently broke into full view with the publication of a list of who and what the EU funds with European taxpayers’ money. The list was requested and obtained by the conservative group of MEPs ECR, supported also by Milan Zver.
One can only shake one’s head when reading the names and the massive sums handed out by left-wing European bureaucrats. But illusions had been lost long before. And with August 23rd, the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Totalitarian Regimes, approaching, let me recount a short story about the European Platform of Memory and Conscience, which since 2011 has united more than 70 institutions dealing with the consequences of totalitarianism. It was founded on the basis of the 2009 EP resolution and other declarative documents, but it has never (!) received a single euro from EU grants. I reject the insinuations that the applications were not well prepared. Maribor’s Radio MARŠ received roughly €50,000 for “dealing with totalitarianism,” yet respected institutions such as Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, the Czech Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, and many other outstanding institutions supposedly were incapable of writing a successful application? Fairy tales for the naïve. Naturally, EU officials (this is confirmed) never explain their decisions, shifting responsibility to so-called expert judgments that are completely non-transparent and camouflaged.
On August 23rd, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience will honour all victims of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Despite the indifference and even hostility of the European bureaucratic machine, which increasingly concerns itself only with its own privileges, the Platform, supported by Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and other countries, has carried out numerous projects, published many works, and demonstrated in countless ways its commitment to democratic values. And that is all that truly matters!
“Monitory democracy” must go down in history as yet another insidious attempt to deceive voters and, together with its creators, disappear into the abyss of human delusions. It is up to us to protect normal democracy from the increasingly aggressive street-level kind, working hand in hand with (Euro)bureaucracy.
