Quotes

It is crucial that in Serbia we precisely define the responsibility principle, that each person is entitled to rights falling under his/her competence, so that we could call to account those who acted in line with his/her rights, and produced some harmful consequences.

Multiparty democracy is the most efficient mode of decision taking and it is compatible with modern societies. In other words, the one who blocks the multiparty democracy, sets the society back, prevents better ideas from prevailing; gives preference to one specific type of ideas, only the particular category of ideas, taking account only of the one who proposed them, and disregarding their quality. This is monopoly, as if you has one manufacturer of shoes and that shoe manufacturer had the right to sell his shoes, regardless of whether they are good or not. There would be no market on the Earth, if market were the matter of somebody’s taste and will.

Our generation has the huge responsibility. Of course, such responsibility is accompanied by great honour. We have been chosen, we have a mission. Such mission cannot bring any to us as persons, to our generation, since the time in which our generation acts is the time of asceticism and sacrifices. Only those who are ready do sacrifice their own wellbeing, may say that we belong to the generation which saved Serbia: we are the people who are bringing about the new politics.

In November last year, windows and doors opened on that room of the political system in which we were imprisoned for seven or eight years. Some fresh air squeezed into it, through those windows. Serbia woke up from its winter dream, in the midst of winter. Our message to this Parliament is: do not allow yourselves to close those windows, let the fresh air remain common in Serbia, let us include all those who inhaled that fresh air of freedom for eighty eight days together with you, do not close the windows because thus we will shut the windows to Serbia and we will suffocate in such Serbia if its windows remain closed.

When I say strategy, I do not mean the electoral one, or any other manifesto. It is easy to write a manifesto, to copy it, to learn it by heart. Under strategy here, I mean the possibility of activating certain resources. Any serious party is capable of activating certain resources thanks to the politics it has conducted until now, thanks to people who form it, trust that it has won.

Serbia does not have sufficient funds and that will be the case for the next several years, and probably even longer. This shortage may be made up for only by increasing interests in other factors, such as personal energy, knowledge, organization, response time. The only answer to the lack of energy is – the accelerated circulation of energy.

The model of permanent mobilization shown during the protests, may be described as active and spontaneous participation of individuals and groups, joined with the same goal, rather than the same organization; by innocent establishment of consensus on key issues; open communication without taboo themes; by generalizing the requests so that only those reflecting common interest remain; by exposing high level of criticism towards leaders, by imagination, fast learning, solidarity and high level of concern for other participants.

Our objective is to have a transparent Government, as transparent as the glass. We aim to make sure that each and every dinar taken from the citizens of this country is monitored, from the moment it enters the budget, until it reaches its end user. The finance is the area where it is most difficult to exercise control, but exactly where the control is most required.

It is easy to set populist requests and make people support you on this. The courage is to tell workers the truth.

In order to make the changes work, the majority of members of society that has entered changes must wake up every morning with a feeling of the great historical moment, with the feeling of something big and extraordinary.

There are no big changes without big efforts. There are no big changes without new rules, creativity and decisiveness. The big changes do not occur per se, through an evolution, by growing from one system to another, they happen non-continuingly, by breaking chains and establishing of new relationships.

Life is brutal, but only the determined and persistent ones survive. Those who for any reason do not use their chance as a country and as individuals may have good reasons or excuses for that, but they will remain out of the game.

I have been taking sides for all my life. Life, in particular in politics, is the constant process of decision taking and undertaking of responsibilities. But, people do not want that. Most of the people take a small number of decisions while the rest remains undefined. I do not stand that. I want people to be for or against. They take it as a pressure. I am waking them up from their sleep, but they do not want anyone to wake them up from the sleep.

In order to make a success in business, there has to be a plan, to know exactly what one wants, not to make experiments, notwithstanding our national inclination towards that. Much more time should be spent on sharpening the jig-saw, instead of cutting wood with a blunt tool.

As a man who had been kept under water for 50 years, wishing to grasp some air, Serbia cannot be stopped on its path to the oxygen, and that is Europe, being a family of democratic, modern and developed countries.

Thanks to the plan and clear vision, we managed to bring this people from dictatorship into democracy, without any bloodshed. Thanks to the plan and firm vision, we may show this country a way out form the biggest economic misery ever suffered by a European county, and into economic prosperity. But the vision is vital at all times. You should always ask yourself where you are heading to. Not only whether I am running fast, or spending energy, but whether I know which the goal I want to achieve is.

We have to promote our country, our products, our comparable advantages, with much more energetic approach that we have done so far. We mustn’t hope that the one who wishes to know who we are is going to find it out somehow. In the light of global communication we have many opportunities to be ambassadors of one democratic Serbia worth investing into, at any time, without leaving our country, through Internet, through our people living abroad, through trips made abroad. It is crucial that we show the good face of Serbia to the world. It is extremely important that we do not blur our country. It is crucial that our problems are solved among ourselves, and not invite the world to participate and witness problems we face, because any normal country and any normal parties do face them too.

I believe that to deal with politics means to take responsibilities and not sit in churches. My political line has been the same for the past thirty years: I advocate urban, civilized and European country in opposition to dictatorship. What makes me different from others is that in Serbia intellectuals are the spectators, making analyses, smoking and grumbling. What I wish is to change the world.

You will not find a surgeon operating you quite likable. You find a doctor trying to convince you that you are in a great shape, that you do not need an operation that you will get better by drinking teas, much more amiable. I want people to respect my work, not to like me. My goal is to have the Serbian government evaluated for what it benefited for this country using existing chances and own efforts and potentials, rather than by its smooth talk, paying court to the people and talking about its good intentions.

My motto that keeps me in motion is do not give up. If you start passing the vehicles, hit the gas. Do what you believe is right, and not what the majority would support. Do not take any defeat personally. Never let the politics drive you crazy.

The secret of success lies in investing into education, as the wealthy countries do. This means not in technology and machines first. That would come later, with educated and qualified individuals. Considering that we are lagging behind reforms, the only way to make up for such gap is to have a non-linear development by making leaps, all of which would be have an education as a base. Education, training, knowledge, are the major driving forces of progress .

No more sleep. You cannot be world champions by sleeping. Sleep five, six hours, you do not need more. You will sleep when you are retired. Retired persons are allowed to sleep. If you are not retired, do not. That is also good for your figure. No Saturdays, Sundays, holidays. If you want to achieve a big goal, there is no room for celebrations – as we know, there are 170 celebrations of Saint Patron’s day in Serbia. We will be celebrating when we win. We cannot win if instead of training we celebrate.

We are ready to work even more, try more, but you have to give your contribution too. You too have to wash your face with cold water, and if it does not help, have a cold shower, roll up your sleeves, clean the house, both literally and figuratively, to put some order to the place where you live, work, establish quality criteria, performance criteria, criteria of responsibility.

The lack of will can in my opinion, never be an excuse and I cannot accept the lack of energy as a pretext. I may accept the shortage of money, illness, but not that someone cannot work 12, 13 hours a day because one is tired, because I know that is not true.

Today we know that the escape to future is sometimes required in order to be able accept the misfortunate today at all. Sometimes to think in a realistic way does not mean to reject reality in its given form, but to project it into something better.

We need a big idea and big vision, something that will drive us forward, something bigger than business as usual , bigger than calculations, economy, which I believe is the most important of all.

It is dangerous to promote European idea without sufficient energy. The nationalism as an idea, although wrong, is strong and easily replaces other ideas, and all of a sudden – we find ourselves at the beginning of an new, dreadful phase of European history, again.

When people are constantly being told: I love you as you are, than such populism will get a support, and that is indeed irresponsible.

We are still in the position of those who cut the forest and planted some seedlings, and now are surprised that there is no shade. Do I worry that there is no shade? I do. Am I working on making the trees grow? I am, but it cannot grow in one year.

I am at the work at which I am interested in Indians and not the Chiefs. I need people to do the job. I may accept someone if he/she is the right wing o left wing, a monarchist or republican because in this phase the grounds are being set, rather than painting the front. This is not about aesthetics. It is irrelevant whether someone is inclined a little on this side or on that side; if one is professional, honest, hard-working, and if one is capable of accomplishing certain job – that person is valuable to me.

If anyone believes that the enforcement of laws will be stopped if I am done away with, that they are more than wrong, because I am not the system. The system will keep on functioning and no one will get amnesty by getting one or two state officials out of the way.

The difference between ethics and morality is quite essential. What is beneficial for one people is the ethics. Morality is the matter of intention, when I say I believe something is good and I will do it because my motivation is right. The fact that in the end it will be a disaster, is not my fault, I did it for good reasons. I despise that. I think that it is the excuse of the weaker. I am not interested in intentions. I am interested in consequences. Any one has good intentions, which I believe is the matter of decency. I do not discuss others’ intentions. I assume that anyone has good intentions. But it is so trivial, that I am not interested in it. I am interested in what comes next. If I will not benefit from the outcome, I am not interested in good intentions.

Nationalism can be described as substantial, referring to some ethnical or some other membership; it is static, tends to polarize things, lacks communication, is unable to join in the competitive market, to participate in exchange, all of which is vital for achieving success in a modern society, but is rather imminent for static societies and taking positions and rigid attitudes in such static societies.

If we base the collective identity on something of a more modern form, such as patriotism, then instead of ethics of intention, we will have the ethics of responsibility, and instead of justifying our intentions, we will justify the obtained results, and instead of giving morale speeches about how good we are, and about our rights, we will make detailed analysis of what are the chances that we succeed with our goals. In that case too, we will be accountable for any consequences, without trying to justify ourselves by motives. And here is where the crucial difference lies.

It is crucial that in Serbia we precisely define the responsibility principle, that each person is entitled to rights falling under his/her competence, so that we could call to account those who acted in line with his/her rights, and produced some harmful consequences.

Multiparty democracy is the most efficient mode of decision taking and it is compatible with modern societies. In other words, the one who blocks the multiparty democracy, sets the society back, prevents better ideas from prevailing; gives preference to one specific type of ideas, only the particular category of ideas, taking account only of the one who proposed them, and disregarding their quality. This is monopoly, as if you has one manufacturer of shoes and that shoe manufacturer had the right to sell his shoes, regardless of whether they are good or not. There would be no market on the Earth, if market were the matter of somebody’s taste and will.

Our generation has the huge responsibility. Of course, such responsibility is accompanied by great honour. We have been chosen, we have a mission. Such mission cannot bring any to us as persons, to our generation, since the time in which our generation acts is the time of asceticism and sacrifices. Only those who are ready do sacrifice their own wellbeing, may say that we belong to the generation which saved Serbia: we are the people who are bringing about the new politics.

In November last year, windows and doors opened on that room of the political system in which we were imprisoned for seven or eight years. Some fresh air squeezed into it, through those windows. Serbia woke up from its winter dream, in the midst of winter. Our message to this Parliament is: do not allow yourselves to close those windows, let the fresh air remain common in Serbia, let us include all those who inhaled that fresh air of freedom for eighty eight days together with you, do not close the windows because thus we will shut the windows to Serbia and we will suffocate in such Serbia if its windows remain closed.

When I say strategy, I do not mean the electoral one, or any other manifesto. It is easy to write a manifesto, to copy it, to learn it by heart. Under strategy here, I mean the possibility of activating certain resources. Any serious party is capable of activating certain resources thanks to the politics it has conducted until now, thanks to people who form it, trust that it has won.

Serbia does not have sufficient funds and that will be the case for the next several years, and probably even longer. This shortage may be made up for only by increasing interests in other factors, such as personal energy, knowledge, organization, response time. The only answer to the lack of energy is – the accelerated circulation of energy.

The model of permanent mobilization shown during the protests, may be described as active and spontaneous participation of individuals and groups, joined with the same goal, rather than the same organization; by innocent establishment of consensus on key issues; open communication without taboo themes; by generalizing the requests so that only those reflecting common interest remain; by exposing high level of criticism towards leaders, by imagination, fast learning, solidarity and high level of concern for other participants.

Our objective is to have a transparent Government, as transparent as the glass. We aim to make sure that each and every dinar taken from the citizens of this country is monitored, from the moment it enters the budget, until it reaches its end user. The finance is the area where it is most difficult to exercise control, but exactly where the control is most required.

It is easy to set populist requests and make people support you on this. The courage is to tell workers the truth.

In order to make the changes work, the majority of members of society that has entered changes must wake up every morning with a feeling of the great historical moment, with the feeling of something big and extraordinary.

There are no big changes without big efforts. There are no big changes without new rules, creativity and decisiveness. The big changes do not occur per se, through an evolution, by growing from one system to another, they happen non-continuingly, by breaking chains and establishing of new relationships.

Life is brutal, but only the determined and persistent ones survive. Those who for any reason do not use their chance as a country and as individuals may have good reasons or excuses for that, but they will remain out of the game.

I have been taking sides for all my life. Life, in particular in politics, is the constant process of decision taking and undertaking of responsibilities. But, people do not want that. Most of the people take a small number of decisions while the rest remains undefined. I do not stand that. I want people to be for or against. They take it as a pressure. I am waking them up from their sleep, but they do not want anyone to wake them up from the sleep.

In order to make a success in business, there has to be a plan, to know exactly what one wants, not to make experiments, notwithstanding our national inclination towards that. Much more time should be spent on sharpening the jig-saw, instead of cutting wood with a blunt tool.

As a man who had been kept under water for 50 years, wishing to grasp some air, Serbia cannot be stopped on its path to the oxygen, and that is Europe, being a family of democratic, modern and developed countries.

Thanks to the plan and clear vision, we managed to bring this people from dictatorship into democracy, without any bloodshed. Thanks to the plan and firm vision, we may show this country a way out form the biggest economic misery ever suffered by a European county, and into economic prosperity. But the vision is vital at all times. You should always ask yourself where you are heading to. Not only whether I am running fast, or spending energy, but whether I know which the goal I want to achieve is.

We have to promote our country, our products, our comparable advantages, with much more energetic approach that we have done so far. We mustn’t hope that the one who wishes to know who we are is going to find it out somehow. In the light of global communication we have many opportunities to be ambassadors of one democratic Serbia worth investing into, at any time, without leaving our country, through Internet, through our people living abroad, through trips made abroad. It is crucial that we show the good face of Serbia to the world. It is extremely important that we do not blur our country. It is crucial that our problems are solved among ourselves, and not invite the world to participate and witness problems we face, because any normal country and any normal parties do face them too.

I believe that to deal with politics means to take responsibilities and not sit in churches. My political line has been the same for the past thirty years: I advocate urban, civilized and European country in opposition to dictatorship. What makes me different from others is that in Serbia intellectuals are the spectators, making analyses, smoking and grumbling. What I wish is to change the world.

You will not find a surgeon operating you quite likable. You find a doctor trying to convince you that you are in a great shape, that you do not need an operation that you will get better by drinking teas, much more amiable. I want people to respect my work, not to like me. My goal is to have the Serbian government evaluated for what it benefited for this country using existing chances and own efforts and potentials, rather than by its smooth talk, paying court to the people and talking about its good intentions.

My motto that keeps me in motion is do not give up. If you start passing the vehicles, hit the gas. Do what you believe is right, and not what the majority would support. Do not take any defeat personally. Never let the politics drive you crazy.

The secret of success lies in investing into education, as the wealthy countries do. This means not in technology and machines first. That would come later, with educated and qualified individuals. Considering that we are lagging behind reforms, the only way to make up for such gap is to have a non-linear development by making leaps, all of which would be have an education as a base. Education, training, knowledge, are the major driving forces of progress .

No more sleep. You cannot be world champions by sleeping. Sleep five, six hours, you do not need more. You will sleep when you are retired. Retired persons are allowed to sleep. If you are not retired, do not. That is also good for your figure. No Saturdays, Sundays, holidays. If you want to achieve a big goal, there is no room for celebrations – as we know, there are 170 celebrations of Saint Patron’s day in Serbia. We will be celebrating when we win. We cannot win if instead of training we celebrate.

We are ready to work even more, try more, but you have to give your contribution too. You too have to wash your face with cold water, and if it does not help, have a cold shower, roll up your sleeves, clean the house, both literally and figuratively, to put some order to the place where you live, work, establish quality criteria, performance criteria, criteria of responsibility.

The lack of will can in my opinion, never be an excuse and I cannot accept the lack of energy as a pretext. I may accept the shortage of money, illness, but not that someone cannot work 12, 13 hours a day because one is tired, because I know that is not true.

Today we know that the escape to future is sometimes required in order to be able accept the misfortunate today at all. Sometimes to think in a realistic way does not mean to reject reality in its given form, but to project it into something better.

We need a big idea and big vision, something that will drive us forward, something bigger than business as usual , bigger than calculations, economy, which I believe is the most important of all.

It is dangerous to promote European idea without sufficient energy. The nationalism as an idea, although wrong, is strong and easily replaces other ideas, and all of a sudden – we find ourselves at the beginning of an new, dreadful phase of European history, again.

When people are constantly being told: I love you as you are, than such populism will get a support, and that is indeed irresponsible.

We are still in the position of those who cut the forest and planted some seedlings, and now are surprised that there is no shade. Do I worry that there is no shade? I do. Am I working on making the trees grow? I am, but it cannot grow in one year.

I am at the work at which I am interested in Indians and not the Chiefs. I need people to do the job. I may accept someone if he/she is the right wing o left wing, a monarchist or republican because in this phase the grounds are being set, rather than painting the front. This is not about aesthetics. It is irrelevant whether someone is inclined a little on this side or on that side; if one is professional, honest, hard-working, and if one is capable of accomplishing certain job – that person is valuable to me.

If anyone believes that the enforcement of laws will be stopped if I am done away with, that they are more than wrong, because I am not the system. The system will keep on functioning and no one will get amnesty by getting one or two state officials out of the way.

The difference between ethics and morality is quite essential. What is beneficial for one people is the ethics. Morality is the matter of intention, when I say I believe something is good and I will do it because my motivation is right. The fact that in the end it will be a disaster, is not my fault, I did it for good reasons. I despise that. I think that it is the excuse of the weaker. I am not interested in intentions. I am interested in consequences. Any one has good intentions, which I believe is the matter of decency. I do not discuss others’ intentions. I assume that anyone has good intentions. But it is so trivial, that I am not interested in it. I am interested in what comes next. If I will not benefit from the outcome, I am not interested in good intentions.

Nationalism can be described as substantial, referring to some ethnical or some other membership; it is static, tends to polarize things, lacks communication, is unable to join in the competitive market, to participate in exchange, all of which is vital for achieving success in a modern society, but is rather imminent for static societies and taking positions and rigid attitudes in such static societies.

If we base the collective identity on something of a more modern form, such as patriotism, then instead of ethics of intention, we will have the ethics of responsibility, and instead of justifying our intentions, we will justify the obtained results, and instead of giving morale speeches about how good we are, and about our rights, we will make detailed analysis of what are the chances that we succeed with our goals. In that case too, we will be accountable for any consequences, without trying to justify ourselves by motives. And here is where the crucial difference lies.