President Stevo Pendarovski attended and addressed today the promotion of the book “Between Divided and One Society” by Rubin Zemon, Petar Atanasov, Sefer Tahiri, Mustafa Ibrahimi and Ana Cupeska.
President Pendarovski, congratulating the authors, said that the book covers a long period of academic and political provocation in our country. The President addressed the main challenges facing our society, and, based on his career, experience and personal contribution, as a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior during the 2001 conflict, as a member of the Cabinet of President Boris Trajkovski, through his participation in the debates on decentralization, symbols and number of constituencies according to ethnic reason, performing the function of President of the State Election Commission and the referendum against decentralization, as a participant in the civil movement with a supranational agenda 2015-2016, as a Member of Parliament in 2017 and 2018 and a participant in the debate on the Law on Languages.
President Pendarovski underlined that the divisions in the Macedonian society are deep, that trust can hardly be given through ethnic lines, unless there is a political agreement, and it is even harder to maintain it. It is quickly lost, the President added, not because election promises were insincere, but because clientelism is predominant – most voters of all ethnicities demand something in return for their vote, and are rarely interested in the inclusion of politics”, President Pendarovski said. A second lesson learned, according to the President, is that the introduction of multiculturalism must be gradual. He spoke about the adoption and implementation of the Law on Languages, the promotions in the Army and the Intelligence Agency and the impact of these changes on sensitive sectors in Macedonian society.
According to the President, there have been breakthroughs since the adoption of the Framework Agreement, although they are not enough. A step forward in multiculturalism has been made much more in civic communication than in state institutions, the President assessed. The innate dignity of man is the first determinant from which we must start when we think of the political community in which we live, President Pendarovski said.
Projecting the views of the authors of the book, on the directions in which North Macedonia should be built in the years ahead, President Pendarovski stressed that the book “Between a Divided and One Society” is a positive example of a constructive contribution to our common future.
