Parliament adopts Constitution proposal

Why ratify a Constitution that claims Kosovo is part of the Serbian state, legalize the Cyrillic alphabet, and pronounce that Serbia is the state of the Serbian citizens, when everyone knows Albanians (if they were to live in Serbia within an autonomous Kosovo) are neither Serbian, nor use the Cyrillic alphabet? This Constitution has all the hallmarks of the nationalist rhetoric in Tudjman's Croatia that alienated Serb minorities to seek protection with Babic's SDS. While I see the emotional need to affirm one's state and identity, this Constitution seems to make no efforts to integrate, let alone welcome, Serbia's minority communities into its politics and society and will only further galvanize Albanian and Hungarian efforts for self-determination.

Serbians have been changing their constitutions frequently for the last twenty years, yet, the language in it has been the same. Why going through all these negociations, when everyone knows Serbia's answers. What a waist of time! The international Community ought to recognize Kosovo's Indepence immediatly and save themselves money and time.

Dean, Vancouver,

Alghough feel a lot of sympathy for the suffering of Serbian minority in Kosovo, saddly, it's their bosse's in Belgrade who are responsible for for all their pain with their nationalist constitutions.

agnes

I wonder how can they ratify a constitution without the vote 2 million people (Kosovians) whose land they claim to be part of Serbia. "What kind of democracy is this? Can someone tell me?

What's new from the Milloshevi's constitution? They both claim Kosovo to be part of Serbia. They both claim cyrilic as the main alphabet. If they truly wanted Kosovo with their people, they would have passed a constitution similiar to Macedonia's where in that case Serbian & Albanian would have been official languages of Serbia, as well as cyrilic & Latin as the official alphabets. It seemed to me a less violent Milloshevi's constitution with few if no intents to create a multi-ethnic democracy. My question to Mr. Tadic and Kostunica is: Why spend all this time and money, when you could have printed the old one and made a few changes with a pencil and a white-out.

Isaac,

There are way too many similarities with Milosevic's way of doing things. However, I think Milosevic was a much better politician than majority of what Serbia today has to offer.

Similarities - Usually, whenever Slobo wanted to do approve something quickly and unoticeably, he would have the parliament approve it on a weekend. When he committed a crime or genocide, it would be on a saturday (hoping that the media is taking the weekend off). This constitution occurred on a weekend as well.

Differences - Slobo would make a "pretty" constitution that would be desireable for many countries. Of course, he would still violate it (or twak it if necessary - just when he became the president of Yugoslavia). This one is the opposite. It puts people in a "box" and forces them not to respect the constitution. It also makes Serbia look bad in the eyes of the world.

Oh, and last thing, Slobo was not worried that his referendum would fail (he didn't need two days to do it - he did it in one day).

I hope sebian people are smarter than the parlament members when they vote on the next elections, as well the new constitution.

I see lot of Albanians really miss Milosevic! Sorry guys but he is dead and that time when u could use him as an excuse for everything is long gone!I am proud of our president Boris Tadic and you can only dream of having such a leader.

How ironic is this constitution. This is pure farce. Serbian polititions have been talking how Serbia is democratic country, at any cost will keep Kosova and will treat all citizens alike.
This constitution contadicts all of the above.It only acres for Serbs and the official writting is only cyrilic. Does this constitution represent all its citizens??? Can an honest Serb answer this qustion?

I am a Serb that lives in Canada. I wish that the official alphabet was Cyrillic and the language is Serbian. But it is not.

If I were not be happy about this then I would move away from Canada and stop complaining and not start a war because of this. You Albanians have to stop complaining and stop blaming Slobo. It's been 7 years that you have or so called freedom.

Can you maby be more precise on how this contradicts everything above? Whats wrong with cyrillic beeing the official writing? It is the majority that uses it. It doesnt meant all others are illegal to use. Its the same in every other constitution in most of the world. Official status is mostly used if most citizens can speak it... And if it is taught at schools. Do you suggest another language as the official one that everyone speaks in Serbia? Maby Albanian? Cause if it was official, then all schools would likley be obligated to teach it to all citizens. Please suggest wich one.
In Finland they have Finnish and Swedish as official languages, but there are 13 languages used in the countrie. Yeah they are "true fascists" for not allowing all official status. Especially as there are about same amount of people who speak finnish in Sweden, as swedish in Finland, but they dont have official status there. And btw most in Finland teach Swedish in school. My God Usa dont even have an official status, and ive heard that they will be working on making English the official language this year. Even tho 20% is spanish speaking...
I am sorry if words as "Serbs" and "Cyrillic" etc bothers you in the constitution and you feel its nationalistic, but do look on how other constitutions are written before you go berserk and lable it as nationalistic. There is no official minority languages...
I suggest you take a look in the Italian constitution if you would like to see how that works.

And yes Agim:
"It only acres for Serbs"

No it acres for serbian citizens, its a big difference. Ethnicity isnt important, but it defines that the constitution directs itself to all citizens of "Serbia"

I too have pros and cons on the new constitution, but please talk about what is the real issue... Not that you wish for Albanian to be official language in Serbia, where it is not used except by Albanians.

@ Agim Elshani, so to represent all citizens, according to you, every nationality, ever language must be made official? So in Australia, home to 120 different nationalities, each one must be represented with it's language being one of the official langauages of the country.

@ Mary, is Serbia allowed to hold a referendum in Kosovo? Maybe there are legal reasons with UNMIK?

It's undemocratic to have a constitution that prohibits public ownership - I can't understand why a democracy would want to tie the hands of its legislators in this manner. A constitution should not seek to set in stone the economic policy that is fashionable at a particular time. It surprises me that so few people voted against it.

Why ratify a Constitution that claims Kosovo is part of the Serbian state, legalize the Cyrillic alphabet, and pronounce that Serbia is the state of the Serbian citizens, when everyone knows Albanians (if they were to live in Serbia within an autonomous Kosovo) are neither Serbian, nor use the Cyrillic alphabet? This Constitution has all the hallmarks of the nationalist rhetoric in Tudjman's Croatia that alienated Serb minorities to seek protection with Babic's SDS. While I see the emotional need to affirm one's state and identity, this Constitution seems to make no efforts to integrate, let alone welcome, Serbia's minority communities into its politics and society and will only further galvanize Albanian and Hungarian efforts for self-determination.

Serbians have been changing their constitutions frequently for the last twenty years, yet, the language in it has been the same. Why going through all these negociations, when everyone knows Serbia's answers. What a waist of time! The international Community ought to recognize Kosovo's Indepence immediatly and save themselves money and time.

Dean, Vancouver,

Alghough feel a lot of sympathy for the suffering of Serbian minority in Kosovo, saddly, it's their bosse's in Belgrade who are responsible for for all their pain with their nationalist constitutions.

agnes

I wonder how can they ratify a constitution without the vote 2 million people (Kosovians) whose land they claim to be part of Serbia. "What kind of democracy is this? Can someone tell me?

What's new from the Milloshevi's constitution? They both claim Kosovo to be part of Serbia. They both claim cyrilic as the main alphabet. If they truly wanted Kosovo with their people, they would have passed a constitution similiar to Macedonia's where in that case Serbian & Albanian would have been official languages of Serbia, as well as cyrilic & Latin as the official alphabets. It seemed to me a less violent Milloshevi's constitution with few if no intents to create a multi-ethnic democracy. My question to Mr. Tadic and Kostunica is: Why spend all this time and money, when you could have printed the old one and made a few changes with a pencil and a white-out.

Isaac,

There are way too many similarities with Milosevic's way of doing things. However, I think Milosevic was a much better politician than majority of what Serbia today has to offer.

Similarities - Usually, whenever Slobo wanted to do approve something quickly and unoticeably, he would have the parliament approve it on a weekend. When he committed a crime or genocide, it would be on a saturday (hoping that the media is taking the weekend off). This constitution occurred on a weekend as well.

Differences - Slobo would make a "pretty" constitution that would be desireable for many countries. Of course, he would still violate it (or twak it if necessary - just when he became the president of Yugoslavia). This one is the opposite. It puts people in a "box" and forces them not to respect the constitution. It also makes Serbia look bad in the eyes of the world.

Oh, and last thing, Slobo was not worried that his referendum would fail (he didn't need two days to do it - he did it in one day).

I hope sebian people are smarter than the parlament members when they vote on the next elections, as well the new constitution.

I see lot of Albanians really miss Milosevic! Sorry guys but he is dead and that time when u could use him as an excuse for everything is long gone!I am proud of our president Boris Tadic and you can only dream of having such a leader.

How ironic is this constitution. This is pure farce. Serbian polititions have been talking how Serbia is democratic country, at any cost will keep Kosova and will treat all citizens alike.
This constitution contadicts all of the above.It only acres for Serbs and the official writting is only cyrilic. Does this constitution represent all its citizens??? Can an honest Serb answer this qustion?

I am a Serb that lives in Canada. I wish that the official alphabet was Cyrillic and the language is Serbian. But it is not.

If I were not be happy about this then I would move away from Canada and stop complaining and not start a war because of this. You Albanians have to stop complaining and stop blaming Slobo. It's been 7 years that you have or so called freedom.

Can you maby be more precise on how this contradicts everything above? Whats wrong with cyrillic beeing the official writing? It is the majority that uses it. It doesnt meant all others are illegal to use. Its the same in every other constitution in most of the world. Official status is mostly used if most citizens can speak it... And if it is taught at schools. Do you suggest another language as the official one that everyone speaks in Serbia? Maby Albanian? Cause if it was official, then all schools would likley be obligated to teach it to all citizens. Please suggest wich one.
In Finland they have Finnish and Swedish as official languages, but there are 13 languages used in the countrie. Yeah they are "true fascists" for not allowing all official status. Especially as there are about same amount of people who speak finnish in Sweden, as swedish in Finland, but they dont have official status there. And btw most in Finland teach Swedish in school. My God Usa dont even have an official status, and ive heard that they will be working on making English the official language this year. Even tho 20% is spanish speaking...
I am sorry if words as "Serbs" and "Cyrillic" etc bothers you in the constitution and you feel its nationalistic, but do look on how other constitutions are written before you go berserk and lable it as nationalistic. There is no official minority languages...
I suggest you take a look in the Italian constitution if you would like to see how that works.

And yes Agim:
"It only acres for Serbs"

No it acres for serbian citizens, its a big difference. Ethnicity isnt important, but it defines that the constitution directs itself to all citizens of "Serbia"

I too have pros and cons on the new constitution, but please talk about what is the real issue... Not that you wish for Albanian to be official language in Serbia, where it is not used except by Albanians.

@ Agim Elshani, so to represent all citizens, according to you, every nationality, ever language must be made official? So in Australia, home to 120 different nationalities, each one must be represented with it's language being one of the official langauages of the country.

@ Mary, is Serbia allowed to hold a referendum in Kosovo? Maybe there are legal reasons with UNMIK?

It's undemocratic to have a constitution that prohibits public ownership - I can't understand why a democracy would want to tie the hands of its legislators in this manner. A constitution should not seek to set in stone the economic policy that is fashionable at a particular time. It surprises me that so few people voted against it.