The Political Odyssey of Vladan Đokić: Kurir Was Right When It Warned About the Rector’s True Motives in the Undermining of the University
The current social crisis, caused by months-long blockades of the University and by street protests that were often violent, has only in recent weeks taken on a fully public and clearly political character. That truth surfaced with difficulty because many of the actors involved did their utmost to conceal it, but they failed owing to the responsible and professional approach of those few champions of objective and truthful public reporting.
Kurir was certainly among them – a media outlet that gave this colossal issue, which stretched over the entire year, the attention it deserved and, as it turns out today, stood on the right side of the truth. No matter the pressures or the resistance to having this matter brought to light, our newsroom held firm in its intention to present to the public of Serbia the real – and for some, uncomfortable – truth.
Among such truths revealed by Kurir was also the role of the Rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić, in the erosion of higher education in Serbia, as well as his motivation to channel the student revolt from the start of the blockades into what we now have before us – a conventionally amorphous political grouping seeking to seize the levers of power and secure lucrative positions for itself.
From the very beginning of the blockade movement, Kurir pointed to Rector Đokić as one of the key political figures behind it all. We published dozens of articles and tried to warn of what, unfortunately for our entire society, proved to be true: every move made by Vladan Đokić from the most responsible position at the University led to the disintegration of higher education – something every state and nation regards as an invaluable asset for its future and continued development.
In the days when the students engaged in blockades were winning the sympathy of a good portion of Serbia, Kurir faced serious attacks, accused of targeting the untouchable “protector of our youth” by exposing Đokić’s motives. Yet Đokić, as Kurir showed consistently and with evidence, was from the outset the man who, consciously and deliberately, divided Serbia’s academic community, favoured the blockaders, and discriminated against those students who refused to join his circle but wanted to continue their studies. In point of fact, Đokić would not allow them to do so – for that would have jeopardized his own political journey, perhaps most vividly symbolized by the now well-known photograph, published by Kurir and placed in the context of a violent change of power.
As we wrote, the photo shows the head of the prosecutor’s office leading the investigation into the collapse of the railway canopy in Novi Sad at a restaurant, in the company of people who could themselves be the subject of that investigation – with Đokić among them. For the record, the people in question were Mladen Nenadić, Chief Public Prosecutor of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime; Nebojša Bojović, former President of the Governing Assembly of Railway Infrastructures, who held that post at the time of the canopy collapse; and Milutin Milošević, former Executive Director of Railway Infrastructures in charge of public infrastructure management.
Kurir also devoted numerous reports to Đokić’s activities outside Serbia, which, given his flagrant disregard for Serbia’s state institutions, carried particular weight. We showed and explained why every Rector’s trip to Brussels or some other European destination was, in fact, an intermediate stop in Đokić’s political odyssey. Each time, Kurir revealed the content of the messages he conveyed abroad. It turned out that he acted as a kind of forerunner for the blockaders at all those addresses outside Serbia where accusations against Serbia were warmly welcomed – even going so far as to call on the EU to impose sanctions on Serbian officials.
Now the truth that Kurir had been exposing all along has come fully to light: from the beginning, Vladan Đokić had a political agenda and a mission to turn the University into what it has become.
Just one among the great many well-reasoned warnings issued by Kurir was our insistence that the Rector’s actions were harmful and in blatant violation of the Law on Higher Education, since from his position he supported the students in blockade, fed their political ambitions, and allowed them not only to suspend classes across all faculties with impunity but also to carry out political activity there.
Đokić displayed the height of cynicism – yet, at the same time, he bestowed upon Kurir the aura of a defender of truth – when he agreed to be part of the so-called student electoral list. By doing so, he openly crossed into the sphere of daily politics, placed his personal political interests above the University, and single-handedly abolished the University’s autonomy. Kurir, on the other hand, gained the satisfaction of knowing it had been on the right side of the truth – even if, at the height of the student revolt, that stance was denounced as a heretical voice.
After all, the public demand for early parliamentary elections was a kind of catharsis for the blockaders – a revelation of their true character and an admission that there had been, from the outset, a very specific agenda. Whether they admit it or not, they were forced into such public exposure partly because of Kurir’s relentless pursuit of truth and its final unmasking. When truth is at stake, Kurir makes no compromises!
Kurir Editorial Team
