High hopes for joint leadership

Press, 6 May 1980, Page 8

High hopes for joint leadership

NZPA-Reuter Belgrade Yugoslavia’s post-Tito re- ; gime is based firmly on the ! unproven concept that collective leadership can be made to work in a communist society. The leaders left behind by President Tito’s death were hand picked by him. They rose to the top by loyalty to his ideas. All are capable, experienced, publicly dedicated to the Titoist vision of a socialist nation free from Moscow’s control. Under their control, Yu-: goslavia now moves into a new eara, for tse first time in 35 years without Tito at the helm. The consensus among Yugoslavs is that the collective leadership will : cnrcppd If it does, it will be the [first such achievement in Communist history. The Soviet Union experimented with collectivity after Josef Stalin died in 1953, but it lasted only two years, by some assessments even less. Some Western analysts challenge Yugoslav optimism about the future, believing that eventually, as happened in the Kremlin, a single dominant leader will push to the top. But this is not a general view among Western experts.

In a more widespread forecast, the collective leadership will consolidate itself and will stay in charge, with a small group likely to emerge as an inner caucus, because of seniority, special talents, or more simply because they were closest to Tito.

At Tito’s urging, the country is now being run by two closely linked “presidencies” — the presidency of the Communist Party and the presidency of the Federal State.

The party presidency consists of 23 men, 22 chosen to represent Yugoslavia’s eight regions plus the Defence Minister (Mr Nikola Ljubicic) representing the 270,000-strong armed forces. The State presidency now has eight members chosen on a regional basis. In the combined leadership, there are 27 members instead of a nominal 31 — four of them double as party and State leaders.

Under a rotation principle devised by Tito, the VicePresident of each group changes annually. This allows jobs to shift between the regions, preserving Yugoslavia’s delicate ethnic ibalance.

The system is similar to Switzerland’s where the national President also changes every year in line with a federal tradition. At President Tito’s death, Stevan Doronjski, a 60-year-old Serb from the Vojvodina province* takes charge of the party machine as chairman or “presiding member.” Vice-President Lazar Kolisevski, who is 66, a Macedonian, becomes president of the collective State presidency.

Under present statutes, Mr Kolisevski will be replaced as President by rotation in mid-May, Mr Doronjski next October.

Both men have regional rather than . national power bases. They are the figurehead, representational leaders of the collective.

Those tipped to play increasingly influential roles in the combined leadership are headed by Vladimir Bakaric, a member of both the State and party presidencies, best-known of Tito’s surviving aides and a party veteran of 47 years standing.

The silver-haired Croat lawyer is seen likely to emerge in a “chairman of the board” capacity.. .His experience and loyalty’ to i Tito’s ideas are unchallenged. During Tito’s fatal ■ illness, he was accepted without question as co-ordinator of the Government and party apparatus. ,

General Ljubicic, who is 63, Defence Minister for 13 years, is expected to take an important backstage role. He is a Serb, but as the Army’s only serving four-star general he has a unique position as a federalist. The Army is the: only force organised on solely national,, rather than regional lines.,