Marinko Culic of the Split weekly 'Feral Tribune' tries to answer the question whether the non - political organizations and NGO 's in Croatia took over the role of the only opposition to the regime in the November 24, 1997 issue.

In Croatia, there is and there is no opposition, which leaves a large open space in which political life should evolve. Jumping effectively into that space lately are different political organizations and non governmental associations, and this explains relatively big rise in different protection organizations in the last few months, first of all HHO and Citizes Council for Human Rights (GOLJP), then, independent media, non - party movements (Supek), international organizations (Soros), and in most recent times a group of journalists within the regime media compound (first of all Forum 21).

Angry shouts of the regime against the political engagement of the HHO is at least very suspicious. It is easier to say that the regime wish that the NGO take on a more prominent political role, moreover, they publicly stimulate it, with the obvious intent to draw these organizations into the political arena and that there they be 'beat down' with the political stick of 'democratic majority'. This is how those numerous calls of the regime media to almost all leaders of these organizations, from Cicak himself, through Banac and Supek, to Pprosperov Novak should be seen. To the elections gentlemen ! Show your worth and clout there ! - This has already become the emergency slogan, which breathes with insecurity, even subdued fear from different non-governmental organizations, which, with all the curses in the regime media, court cases, imposition of buccaneer taxes, and so on, keep on slipping out, like eels, non none have been be headed yet.

The most recent such call - in the for of : gentlemen, present your demands in the form of laws, and then we'll see what the Parliament will say - was sent by sanguinistically distressed Hloverka Novak-Srzic to her colleagues in the Forum 21. The example is a very good one, because angry Hloverka forgot herself so much, that she openly admitted that the arguments presented by Form 21 are good ones (she was even thinking to sign them), but that this will not be worth much when the political (Krpina) and disciplinary (Mudrinic) discussions open about them. At that moment, she will simply wipe off these wise proposals with the two mentioned brooms and its over - there will be no more Galic and his buddies. There is no doubt that this darkened absolutism of the HRT first lady, whose only decent competition is Ms Vokic (culture/education minister), has later served as an excellent protection umbrella to Forum 21, and helped it survive the threatening 'direct conversation' with the TV ruling board.

With her panicky appearances on TV, Hloverka contributed to the fact that their demands start to look more radical than they objectively are. The thing that is most telling about their reach is seen in the fact that, while they seek the rearrangement of the whole pyramid of the state media, which partially means the pyramid of authority - since these two are complementary - these demands practically circumvent their own back yard. In them, there is no mention of the purge of some ten journalists within the last few years, so that an impression is formed that the high ideals of professionalism started to interest some of the signatories for the first time only when the finger of bad fate started to come close to their foreheads.

This helps in comprehension that the reach of the different non - political organizations and associations are actually limited; no matter how they currently seem protected by thoughtless arrogance and inability of the ruling elite, in the long term it is most secure that they retain their profile and that they do not allow themselves to be drawn into the sphere of classic politics. So, no matter how spectacular the meetings organized by the Forum 21 might seem, there is something deeply asymmetrical and wrong when at the scene of the Journalists Club the press sits at the conference table, and the opposition in the spectators seats.