By Xhabir Deralla
This article addresses a local tragedy in North Macedonia – the fire in a discotheque in Kočani claiming 60 victims so far – but its message echoes globally: it explores how “the system” is often used as a shield to deflect individual responsibility and accountability. It is a reflection on how tragedies are politicized and depersonalized, how humanity is stripped away, and how truth is buried beneath propaganda, populism, and impunity.
What’s been happening in recent days in North Macedonia’s political and public discourse is relativization on an epic scale – with high-grade Kremlin quality. Everyone is shouting in unison that “the system is to blame,” and no one dares anymore to demand accountability from those directly and personally responsible. Because, of course, “the system is to blame.” It always is. That mystical entity that supposedly devours all the rotten apples… yet somehow leaves the seats of power untouched.
This narrative—“the system is to blame”—has become an alibi for avoiding responsibility, obscuring the truth, and pointing fingers at others. It even serves as an excellent opportunity for those in power to go after dissenters and opponents.
They even time-stamp it: “The system is 30 years old!” So, not the system from before Yugoslavia’s breakup, not the deeply rooted culture of corruption cultivated by generations of political elites and oligarchs, but specifically the system of the past three decades.
I’m not saying the system isn’t guilty—quite the opposite. But when that’s the first and last sentence in the populist narrative, especially coming from those who are part of that same system—it’s pure propaganda. A campaign to save their own positions, firmly glued to the armchairs of power. And it’s an insult to common sense! In that way, the system becomes a smokescreen to hide personal responsibility.
What system are they talking about? The very same one they’re destroying while occupying it during their political mandates. A system maintained by an administration packed with their party foot soldiers and criminal networks, with police and courts in which professionals battle daily against the party’s “Gestapo” embedded within.
When you say, “the system is to blame,” it actually means no one is to blame—at least not immediately, until “the system” itself recovers! It’s a decades-long alibi for evading accountability, a practice strikingly reminiscent of Kremlin-style mass manipulation—only seasoned with local flavors. The louder they attack the system, the quieter responsibility dies. And so does humanity.
We’ve arrived at a situation where THE SYSTEM expects people to shrug after every horrific tragedy, to accept fate before a higher power (the system), instead of holding those directly and legally, politically, or morally responsible (representatives of the system) accountable. Those at the top of the political food chain in this jungle not only blame the system, but also target anyone who gets in their way—preferably members of a long-demonized ethnic community. And while society reels in shock, pain, and horror, chairs are further secured, political capital grows, profits rise, and impunity remains.
It’s tragic that the victims of the Kočani tragedy, their families, loved ones, and the entire society, have become casualties of yet another operation to blur truth and accountability—an operation not just devoid of responsibility, but also of basic humanity. This – like the previous tragedies: the fire in the Tetovo modular COVID-19 hospital, several horrific bus crashes that together claimed over a hundred lives, including minors, and the countless lone traffic victims across Skopje, Shtip, and beyond – will continue to exact its bloody toll. And the faces of the tax collectors will remain masked… as “the system.”
The political class is not solely to blame for these operations that hide specific accountability behind the curtain of general “historic responsibility of the system.” Media and opinion makers are complicit too. I wonder—are they victims of pressure, naïveté in the face of propaganda devised by their PR and consultancy colleagues, or simply victims of their own lack of humanity? If one can even be a victim of one’s own heartlessness. I believe that, in the end, it’s a choice—to be opportunistic, soulless, and selfish. As in: “The tragedy happened—what can I get out of it?”
And what remains after the tragedies? Nothing. Just the unmarked grave of truth – shallow, but leveled enough for the collective conscience not to trip over it. Then the system will stand over society’s collective pit, lean on the shovel that buried accountability, and smile – triumphantly, cynically, cold-bloodedly. And with the next tragedy, as with all previous ones, a new episode of “Save the Backside and the Chair” will begin – before the bodies have even cooled, before the tears have dried. Because the system isn’t something abstract and untouchable – it’s the people hiding behind it who are untouchable.
And when someone dares to look reality in the eye, to strip the lie down to the bone – without filters, without fear, without party orders – and speak or write the facts as they are, the hunt begins. Propaganda Cerberuses – rabid, organized, paid, or just trained – are unleashed to tear apart the voice of reason and conscience. To drown it out, humiliate it, demonize it. That’s the method. That’s the regime’s hygiene. To destroy anyone who holds up a mirror reflecting the ugly face of real accountability. In this war against truth, nothing is sacred – not the victims, not the pain, not life. Only the backside is untouchable.
They don’t read, don’t think, don’t feel – they just lick the boots of their masters and bite at the targets they’re told to. They aren’t defending a system – they’re defending their master’s backside. And they don’t do it out of delusion – but out of profit. That’s their daily meal, their little gratification in lives lived as media parasites with terminal-stage morality.
This article first appeared in Macedonian in CivilMedia, on April 5, 2025.
