The idea for the first working title of this commentary was: arrest me, please, I am guilty! Why? First, I signed for the referendum. Like the other 815,825 citizens, I did not sign for the unchanged Labor Law, unions, or union leaders.
Written by Gordana Gelenčer
There is no doubt that the Labor Law must be changed. The signature was my expression of rebellion against a government that is stealing our future, since my journalistic articles cannot reach far and deep. Second, although I signed in my city, I did not stop at the stand either in Savska where I work, nor in Novi Zagreb where I live, nor in the school where my husband works. I signed, imagine, in Britanac, quite far from my usual radius of movement. I happened to be there, there was no crowd, and, well, arrest me for that! At least preventively. Namely, I personally witnessed how an elderly woman in line in front of me handed her ID card to the guy at the stand with a trembling hand to write down her details. She barely managed to put on her glasses and poke the section where she had to sign. There is no doubt that we should be arrested – me as a potential witness, the ‘union’ student from the stand as a lying conspirator, and the elderly woman as a negligent citizen!
It is fascinating how suddenly the state administration has invested effort and time to thoroughly review all those signatures. I do not know how many graphologists live, work, and breathe in this country. Just for the sake of common sense, here is a simple calculation: in the time that Karamarko’s ministry and Mlakar’s administration were actively checking the data (that is, in a month and a half), graphologists should have checked 17,777 signatures in one single day, assuming they worked every weekend, holiday, and Friday, day and night, 24 hours a day! I do not know how long it takes a graphologist to verify the authenticity of a signature. It seems to me, as a layman, that it takes more than one second (too many watched CSIs) to be at least somewhat credible. But not to nitpick, let it be that one second. After all, we are talking about top experts, and it will be that they are a spear above their foreign colleagues. Since 24 hours have 1,440 seconds, it means that there should have been 12.3 graphologists engaged non-stop in checking the signatures. I have no idea if we have that many or if those poor souls really worked 24 hours a day for 45 days, without breaks, food, drink, sleep, and going, excuse me, to the toilet for I don’t know what money. If they didn’t, and it seems to me that a person can survive without water for 5-6 days, not much more, they must have harnessed the entire state administration. Because, they had to check another 800 thousand OIBs, then JMBGs, then place of residence, then… And now tell me that the state administration is not efficient!
