While America is roasting Zuckerberg, Croatia is shutting down parliamentary investigations.
The Republic is no joking matter. Since the times of Roman Senate, the powerful and the mighty had to appear on Capitol Hill and explain themselves and their actions, for the whole state to hear. Sometimes they would break the Senate, and sometimes the Senate would break them. Whatever the result, the mere fact that there was a hearing and a testimony was symbolic enough. It meant nobody was above the state.
The West remains the West, and still, today, that criteria says a lot about the development of countries' laws, democratic tendencies, and transparency. That's why yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg, looking like a young Augustus without his legions, went to Capitol Hill, and was questioned for five hours by American senators.
Mark was being roasted hard. From privacy violations to election fraud. He was sweating and apologising, trying to explain how the power that he wields is for the good of mankind. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. The senators had no mercy, humbling him for all the world to see, even if their words were just words, they broke some bones. And the whole online world was laughing and mocking him, like some global ''memento mori'' movement.
On the other side of the planet, in a different republic, much closer to old Rome, across the Kaptol hill, Croatian parliamentary committees are being shut down. The biggest Croatian company, Agrokor, is being reconstructed by the government, and the old leadership is being investigated by the police. The list of non-transparent and illegal actions committed against the state, achieved with the buying of political favours, is endless.
Yet, the ruling majority doesn't want to allow the Parliament to publicly question people involved with the history of this ugly ordeal. Furthermore, the government's attempt to clear the situation up, resulted with the controversial law entitled Lex Agrokor, and the government appointed trustee Ante Ramljak, who then resigned after losing the support of the prime minister.
There are no powerful and mighty figures sweating in the Croatian parliament, apologising, or at the very least, excusing themselves. There are no harsh words that would humble them for all the state to see. All the committees shut down, all criticisms silenced, all transparency ignored.
It's symbolic enough. In this republic, some people are above the state.
