It was midday in Belgrade, but the turret housing the ancient mechanical clock rung no more. It was not necessary to keep time anymore. The neatly manicured park square surrounding the clocktower was besprinkled with larger-than-life statues of a bare-breasted woman named Joanne, reminiscent of the French Marianne, along with ‘Freedom’ embossed in its plaque. Yet, the people who roamed the cobbled streets were terrified of even accidentally blemishing the effigies. Had they done so, they’d be labelled as ‘antifre’—short for anti-freedom—and then dispatched to the so called centre for sensitivity. This was a euphemism of course—for a concentration camp, designed to root out opposition.

Things were not always so bleak; before Serbia was torn apart by rebel factions and those loyal to the government, people would gather around the park square and waggle their shackled tongues till the ears of the listeners withered away from atrophy. Now, language was restricted to an uneasy list of government-approved words, and any deviation from it resulted in severe ‘corrective actions’. Those who offended another party were promptly jailed without any due course of law. In this new land of free people, individual identity did not exist; men and women alike had to wear full-length veils to guise their appearances. Everyone adhered because the greatest crime in Serbia, known as the Free Republic, was opposing the principles of so called freedom. Freedom had become entrapment.

..........

Jon was born to a middle-class family before the unrest of the civil war began; he studied political science in Paris and was fascinated by the French revolution. He fervently defended the rights of the discriminated and the oppressed. Naturally, when the incumbent government decided to increase the military budget, he protested. After all, the money would be better suited for education and infrastructure.  

He marched for equality; after all, everyone should be subject to the same ideals. All above, he marched for freedom, for a society must be free from all frameworks that impinge on a person’s being. These thoughts were indeed noble, but whether they still stood today no longer mattered, for he was now the supreme head of the government responsible for creating the dystopia that is Serbia today.

How did it come to this?

Like all epic lore, he started his political life humbly, more out of accident than from a conscious decision. During his time at Paris, the incumbent government had recently tried to enact laws that restricted people from criticising the government’s actions. The initially small protest group soon grew into a large centralised mob of rebels called ‘Resistance’, who sought to dismantle the oppressive regime. However, the government was adamant in its stance; the Resistance had to be crushed.What was initially pepper spray and tear gas meant to bloodlessly disperse crowds turned into shotgun pellet and Sulfuric gases meant to maim and kill them. Soon the Resistance was waging a full-scale war against the government, who unquestionably warred against them. Months and thousands of unaccounted lives later, the civil war became a war of attrition with both sides refusing to cede to the other.

It was at this moment that Jon joined the Resistance. The Resistance now was more organised because war called for hierarchy and obedience. Being ideological, he swayed the opinions of the higher ranks with his silver tongue and soon rose in rank himself. Jon knew that any

satyagraha-esque movement would fall into deaf ears. Bullets should be answered with bullets he had thought. The merciless methods of the government only stoked his hatred for them. To free freedom, war had to be inevitably waged. After all, if the Resistance won, it would be a victory not only for those who fought for it but also for ‘Freedom’.

...............

As months turned into years, the idea of ‘Freedom’ grew pervasive and cemented itself across the Resistance. Jon knew this well and sought to instil it among his comrades; he longed to be the champion of freedom and sought due credit for it. So, when the Supreme Commander was killed by the government in a sting operation, he convincingly swayed the council within the Resistance to appoint him as the next leader, for he was the candidate that embodied every value the Resistance represented. The council relented because of his popularity and his power of persuasion. Yet, his appointment was not without merit; within months, he led the Resistance to a crushing victory. A referendum was soon held, and a new government, with the Resistance at its helm and Jon as the head, took charge.

Within hours, he ordered every faction loyal to the deposed government to be rounded up like cattle and sentenced. He enshrined ‘Freedom’ in the constitution through hasty amendments, much to the joy of his freedom fighting comrades. The new government truly stood for justice and freedom for the Serbian people. Jon was now set to be their messiah; a shepherd of liberty and enemy of tyrants.

Yet, freedom is weighty as much as power is corrupting. The country was in the midst of unatonable ruins, and some of the loyalist factions still held out in clandestine locations. Unable to root them out, Jon soon became paranoid and so in the name of peace he imposed several restrictions on actions that could potentially ‘lead’ the country to another civil war. It was only natural, he believed, that by curtailing actions that enticed people to rebel against the peace he fought tooth and nail for, people would not be lured into treason. This was only right, for a place without treasonous thoughts was for him, utopia.

..............

Every snake sheds its skin. One by one, the government under Jon began to impose ‘limitations’ upon speech. Censorship was necessary to wipe out dissent because any dissenting opinion has the power to unsettle the status quo. If every person had the same ideology and mentality, it would lead to peace and harmony, he thought. Individual identity and features were hidden away in public because any identifying characteristic is a potential tool for discrimination. Punctuality and discipline were no longer needed, as they were tools of oppression used by the tyrants to create slaves out of the working class. Time was a method to achieve this, thus every time keep was burnt like spindles. The only wakeup call ever needed was the rising sun, whose daily demise signalled an end to a productive day.

In the eyes of Jon, people were finally free. They were free from hateful and offensive speech. They were free from the discrimination based on their identity. They were free from people who differed from them, for anyone who held a different sway was a threat to the only ideology that could achieve this utopia. Dissent did not officially exist; everyone was strictly surveyed and monitored.

............

Years passed.

Jon exited his bullet-proof limousine accompanied by several bodyguards to inaugurate a new bronze statue in the park square, identical to the rest of the tired lifeless effigies. He quickly left to attend other more important events, leaving his spokesperson to file the speech for him:

“Freedom at last! Freedom at last! Thank Jon the almighty, we have freedom at last!”

The crowd sustained a stormy ovation till their wrists ached and palms soared. Who would dare be the first person to stop applauding? After all, those who did not clap were undoubtedly traitors.

Angdembay is a student at St Xavier’s College