MASA provides full support to our colleague Dr. Živko Ćurčić, who was illegally dismissed by the decision of the director of the Institute for Crop and Vegetable Agriculture, Dr. Svetlana Balešević Tubić.
Dr. Živko Ćurčić has been working on research related to sugar beet at the Institute for 13 years, and for the last 4 years he has been trying to save it from being completely shut down. If he loses this battle, by all accounts, a large part of the unique genetic resources in the Institute's collection will also be irretrievably lost.
When it comes to the alleged offense for which colleague Ćurčić was fired, we fully agree with the opinion of the Science Union, submitted to the Institute, which states that colleague Ćurčić did not violate his work obligations with his statements. According to the Law on Science and Research, scientific work is based on the publicity of its activities, and it is completely incomprehensible that a state institute, which was founded under the Law on Public Services, can use its employee's statement about endangered research as a basis for dismissal.
Every day and at every step, we are faced with the dramatic consequences of the increasingly widespread practice that in our state institutions, instead of knowledge, a diploma, even if it is a fake one, is more valued, obedience instead of expertise, and mediocrity instead of integrity. The price for this is paid not only by courageous scientists like Dr. Ćuričić and their families, but also by all citizens of Serbia. MASA believes that it is high time to stop the increasingly frequent persecution of scientists in this country, because otherwise we will have no choice but to call on all our colleagues to stand up in defense of the dignity of the scientific community in Serbia.
