Milorad Dodik in a panic over the mere announcement: How will he react to the results of the Convention 'Bosnia is Ours - Bosnian'?

Written by: Rasim Belko @rasimbelko

When Milorad Dodik says he is surprised, be sure it is not surprise, but pure fear. And Milorad Dodik's fear is caused by the information that the Convention “Bosnia is Ours - Bosnian” will be held in Sarajevo, as well as throughout BiH.

And not a convention as a one-time story, but a gathering at which, in a balance of the non-governmental, academic (intellectual), political, and civic spectrum, answers to the policies to which Dodik himself belongs will finally be defined. And that's where Dodik's greatest fear lies.

Because, if Milorad Dodik has shown anything in his 20 years of rule, he has shown that he fears neither foreign embassies, nor Schmidt, nor world powers, but that he fears most a unified, or rather a frontal, response from patriotic forces.

That is why, with the style of his reaction to this event, he is trying to diminish its significance, thereby actually revealing his fear of an event whose consequences he clearly sees. Dodik has so far been accustomed to opponents or partners coming to him from Sarajevo with whom he can bargain, whom he can blackmail, or lead around due to their lostness.

For the first time, NGOs of proven patriotic orientation – Krug 99 and Čuvari Bosne – are coming more seriously to face the policies that Dodik personifies. With them are intellectuals, i.e., the academic community, which will nullify the long-standing dormancy of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of BiH. There are certainly political entities as well, those entities that have clearly realized after 2022 where Bosnia and Herzegovina can go and that such a path would mean its end. And finally, and actually at the top of the pyramid, there are aware citizens, those who have shed the imposed veils because of which they saw the false goodness of negotiating and compromising with Dodik.

These citizens will actually be the key safeguard for all other Convention actors to maintain defined trends. And that is the fear we see in Dodik's reaction, which is being unnecessarily pushed by the media in Sarajevo, especially those close to the Trojka.

Furthermore, Milorad Dodik's panic stems from the fact that the Convention “Bosnia is Ours - Bosnian” will not be tied to the Sarajevo district like most previous ones. True, the platform will be defined in Sarajevo, but it will be expanded and will include views from Bihać, Tuzla, Mostar, Zenica, Travnik…

Therefore, the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina will slowly rise and finally straighten its back to tell the hegemonic, secessionist, apartheid, and other retrograde policies to get lost! And given that it is clear that citizens, led by the non-governmental sector, intellectuals, and politics, will give the stamp to this story, it will transcend all political divisions within the political patriotic segment. This will greatly weaken the political fragmentation of patriotic forces, which was created from the outside to facilitate Dodik's and the policies from Zagreb and Belgrade.

And that is what Milorad Dodik fears. Because neither he, nor the false spreaders of democracy from the West, nor the even more false friends from the East, will be able to desecrate this story by attributing it to any individual or organization.

And it is not a break in any vow of silence, as Dodik says, but the awakening of forces that increasingly understand and feel that it is the last moment to rise above interests and daily politics and form a front on a patriotic platform and commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina, organized according to the modalities of European and civilizational values.

And such a Bosnia and Herzegovina means the policies represented by Milorad Dodik will go into the past, which is why he is frantically trying to be charming, thereby hiding his fear of the imminent end of his and his principals' policies.

And yes, Dodik criticizes the name of the convention, aware that it will offer a concept of a modern state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an organized system, as a basis for overcoming the stagnation in the Dayton quagmire of ethnic divisions.

And that Dayton quagmire is the only swamp in which Dodik can still swim with his head above water. And that's why he's afraid. He knows very well that Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to all its citizens, regardless of identity. But he also knows that he is superfluous in such a country, which he has been undermining and plundering for decades. To be clear, Serbs, Croats, and anyone else have never been superfluous to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Superfluous and a burden have always been those who, by abusing national feelings, have dragged both the state and its citizens to the very bottom.

Milorad Dodik is therefore aware that if he is prevented from staying in power by abusing ethnic emotions, he will remain in the past, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and all its citizens will move towards the future. And yes, as long as Bosnia and Herzegovina exists, Serbs in it will be Bosnian Serbs for us, whether Dodik likes it or not!

That is why he is afraid of the Convention “Bosnia is Ours - Bosnian”, otherwise he wouldn't even notice it!