Abu Igor and the electioneering populism of fake leftists

By: Muamer Bandić, Member of the KS Assembly

It is a widely known fact that the current Vice President of the Federation of BiH, Abu Igor Stojanović, was a member of the 1st Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war. And I am sincerely and heartily grateful to him for that. Thanks to this fact, Abu Igor built his political career, holding a number of political and advisory positions in Sarajevo, and advancing to the position of Vice President of the FBiH.

Today, about 30 years later, this same man writes that the then political leadership of Bosniaks wanted to create an Islamic state on a small piece of our country's territory. And consider the logic, this same man who writes this participated in that fight!

It is completely unclear to me how Abu Igor did not realize, while he was a member of the ARBiH, that he was actively participating in the fight to create an Islamic state, but it took him about 30 years and the time of the election campaign for local elections to realize this!?

Why is Abu Igor today tarnishing the uniform he wore, the flag with lilies under which he fought, and openly spitting in the face of his comrades by spreading these vile propaganda lies, which even the champions of psychological-propaganda warfare against the state of BiH and Bosniaks, Risto Đogo or Smiljko Šagolj, would not be ashamed of?

For everyone who follows the work of Trojka, and especially the propaganda part of their work, what is happening is no surprise. Moreover, this is an expected propaganda move by empty talkers and seasoned populists, who confuse our citizens with constant lies. Perhaps they have run out of inventiveness for new lies, so with this move they are returning us to the old good hits, just so they don't have to deal with the present and the real problems that we face as a broken and poorly led society.

And the golden rule of this propaganda-psychological smoke screen is to throw the most bombastic accusation possible against a political opponent, and it is completely irrelevant whether it is true or false. Moreover, a lie is preferable, and the bigger and more resonant the better. The opponent is then forced to defend themselves and has no time to deal with the present, while society is strongly polarized into two camps separated by an ideological abyss.

Therefore, Abu Igor and his friends today, during this pre-election period, do not want us to deal with the real problems that are the consequence of their rule: traffic collapses, parking problems, water supply, inflation and price increases, communal problems, poor education, destroyed healthcare, corruption and clientelism, undermining the constitutional and legal order, the dirtiness and disarray of our city.

The second goal that this psychological-propaganda spin aims to achieve is to strongly polarize society into so-called Islamists and secularists, thereby mobilizing a mass of potential voters to go to the polls, exclusively on the basis of fear of each other, hatred, and division into "us" vs. "them." And for this purpose, this already worn-out and overused lie is skillfully used.

If all that I have written were not true, Abu Igor would react with the same zeal to the formations of the Ravna Gora movement, the constant attacks of Milorad Dodik and his clique on the state of BiH, his coalition partners posing for photos with convicted war criminals, the constant glorification of war crimes and criminals by the "legitimate representatives" of the Serb and Croat people, and the constant denial of committed war crimes and genocide.

If he were truly sincere towards this country and towards the people whose votes put him in the chair of the Vice President of the FBiH, he would react to protect state property, which is his constitutional obligation, even from the president of his own party, Nermin called Njiva. He would also react to the recent unconstitutional statements of his colleague and coalition partner, Lidija Bradara.

But he doesn't! Abu Igor remains silent and plays dead in all these real cases, and gladly engages in the good old propaganda hits on which the narrative of mobilizing illiterate masses for war against the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina was built, paving the way for the greatest crimes on European soil after World War II.

With these vile lies, Abu Igor has not only betrayed his former comrades but also this noble city and our common state. I will recall the words of our late hero and commander Enver Šehović that we are not an army of one or two nations, but of the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina. That's how it was, and that's how it will be, regardless of the fact that we, as Muslim believers, will seek help from our Almighty Lord in that fight. That is merely our human side and part of our culture, which no normal and well-intentioned person should fear.

It is only sad to see that Abu Igor and his friends are incapable of offering the citizens of Sarajevo a development program worthy of a European capital in the 21st century, but instead wash away their idleness with spins, even borrowing ideas from those who ruthlessly destroyed this city, burned libraries, and bloodily killed its inhabitants. After reading Abu Igor's realization, I think that the doyen of the fight against Islamists, Dževad Galijašević, has seriously worried about his own sinecure in President Milorad Dodik's overall fight against Islamism in our country.