Academy for you, academy for me: Projects that have nothing to do with science

(Patria) - In an insatiable desire to become academics, certain individuals in Bosnia and Herzegovina stop at nothing, and as the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina remains out of reach, and given that the Bosniak Academy of Sciences and Arts (BANU) is increasingly being abandoned by its members, a story has emerged about the founding of a new academy of sciences!?

As we learn, the founding assembly of the new academy is scheduled to take place on February 28 in Sarajevo, and the drafting of the academy's statute is underway. Some potential members of the academy want it to be called the Bosnian Academy of Sciences and Arts, while others would prefer the name "King Tvrtko" Academy, but it is still unknown what it would deal with and what the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other three academies in Bosnia and Herzegovina already do (or do not do).

Earlier, SB reported that gynecologist Asim Kurjak and professor Suad Kurtćehajić, both members of the Bosniak Academy of Sciences and Arts (under the control of Mufti Muamer Zukorlić, a deputy in the Assembly of Serbia), are actively working on establishing a new academy of sciences and arts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Kurjak left BANU last year.

As Patria learns from sources close to the academic community, Ejup Ganić, president of SSST, and Mirsad Hadžikadić, president of the political party Platform for Progress, will also be involved in the entire story within the framework of technical sciences.

However, problems have arisen regarding the name of this supposedly future academy.

On the list of potential members (or the wish list of the initiators) of the new academy, among others, are experienced diplomat Igor Davidović, economist from Banja Luka Zoran Pavlović, and, very interestingly, Prof. Dr. Ranko Škrbić, dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Banja Luka, former Minister of Health of Republika Srpska and ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia, and godfather of Milorad Dodik. The shortlist and longlist include at least 200 names.

In contact with some professors who are on that list, we discovered that they are completely unaware of it. They are even absolutely against such ideas and consider them superfluous.

"These are all scams. The Academy of Sciences of Bosnia and Herzegovina exists, and BANU was an excess. This is heading in the wrong direction. I will never be a member of such projects, because they have nothing to do with science," one professor from Sarajevo told us.

As we have written before, the only current guarantee of the survival and testimony of the continuity of Bosnia and Herzegovina's existence are its state institutions. Therefore, it is no wonder that there are aggressive and continuous attacks on these sanctuaries of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from cultural to judicial, and very directly on the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, not only from outside but also from within, using all means. Although founded in 1951, six years after World War II, with a very rich reputation, the work of ANUBiH is today being pushed to the margins, and its existence is being threatened through the abolition of financial resources from the State Budget.

At the same time – and presumably not by chance – attempts are being made in Bosnia and Herzegovina to impose three ethnic academies of sciences, while at least the Serbian and Croatian academies in Bosnia and Herzegovina are, in addition to everything else, under very visible influence from Belgrade and Zagreb, which are waging aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, first with weapons and today with non-war means, attempting to fragment the Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity.

In such circumstances, the founding of a new academy is unacceptable and completely superfluous. One only needs to look at and listen to the warnings of one of the most influential Bosnian-Herzegovinian academics, Esad Duraković, who, speaking about BANA, said that "it is essentially counterproductive because it leads to the separation of Bosniaks and the undermining of the same state institution, and that is a great argument for those who strive for the complete fragmentation of this country – to its dissolution. The logic here is very simple: everything that functions to weaken the fundamental state institutions is also against the essential interests of Bosniaks because all methods of self-isolation lead them to a Palestinian fate."