Analysis of the Poor Response to Krug 99 Protests: Why Has BiH Fallen into a State of Social Anomaly?

Written for NAP by: Azra Zornić, applicant before the ECtHR in Strasbourg

The lack of a massive response to the protests organized by Krug 99, as well as the general apathy of citizens towards the current socio-political situation, cannot be viewed separately from the deep social changes that have befallen Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is noticeable that today there are no mass protests, no serious civil rebellion, no pressure on the authorities, even when tragedies and injustice shake the entire public. Society reacts only with short-lived outrage on social media, followed by a return to a state of collective silence.

Have we simply grown tired or have we become accustomed to this state? It is devastating if everything has become normal to us. An analysis of the situation indicates that Bosnia and Herzegovina has deeply sunk into a state of social anomie - hopelessness in which people no longer believe in institutions or their own ability to change anything. This state leads to the alienation of man from society, from other people, and from himself.

In this context, a large number of citizens are, colloquially speaking, "completely bewildered." They have lost hope that anything can change, or rather, they are convinced that no matter what they do - nothing will change. This is the dominant state of social consciousness today. The way we live today represents a "textbook example of human alienation" - first from others, and ultimately from oneself.

The creation of such hopelessness is also influenced by the fact that people are exposed to brainwashing and the loss of the individual. In such a state, people, worrying about themselves and their own existence, do not have the capacity to "worry about the worries of others." On the other hand, there are also those who are doing well, who have enormous salaries and property, and live in their own microcosm, so they are not affected by what is happening around them.

Nevertheless, one of the main reasons for not attending the protests is that people have lost trust in the institutions of the system. Citizens know that the efficiency of competent institutions, social work, schools, police, health institutions, courts, and prosecutor's offices is very weak. Therefore, they think it is pointless to react. This is not just an impression, it is reality.

Experts agree that they do not remember a worse time than the last three to four years. Due to price increases, low salaries, and disrespect for rights, people do not leave their comfort zones. Theoretically, it is possible to change things, but only if people unite and react massively and to the right address. Often when reactions occur, they are not directed at the right address. Citizens need to wake up and force the authorities to make changes.

The role of the war past in this apathy is particularly concerning. One of the lasting consequences of the war is a drastic lowering of the level of aspiration. People lower their demands and are satisfied with increasingly lower goals. The popular mind has finely detected this in the saying "just as long as there's no shooting." That is the picture of today - people have lowered their standards just so that "things don't get worse."

Perhaps the biggest problem of Bosnia and Herzegovina today is neither inflation, nor corruption, nor incompetent institutions, but the fact that people have begun to believe that all of this is normal and unchangeable. However, apathy is not a permanent state. Civil rebellion and resistance do not arise overnight, but indifference did not arise by chance either. The question is only how much longer we will accept a life in which violence is met with silence and injustice is endured. Because every silence in the face of injustice eventually becomes complicity in it.

On the other hand, the media coverage of the protests was placed in the function of absolute support, where the media, aware of the seriousness of the moment, took on the role of spokesperson for those who chose silence. While the physical space was filled with a smaller number of people, the media space delivered clear and sharp messages addressed to the members of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC). Although they, the representatives of the international community, were of course physically absent from the protest site, digital and traditional media ensured that not a single word escaped their attention. They, from their distant offices, read through the reports all the messages of frustration and demands addressed to them.

Now a key tension arises before us: will these high officials finally lift their gaze from geopolitical maps and listen to the voice of citizens who daily suffer the consequences of their decisions, or will they, as has often been the case in the history of this country, continue to follow exclusively the interests of the countries they come from? Will the priority be the pragmatic stability sought by their governments, or the justice and democratic voice with which the threatened citizens feel?

The answer to this painful dilemma remains withheld until the moment the official statement is published after the end of the session. Only then will we learn whether this media noise has managed to break through the wall of diplomatic insensitivity and whether there is any chance that, this time, the voice of the people will be heeded instead of calls from foreign capitals.