THE ARROGANCE OF OUR POLITICIANS One respirator for 35 official vehicles

Written by: Rasim Belko

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Give a man power and you will see his true face, says an old proverb. That proverb has gained meaning in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the last 30 years, but has also mutated into a modern variant: give him power, and he will take the last bite of bread from you.

Modern emperors, disguised in democratic suits, have taken over every segment of life. On their way to the office, they promise us a golden future, sweeten it with honey, and once they settle into the chair that means power, they turn into hyenas of the worst kind.

Give them a high salary, severance pay, commissions, give them a supervisory board to share with their wives and immediate family. Give them almost free food in the state restaurant, a free parking space.

And of course, an official car. You don't expect such mental and spiritual poverty to spend their own fuel and their own cars in the fight for your better future, do you?

And there are currently 3,548 official vehicles in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Let them have them, let them be available, sometimes one needs to go out for lunch, to the seaside, to pick up groceries for the wife.

Are they politicians or not?

Of course not. Actually, they are certainly not politicians; the question is whether they are even human.

Because how can one understand such a level of recklessness and greed.

The coronavirus, COVID-19, has arrived in our region as well. While doctors, those who haven't been driven away, are fighting with superhuman efforts against the human psyche and its fear of the unknown, against those with colds and chills, against those potentially infected and those who are sick, most politicians are enjoying a sudden break.

They've sped off in official cars and put everything on our tab.

Governments at various levels are now looking for funds for medical equipment, protective and hygiene supplies.

RESPIRATORS ARE NEEDED, but they are hard to find now.

And the governments, politicians, and leaders will step up. Here, let millions be allocated for procurement. It is one thing that respirators are difficult to obtain today, and quite another that funds are being diverted from who knows which budget items to procure them.

For 3,548 official vehicles, accompanying equipment, and services, there were no problems. That was resolved in no time.

And when all this is over, these same politicians will beat their chests and say, "We helped get it done, we did this, that..."

But then they should be asked why they waited for the medical apocalypse to knock on their door.

Why is the procurement of medical equipment, supplies, and medicines the last priority on the budget list? When they buy vehicles, they choose equipment as if they were starring in James Bond movies and buy them express.

Photographs of high-ranking European politicians traveling by public transport, by bicycle, or simply walking have often been shown recently.

And what about the Europeans? We have always been gentlemen to them, do you know when we started eating with forks, Milorad's followers would say. The right to official vehicles is a legitimate and constitutional right of Croats, Dragan's followers would say. We need vehicles to protect the Bosniak national interest, where were those Europeans in '92, Bakir's followers would say.

And the respirator? One needs to breathe, whoever gets caught by COVID-19.

Oh, none of that matters, that's small fry, the protectors of vital national interests will say in unison.

The relationship between the authorities and the people was best described by an illustration circulating these days, showing the leader of a Bosniak political party stroking his beard with the message "even the dead vote."

That's roughly how they treat us. Alive or dead, they see us only as a voting machine. Otherwise, our most critical patients wouldn't be transferred to inhumane conditions to build an isolation ward in Podhrastovi.

If the government were proper, we would have modern clinical centers and be prepared for medical phenomena like the coronavirus.

Therefore, whoever survives the coronavirus without a respirator should make an effort to ensure that politicians are deprived of political oxygen on the first Sunday of October. Every two years.

Otherwise, only the afterlife ballot box will remain for us.